Institutional Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: <scp>C</scp>hina's <i>Shan‐Zhai</i> Mobile Phones

Lee, Chuan-Kai; Hung, Shih‐Chang

doi:10.1002/sej.1174

Cited by 89 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Each article in the special issue provides a unique perspective on how entrepreneurs navigate the formal and informal institutions within their contexts and how the characteristics of their formal and informal institutional environments facilitate and/or hinder their business activities. In the first article, Lee and Hung (, this issue) provide a case study of the shan‐zhai mobile phone industry in China that evolved from informal to formal status over the decade from 1998 to 2008. As the authors discuss, the Chinese state sought to support ‘national champions’ in the mobile phone industry, providing licenses to a limited set of firms to restrict competition.…”

Section: Articles In This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Greater Understanding of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the Informal Economy

Webb

Ireland

Ketchen

2014

Strategic Entrepreneurship

187

196

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The informal economy consists of business activities that occur outside of formal institutional boundaries but within the boundaries of informal institutions. A large gap exists between the significant importance of the informal economy to commerce around the world and the small amount of informal economy research with which entrepreneurship and strategic management scholars have been involved. As a step toward filling this gap, this special issue includes four articles with the potential to significantly advance our understanding of business activities within the informal economy. In introducing these four articles, we discuss the myriad activities that fall within the boundaries of the informal economy and distinguish between the institutional foundations of informality in developed versus developing economies. The articles included within the special issue each offer a unique understanding of how entrepreneurs are influenced by and manage their institutional contexts in various informal economy settings, providing contributions that should give rise to a series of promising future research questions.

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Section: Articles In This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Greater Understanding of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the Informal Economy

Webb

Ireland

Ketchen

2014

Strategic Entrepreneurship

187

196

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The market for handsets is more complex and more competitive, with the government having initially licensed selected manufacturers, while others operated as shan zhai or mountain fortress bandits, producing cheaper and more disruptive devices (Zhou, Tong & Li, 2011;Lee & Hung, 2014;Chubb, 2015;Dong & Flowers, 2016). These firms evaded controls, initially in "mosquito" factories, assembling phones that were stylish, gimmicky, or imitated the latest models of the major domestic and foreign manufacturers, but at much lower prices, based on chip sets that had the core functions of a phone, developed by MediaTek (MTK) and Spreadtrum (Tse, Ma & Huang, 2010).…”

Section: Telecommunications In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

China and Africa: Alternative Telecommunication Policies and Practices

Sutherland¹

2016

Afr. j. inf. commun. (Online)

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The Beijing Consensus is said to be a win-win for China and Africa. China has become a major force in global telecommunications markets, as a manufacturer, a content provider and in delivering services to its citizens. While the relationship between China and Africa has been explored in many areas, telecommunications has been ignored, despite its strong domestic performance, as well as the presence of Chinese equipment in African networks and in the hands of consumers. China has not exported its domestic model of competing state-owned operators, nor have those operators followed the "going out" strategy. However, manufacturers have benefitted from the Washington Consensus model of oligopolistic markets. In countries with higher risks, they have been aided by Chinese development banks and intergovernmental agreements. In a new policy model, for the Comoros and Ethiopia, Chinese firms have taken on outsourcing of network functions for the state-owned operators. Additionally, manufacturers have found several channels to supply feature-phones and smartphones at low prices, helping to widen access. Absent from African markets are the providers of Internet content and apps. There is very little evidence of spillover effects, with little knowledge being transferred. China has won from hardware sales in Africa, while Africans have won wider access to telecommunications, including states rejecting the Washington Consensus model.

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“…Certainly, the informal economy is a function of formal and informal institutional boundaries, as investigated by Uzo and Mair (, this issue) and by De Castro, Khavul, and Bruton (, this issue). Also critical is entrepreneurs' ability to navigate and manipulate the transformation of those boundaries, as examined in both Lee and Hung (, this issue) and London et al . (, this issue).…”

Section: Organizational Theories and The Informal Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We should note that network issues play a role in each article published in the special issue. Lee and Hung (, this issue) examine aggregating and bridging as means to legitimize, London et al . (, this issue) study the role of norms as substitutes for formal institutional voids, Uzo and Mair (, this issue) emphasize domains of embeddedness as providing alternative frameworks for guiding business decisions, and De Castro et al .…”

Section: Organizational Theories and The Informal Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Research Agenda for the Informal Economy: A Survey of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal's Editorial Board

Ketchen

Ireland

Webb

2014

Strategic Entrepreneurship

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Scholarly attention to strategy and entrepreneurship within the informal economy appears to be on the rise, but a large gap remains between the importance of the informal economy and the amount of research that is devoted to it. The survey reported herein is an effort to offer insights to researchers who wish to help build the knowledge base about strategy and entrepreneurship within the informal economy. Specifically, we surveyed members of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal's editorial board regarding what they view as the most promising theories, research questions, and methods to leverage in order to develop greater understanding of the informal economy. Board members' views vary, but in general institutional theory and network theory are seen as the best perspectives to fuel major contributions at this time. The research questions that attracted the strongest support centered on the boundaries of and interchanges between the formal and informal economies. Finally, field interviews, case studies, and ethnography were ranked as the most promising investigative methods. Taken together, these findings offer a possible agenda for research into the informal economy.

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Institutional Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: China's Shan‐Zhai Mobile Phones

Cited by 89 publications

References 72 publications

Toward a Greater Understanding of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the Informal Economy

Toward a Greater Understanding of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the Informal Economy

China and Africa: Alternative Telecommunication Policies and Practices

Toward a Research Agenda for the Informal Economy: A Survey of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal's Editorial Board

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