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ID:
171316
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper examines China’s engagement with Africa through economic zones (EZs). It moves beyond the conceptualisation of EZs as undifferentiated enclaves of foreign investment to a dynamic perspective on the locally negotiated process of zone development. Such a perspective entails critical unpacking of the specific zone regime to understand the diverse and evolving relationships among different state and non-state actors. Drawing upon empirical research on the Eastern Industrial Zone (EIZ) in Ethiopia, we explore the complex process of learning and adaptation by government, developers, investors, and workers throughout the development of a zone regime, with specific attention to capital–labour and expatriate–local relations. We find that despite the EIZ being a state-level cooperation project, private Chinese developers work diligently with the Ethiopian government to improve the institutional support for EZs. Chinese investors also collectively generate a management regime to enhance their overseas operational capacity and experiment with various tactics to transform local recruits into an industrial workforce. Local workers, with limited protection by official labour unions, turn to individual- and group-based agency to improve their working conditions. Despite the momentum created by multiple stakeholders, there are concerns regarding the long-term contributions of EZs to engender sustained industrial transformation and skills development.
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| 2 |
ID:
178891
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines Chinese engagement in Ethiopia's telecommunications sector. It argues that while theories of developmental state and global production networks contribute important insights on the roles of state agency and inter-firm relations in the rise of global lead firms from East Asia, they are insufficient to interpret the recent overseas ventures of Chinese companies in Africa. A case study of one flagship Chinese telecommunications company in Ethiopia advances the existing literature by highlighting the influences of host government intervention and inter-firm competition in shaping firms’ local operations. Specifically, this article analyses a myriad of changes in the case company's organizational structure and business practices in response to increased market competition administered by the Ethiopian government. Findings reveal that despite benefiting from official inter-state cooperation, Chinese overseas companies are neither static nor merely state-driven players but are flexible in adjusting strategies to improve their competitiveness in the local market.
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| 3 |
ID:
181215
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| Summary/Abstract |
Despite much scholarly debate on Chinese employment practices in Africa, firm-specific studies on how companies manage expatriate and local employees and the dynamics of power in the process remain scarce, especially in the knowledge-intensive sectors where relatively skilled portion of Chinese and Africans are recruited. The article addresses this weakness through a case study on the employee management strategies of one flagship Chinese telecommunications company in Ethiopia. Informed by a combined institutional and relational approach, it evaluates the promises and constraints of an ongoing workforce localization initiative to transform the extant managerial regime in the company. The structural and organizational features of the current regime reveal the incomplete nature of localization and internationalization of Chinese companies to achieve full-fledged employee integration and empowerment in Africa.
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