Futuríveis
terça-feira, junho 14, 2005
Chinese Century ?
...
Firms like TCL and Lenovo, by contrast, prospered mainly because of low purchasing power and inefficiencies in the Chinese market. They offered ultra-cheap versions of desirable electronics items at a time when most Chinese could not afford the higher-quality but more expensive foreign models. And their local knowledge was a big edge in navigating China’s fragmented and opaque distribution system.
But as China’s markets liberalise and its consumers grow richer, these advantages vanish and profits shrink. Because their profit margins are so low, firms like TCL and Lenovo cannot afford the R&D capacity that has translated into enduring competitive advantages for their Japanese and Korean competitors. And because they are essentially arbitrageurs, they have not developed the manufacturing and supply-chain management efficiency that distinguishes their Taiwanese competitors.
China has plenty of dynamism, and a powerful comparative advantage in manufacturing. But its entrepreneurial companies are very immature, and very much hamstrung by government industrial policies that favour state-owned behemoths. This makes it almost impossible for private firms to consolidate domestic markets and invest in durable competitive strengths. We are still at least a few decades away from a “Chinese century”.
...
FT.com
Firms like TCL and Lenovo, by contrast, prospered mainly because of low purchasing power and inefficiencies in the Chinese market. They offered ultra-cheap versions of desirable electronics items at a time when most Chinese could not afford the higher-quality but more expensive foreign models. And their local knowledge was a big edge in navigating China’s fragmented and opaque distribution system.
But as China’s markets liberalise and its consumers grow richer, these advantages vanish and profits shrink. Because their profit margins are so low, firms like TCL and Lenovo cannot afford the R&D capacity that has translated into enduring competitive advantages for their Japanese and Korean competitors. And because they are essentially arbitrageurs, they have not developed the manufacturing and supply-chain management efficiency that distinguishes their Taiwanese competitors.
China has plenty of dynamism, and a powerful comparative advantage in manufacturing. But its entrepreneurial companies are very immature, and very much hamstrung by government industrial policies that favour state-owned behemoths. This makes it almost impossible for private firms to consolidate domestic markets and invest in durable competitive strengths. We are still at least a few decades away from a “Chinese century”.
...
FT.com
posted by CMT, 12:08 da tarde
