Alliance Capitalism, Innovation and the Chinese State ― The Global Wireless Sector

Victoria Higgins uses the 3G-4G wireless sector as a case study to analyse the emergence of alliance capitalism in China. Using a specific theoretical focus on the role of Chinese governmental authorities in both facilitating and governing the parameters of global technological alliances and market construction, she argues that this new type of alliance capitalism is an important form of economic organization. The originality of this book lies in its foregrounding of how the Chinese Government and the country's domestic firms have adjusted to socio–technological systems change and the shifting nature of the global technological environment, and have revised their technological development strategies to incorporate the notion of alliance capitalism. It highlights how alliance capitalism is built around reciprocal interdependence and signifies a fundamental shift in the organizational behaviour of firms and Government alike. Following on from China's earlier foreign direct investment (FDI) and techno–nationalist strategies, Higgins demonstrates how this new development strategy can be viewed as the third major attempt to mount an effective industrial strategy in China.

Victoria Higgins is a teaching associate at Monash University, Australia, and holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Queensland, Australia. She has previously held teaching positions at the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne. Victoria's research is centred around high-technology development in China with a strong focus on strategic agency and complex systems theory.