Executive opinions on Hong Kong: Point and counterpoint: The future looks bright for China and Hong Kong

The biggest debate about the future of Hong Kong is poised on whether China wil honor the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration or whether it will introduce corruption and over-regulation into Hong Kong's well-functioning Western economy. Fong,an appointee of the Hong Kong government, and Wilson, a longtime resident and employee of Western companies with offices in Hong Kong, briefly tackle both sides of the issue.     

Business and the rule of law in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's fair efficient legal system is the bedrock of its economic success. The practice of Western law underpins Hong Kong's entire free, market by providing a level playing field, due process, protection of property right and legal contracts. Mr. Lee, the Democratric Party of Hong Kong, warns of the potential harmful impact of Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong after 1997, particularly through corruption and nepotism.     

Hong Kong's industrial success: an entrepreneurial perspective

This article examines the role of entrepreneurship in the industrialization of Hong Kong. Kirzner's concept of entrepreneurship is applied to explain the industrial dynamics of the economy. Using the electronics industry as illustration, this article argues that Hong Kong's manufacturing industry has been driven principally by adaptive entrepreneurship, which takes the form of small-scale enterprise, product imitation, subcontracting and spatial arbitrage. Furthermore, those firms adopting imitative strategies were able to survive, though many of them relied on very small profit margins. Radical innovative strategies were seldom adopted and were not feasible in the environment of Hong Kong. Adopting adaptive entrepreneurial strategies, Hong Kong's manufacturers learned from foreign firms and imitated their products. Later, by exporting improved commodities at lower prices, they competed against the original suppliers from economically more advanced countries. This constitutes Hong Kong's industrial success.     

Hong Kong's Hotel industry—the post-hand-over blues

Hong Kong's tourism industry collapsed around July 1997, shortly after the hand over to Chinese rule. When the Asian financial crisis hit, Hong Kong's investments in neighboring countries suffered. Thereafter the Heng Seng Index dropped 55 percent. Throughout the last quarter of 1997 Hong Kong's economic inhibitors—unemployment, business failures, and negative GDP—all pointed to a recession. Among Hong Kong's hotels, more than 1,750 jobs were lost from December 1997 to March 1998, and average room rates dropped below 1991 levels. Hong Kong's tourism crisis can be traced to: an imbalance between room supply and demand (caused by the inflated demand for office space), unfair hotel pricing to take advantage of Japanese tourists, ineffective national promotional campaigns, airline woes, and food-borne illnesses that scared away visitors. Economic recovery is likely to take several years, and is dependent on the recovery of the rest of the region's countries. In June 1998 Hong Kong produced an economic-stimulus package to stem the tide of decreasing land values and stimulate the money supply. Hoteliers can help by working together to ensure pricing stability. Coordination is also needed between the Hong Kong Tourist Association and the rest of the industry to set goals and objectives. Hospitality education and training need to focus on the current needs of the industry and on how to compete in the new market.     

Enter the dragon: Hong Kong's growing role in world finance

Hong Kong currently plays a crucial role in world finance, yet will it maintain its economic power under Chinese rule? Important in Hong Kong's current and future role are its stock market, the maintenance of a stable exchange rate, the maintenance of a stable exchange rate, the development of its capital and debt markets, the Basic Law that guarantees that the financial sector will remain intact after 1997 and a smooth financial synthesis between Hong Kong and China. Li describes the integral role of the Hong Kong government in these tasks and discusses his optimism for the future.     

Dirt of whitewashing: re-conceptualising debtors’ obligations in Chinese business by transplanting bankruptcy law to early British Hong Kong (1860s–1880s)

This article, drawing on a wide range of archived materials, and using one of the earliest sets of English business law imported to Hong Kong – the Bankruptcy Ordinance of 1864 – as a case study, argues that the transplantation of the English bankruptcy regime into early colonial Hong Kong was contrary to the business interests of both the European and Chinese communities and wrongfully displaced the traditional Chinese business norms and practices that had contributed to the health of the colonial economy prior to the regime's introduction. This article constitutes one of the first empirical studies to place English business law and its widely acknowledged contribution to the economy of early colonial Hong Kong under scrutiny. From the perspective of the relationship between English law and former British colonies’ development of business modernity, the findings presented herein contradict the readily accepted notion that English business law provided a solid legal infrastructure upon which colonial Hong Kong's prosperity and economic growth were built and call for more nuanced studies of the positive role of Chinese legal traditions in Hong Kong's development of business modernity in its early colonial period.     

Trends in international business thought and literature: One country,two currencies? Hong Kong's exchange-rate regime after 1997

A key factor in assessing the future of the Hong Kong dollar is whether China would, after 1997, take the drastic step of abolishing the Hong Kong dollar in favor of the Renminbi (RMB) as legal tender. While this possibility should not be discounted, our view is that a merger of the two currencies would only occur in the distant future when the RMB becomes fully convertible. This study argues that the status quo of the HK$-US$ link would be preserved at least until the turn of the century. A combination of factors, including the overriding need to maintain confidence and stability in Hong Kong, which is crucial for a smooth transition of sovereignty; the weak relationship between either imported or domestic-generated inflation and the exchange rate link; and the misconception that Hong Kong's export competitiveness has been undermined by an overvalued Hong Kong dollar would help to support the argument that other alternative regimes for the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate would not be feasible in the short run. These alternative regimes include changing to a floating rate     

The role of entrepÔt trade in the choice of a nominal anchor for Hong Kong

This paper adds a new perspective to the literature of monetary standard by establishing a link between re-exports and the choice of nominal anchor. The model developed is applied to address the controversy over the US dollar versus the renminbi as the nominal anchor for Hong Kong, in the context of its considerable amount of entrepÔt trade with the US and China. It is found that the distinct trade structure of the US-Hong Kong-China triangle significantly reduces Hong Kong's opportunity cost of choosing between the two currencies, its nominal anchor.     

The demand for business and management education in Hong Kong beyond 1997

In this contribution, the future market of business and management education in Hong Kong is investigated, bearing in mind that Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty. Hong Kong is expected to continue its prosperity, but the emigration of large numbers of Hong Kong professionals wanting to secure a safety net by acquiring a foreign passport has further created demands for better and more business and management education in an attempt to develop more professional managers. The study starts by discussing the current state of the Hong Kong economy and the phenomenon of the ‘brain drain’. In addition, it analyses a survey of the current state of business and management education in Hong Kong so that a market need can be identified to match economic growth. Finally, the study suggests a future research direction for Hong Kong's business and management education.     

Hong Kong as a complex adaptive system

In this contribution, the post-war economic development of Hong Kong is considered from a complexity theory perspective. It is argued that over the last 50 years Hong Kong has displayed many of the signature qualities of a complex adaptive system in its transformation from dusty entrepot port to the secondwealthiest Asian economy. Insights from theories of complexity are used to shed light on a range of empirical phenomena. In contrast with the orthodox laissez faire account of Hong Kong's ascendancy, a complexity based explanation can be used to account for the presence of endogenously induced systemic disruptions and does not discount the role of external intervention in those areas of the economy prone to escalating feedback.     

Managing human resources in Hong Kong: 1997 and beyond

Financial transition is not Hong Kong's only concern after 1997. This paper examines issues that senior human resource management executives must address as Hong Kong's deadline approaches. Within Hong Kong's particular political context, Farh, Leung and Tse identify the major social and economic trends that directly affect the management of heman resources and discuss the key implications of these trends with regard to personnel planning, recruitment and selection, training and compensation.     

Hong Kong's development: prospects and possibilities

Hong Kong's economic emergence, development and current situation have been examined and analysed from a variery of perspectives, and its adaptative systems, entrepreneurship and human resources have been outlined in detail. A number of points and themes have emerged and these have implications for Hong Kong's prospects and possibilities. First, Hong Kong's internationally impressive economic record is under threat. Second, some of the factors and structures seen as growth inducing in the past are now viewed as inhibiting. Third, there is a need to develop alternative means of competing, which include production and human resource upgrading.     

Introduction: Globalization and the Workplace in Pacific Asia

Hong Kong's economic successes are evident. As ever, the interpretation of this phenomenon at the level of politics, culture, human capital and business organization is less obvious, though a familiar list of the ‘usual suspects’ of ‘explanations’ has emerged. Hong Kong now faces new and renewed challenges which are linked to shifts in the industrial structure, emerging market demands and the interconnected upgrading of both production and human resources, in addition to the implications of reunification. Key themes of national competitiveness, deindustrialization and the upgrading of production facilities and human resources are all shown to be important, but also multi-layered and hazy concepts.     

The impact of China's WTO accession on Hong Kong textiles,clothing and its supporting industries

China's accession to the WTO and the ‘Agreement on Textiles and Clothing’ (ATC) which gradually ban the use of quota, will have profound impacts on the textile industry in China. This article attempts to examine such impacts on all textile firms of Hong Kong origin. It briefly examines the impact of WTO on the textile industries in general, the participation of Hong Kong based firms in China's textiles industry, and the competitors from foreign countries. It examines in detail the practice of obtaining Hong Kong quota for textile products that are made in the Mainland by Hong Kong firms. The article argues that there are positive and negative effects of China–s WTO accession for all textile firms of Hong Kong origin. It concludes that the shifting of the targeted market to high-end, high-value-added is the only way of survival for the textile firms of Hong Kong.     

Young Hong Kong managers: Their doubts about 1997

The economic success of Hong Kong—especially when compared to its much larger neighbor the People's Republic of China—has been a source of worry among business leaders in light of the colony's planned reversion back to China in 1997. Young managers in particular are nervous that, under the bureaucratic and repressive dominion of China, economic growth and opportunities will dwindle. How China handles its own affairs, as well as those of Hong Kong, may well affect the region's economy well into the next century.     

Performance evaluation of tourism websites' information quality of four global destination brands: Beijing,Hong Kong,Shanghai, and Taipei

Some tourists only have a slight idea of where they want to go on a holiday when planning starts. Such tourists or their travel partners are likely to look for information for making a final travel decision. As the web becomes an increasingly popular information source, tourism destination websites can play a critical role in destination choice. A rubric for comparing tourism websites put forward by Dion and Woodside (2010) is used and ideas for enhancing the rubric are introduced utilizing a growing literature. Comparisons are made for the tourism websites of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Taipei. Analysis involves considering websites' quality and usefulness. The study indicates that Hong Kong's site is best while Beijing has the most room for improvement. The paper concludes with implications of the research for website analysis. The discussion includes contributions to the value of criteria for websites found in the literature but not covered in an information-quality performance rubric.     

Environmental complexity,importance, variability and scanning behavior of Hong Kong executives

With the recent handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong executives face the challenge of formulating strategies in a very complex and uncertain environment. Using a sample of 55 Hong Kong Chinese executives, this study explored how executives' perceptions of their firm's external environment can affect their scanning behavior as measured by frequency and level of interest. Results indicated that executives intensified their scanning when perceived strategic importance of an environmental sector increased. Contrary to expectations, however, increased perceived environmental complexity did not decrease but increased executives scanning efforts of environmental sectors. No significant relationship was found between perceived strategic variability and scanning behavior.     

The Hong Kong tourism industry in transition: Challenges and opportunities

Despite some uncertainties, Hong Kong's prospects appear bright after the reinstatement of Chinese control.     

Hong Kong's financial industries in transition: An external perspective

As a consultant to hundreds of business in Hong Kong, Gaeta analyzes the development of Hong Kong with a consultant's eye. He traces the path Hong Kong has followed to become a global banking and financial-services center in the 1990s; discusses the current obstacles it has to face as this center rapidly matures—for example, in its move from laissez-faire to international regulatory standards- and discusses the future competitive and managerial challenges the country will face with China at the helm, such as skills and human resource development, goal setting and performance management.