China and the global business revolution

As China joins the World Trade Organisation, the author questions whether China's large firms will be able to compete on the global level playing field. Over the past two decades, Chinese large enterprises have undertaken extensive evolutionary change (comparable to that of other latecomer countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) but, at the same time, the world's leading firms have undergone a revolutionary transformation. Based on analysis derived from case studies made in the course of the China Big Business Programme at the judge Institute of Management Studies, Cambridge, the author concludes that China's large firms have not caught up with the world's leading businesses.