Industry Association, The Direction Of Development Research

The first part of this thesis introduces the definition, characteristics, and evolution of trade association. This part proceeds as follows. It starts by setting out the scope of the term "trade association" that is dealt in this thesis. This is followed by a summary of the defining properties that trade association have in its role as a special intermediary in the society. Then comes an analysis of Guild in feudal societies. In particular, this third section adopts the American and the Japanese examples to account for the evolutionary process of developed country trade associations, and presents the Thai and the Indonesian cases for developing country counterparts. In the mean time, this section also explores factors that affect the development of a country's trade association system. To the author's knowledge, the historical analysis approach adopted here towards understanding the effects of economy, culture, and politics on trade association is novel.The second part proceeds to analyze the various mechanisms inside trade association. First, it introduces the working of a trade association, including its membership, funding, structure, organizational structure, and legal status. The relation between trade associations and government along with the aspects that affect this relation is then analyzed. This is followed by an in-depth characterization of the key functions of trade associations in the western developed world. This careful depiction explores the mechanisms by which trade association carries out its functions and benefits and potential problems such functions can bring to the members of an association. The introduction to the functions of trade association in this thesis should be, as it appears to the author, among the most comprehensive ones to date. It could potentially shed light on issues related to trade association in our country.The development, main contributions, and existing problems and their causes pertaining to our country's trade association constitute the third part of this thesis. After describing the history and the current state of China's trade association and its main contributions, it addresses certain existing problems, and examines reasons why China's trade associations have not fully carried out their functions.As a natural subsequent step, the fourth part envisions future developments of China's trade association. The necessity for China to develop her trade associations is shown. Then some constructive suggestions on strategies to develop China's trade associations are offered. These include the following points which the author sees key to the issue, after careful research: 1) Integrating and restructuring existing trade associations and promoting theeffectiveness of them, 2) facilitating the establishment of new trade associations according to market economy principles by implementing systems that treat firms/trade associations as independent market entities and that have the government only providing a sound external environment. The second point is elaborated in more detail then.