Social Embedding And Corporate Development

Based on the fieldwork on Chinese resource enterprises in Mongolia,this paper studies the hardships the Chinese resource enterprises face,and analyzes the importance of the social embeddedness for those companies.With the concepts of institutional embeddedness and cultural embeddedness,this thesis compares the different development situations among Chinese enterprises in Mongolia from the aspects of institutional environment and cultural environment.With detailed case studies,this dissertation thinks that the resource investments made by Chinese companies in Mongolia are not only economic activities,but also the operation practices which the companies try to embed in the particular policies and local culture.This operation practices are reflected by the complex interactions between Chinese enterprises and local governments,and between local NGOs and herdsmen.Under the complicate and changeable institutional environment and challenging culture situation,the Chinese companies in Mongolia are not only limited by the inconstant Mongolian laws and rules,but also are restrained by the ecological ethics of Mongolian pastoral culture which emphasized the idea of respecting the nature and protecting the environment.Mongolian society has embarked on the road of democratization,its frequent government change and the "long name law"and other environmental policies led to the strict implementation of investment policy instability.The elevation of civil environmental awareness and the rise of resource nationalism in Mongolian have brought challenges to the development of China's resource development enterprises in Mongolia.The study found that,in terms of the institutional embeddedness,most Chinese enterprises had faced with some problems,such as the production is not standardized,the awareness of environmental protection is poor,the legal consciousness is weak,and the investment environment is limited.These Chinese enterprises just followed Mongolia's general strategic background and expressly stated restrictions,did not understand fully Mongolia's legal system and its details.So their ability of adaption is rather limited in the face of complex policy environment in Mongolia.In the aspect of cultural embeddedness,most Chinese enterprises have not been able to absorb and comprehend the concept of nomadic culture which pay attention to ecological protection.The disorderly development and improper handling of pollution and other acts of these enterprises intensified the contradiction between Chinese enterprises and the Mongolia government departments,social organizations and local herdsmen in Mongolia.Overall,most of the Chinese enterprises did not finish deep embeddedness in the local society,failed to establish a stable and reliable trust mechanism with the local community,thus faced with the challenges of sustainable development.The encouraging news is that there are several large-scale Chinese enterprises have been approved by the Mongolian government with beneficial policies due to the abundant capital and standard production scale of the enterprises.Furthermore,through strengthening environment management and social feedbacks,those Chinese enterprises improved the institutional and cultural embeddedness.Thus,those enterprises have deepened their social embeddedness and achieved the scale operation and adaptable development.For instance,the large-scale Chinese enterprises who are the examples of ordered production and legal operation,have achieved the target of standard production with the professional technological teams and carried out the work of second plough and greening landscape.What's more,with the deep understanding of particular codes and culture concepts of local communities,these large-scale companies have obtained the stable investment environment,and they are stepping towards the route of scale operation and adaptable development.Under the background of the Mongolian democratic system and the promotion of democratic culture,Mongolian central government and local government in the implementation of policy there is a certain tension.Local government policy implementation process has greater flexibility;its policy implementation is also largely subject to local herdsmen.In other words,local community has great autonomy and initiative in dealing with local affairs.The Chinese resource development enterprises are"outsiders" in the local social relations in a more disadvantaged position.Therefore,this paper argues that it is very important for Chinese enterprises to coordinate the relationship between resource development,environmental protection and enterprise development in Mongolia.Chinese enterprises can only promote the internal and inclusive development of local society through resource development through the effective coordination of development and protection,improve the "social embedding" mechanism of resource development,and proceed to the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises in the international market.