This paper aims to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China by investigating Hong Kong’s manufacturing industries established in Guangdong province…
Abstract
This paper aims to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China by investigating Hong Kong’s manufacturing industries established in Guangdong province, and to compare the difference between market‐oriented and export‐oriented, and between capital intensive and labor intensive FDI in investment decision making. A questionnaire survey is used to verify our argument. It is found that most of Hong Kong’s manufacturing investments are labor‐intensive and export‐oriented. The most important determinants of Hong Kong’s manufacturing investment in China are cheap labor and land, stable political environment, government incentive policies and high investment return. The most important location‐specific advantages are geographical proximity to Hong Kong, better preferential treatment, good infrastructure, and absence of language barrier. It is also found that export‐oriented FDI tends to be efficiency‐seeking while market‐oriented FDI appears to be resource‐seeking.
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This paper aims to understand the implication of night soil selling at the public toilets for the shared interests between colonial state and business in nineteenth-century Hong…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the implication of night soil selling at the public toilets for the shared interests between colonial state and business in nineteenth-century Hong Kong. More specifically, this paper attempts to look at the ways the toilets were sustained by the sharing interests over night soil profits between state and business sector.
Design/methodology/approach
It is argued from the political economy perspective that the night soil profit determined the public toilet development.
Findings
The successful emergence of the modern state of colonies was generally attributed to colonial modernization, a force that was widely recognized for having introduced hygienic modernity. It was easily assumed that the public toilets would be provided by colonial government. Instead, sanitary problems during the early colonization of this colony were addressed by the privately-owned public pail toilets provided by big Chinese landowners through the selling of night soil. Based on this quasi-commercial mode, these toilets, which served as night soil collection points, were certainly inefficient; they however survived for half a century into the early twentieth century.
Originality/value
The paper challenges the long-established assumptions of binary relations and hierarchical public roles that put them into zero-sum competition of capacity. It rather argues that the interests aligned with each other.
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Yiu Chung Wong and Jason K.H. Chan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of civil disobedience (CD) movements in Hong Kong in the context of the notion of civil society (CS).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of civil disobedience (CD) movements in Hong Kong in the context of the notion of civil society (CS).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins by rigorously defining the notion of CD, as well as the concept of CS and tracing its development in Hong Kong over the past several decades. By using a model of CS typology, which combines the variables of state control and a society’s quest for autonomy (SQA), the paper aims to outline the historical development of CD movements in Hong Kong. It also discusses the recent evolution of CS and its relationship with CD movements, particularly focusing on their development since Leung Chun-ying became the Chief Executive in 2012. Finally, by using five cases of CD witnessed in the past several decades, the relationship between the development of CS and the emergence of CD in Hong Kong has been outlined.
Findings
Four implications can be concluded: first, CD cannot emerge when the state and society are isolated. Second, the level of SC and the scale of CD are positively related. Third, as an historical trend, the development of SQA is generally in linear progress; SQA starts from a low level (e.g. interest-based and welfare-based aims) and moves upwards to campaign for higher goals of civil and political autonomy. If the lower level of SQA is not satisfied, it can lead to larger scale CD in future. Fourth, the CD movement would be largest in scale when the state-society relationship confrontational and when major cleavages can be found within CS itself.
Originality/value
This paper serves to enrich knowledge in the fields of politics and sociology.
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Community profiling several recent research studies (eg see NLW, June) have emphasised the need for more effective marketing of library and information services. A new CRUS…
Abstract
Community profiling several recent research studies (eg see NLW, June) have emphasised the need for more effective marketing of library and information services. A new CRUS publication is intended to help librarians set about the task of gathering the necessary information to do this properly. Community profiling in the library context aims to define a community in a way which is relevant to the planning and evaluation of library services, but different types of community require different approaches. Christina Beal has now written a comprehensive report covering the different methods possible. Community profiling for librarians (CRUS Occasional Paper 12) costs £17.50 from Consultancy and Research Unit, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN (Tel: 0742‐738608).
This paper explores how the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) securitizes internal security, cultural identity and welfare system through refugee…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) securitizes internal security, cultural identity and welfare system through refugee policy instruments. It also aims to explore the roles of members of the Legislative Council (Legco) and Chinese newspapers in the securitization process.
Design/methodology/approach
The author analyzed 6 landmark verdicts, 342 related documents of the Legco, 2,386 news coverages and 408 editorials/ column articles from 6 selected Chinese newspapers from 2005 to mid-2019. While documents of the Legco were collected from the Legco archives, news reports, editorials and column articles were gathered on Wisenews with the keywords, namely, refugees, asylum seekers, torture claims and non-refoulement claims.
Findings
The author argues that the advanced comprehensive security approach helps to comprehend the securitization process in Hong Kong. The HKSARG, Legco members of the pro-government camp and pro-government Chinese newspapers perform as securitizing actors who regard refugees as an existential threat to the referent objects, i.e. internal security, cultural identity and welfare system.
Research limitations/implications
There are two significant limitations, namely, the coverage of newspapers and the absence of poll data. This paper merely selected six Chinese newspapers, which do not cover English newspapers and some other Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong. It may neglect some important data. Additionally, owing to the absence of longitudinal poll data, the author chose not to examine the related materials.
Originality/value
This paper intends to be the first study to provide a longitudinal examination of the transformations of current refugee policies in Hong Kong.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the medical incident responses from two public hospitals in Hong Kong, namely, Kowloon Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre, in order to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the medical incident responses from two public hospitals in Hong Kong, namely, Kowloon Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre, in order to improve the strategic preparation for crisis management in hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses two medical incidents using Situational Crisis Communication Theory by Coombs (2007). The two case studies presented herein demonstrate the importance of consistency in terms of crisis responses.
Findings
For the first case, the crisis responses from different parties after the incident, including Hospital Authority, the doctor and the nurses from Kowloon Hospital, are contradicting to each other. First, Hospital Authority confirmed that the incident is solely an accident which is a denial response. Second, the doctor passed the responsibility to the nurses which is a scapegoating response. Third, the nurses tend to reduce the responsibility for the death of patient by excusing strategy. As a whole, their responses are inconsistent to each other. For the second case, Caritas had initially denied the responsibilities, but finally had given partial apology under public pressure. That makes people think that Caritas does not really regret.
Originality/value
Rebuilding posture should be used instead of denial and diminishment posture. However, public organization and civil servants are reluctant to use a full apology due to possible legal consequences. The apology ordinance would ease the pressure to express regret and sympathy.