Jane Nolan - Western Bankers in China: Institutional Change and Corporate Governance

When Chinas economic reforms were beginning, there was an expectation in the West that Chinas financial markets would be opened to Western banks and that Chinas banks would be reformed along Western lines. Joint ventures between Chinese banks and Western banks, minority shareholding by Western banks and the involvement of Western banking personnel in assisting Chinese banks with their reforms were all seen as evidence of convergence towards Western management norms. This book analyses the role that Western bankers have played in Chinas economic reforms, focusing on their influence on institutional change and corporate governance. Based on extensive original research, the book shows that while components of Western models of corporate governance have been widely adopted, the motivation for these changes seems to have been legitimacy-seeking by Chinese banks, and that while there has been relatively rapid change in the formal legislative environment, informal organisational practices are changing at a much slower pace. Alliances between Chinese and Western banks are woven with contradictions and power games, and many actors in the Chinese banking sector seek to resist manipulation by their Western counterparts. The financial crisis of 2008 weakened the idea that Western banks are a universally correct model and strengthened Chinas resolve to keep control of its banking sector and to manage it in a way that suits Chinas interests, not those of the West.

Jane Nolan is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour in the School of Business at the University of Nottingham.

Routledge Contemporary China Series

The Power of Relationalism in China

Chinas Financial Opening: Coalition Politics and Policy Changes

Urbanization, Regional Development and Governance in China

Midwifery in China

Chinas Virtual Monopoly of Rare Earth Elements

Economic, Technological and Strategic Implications

Chinas Regions in an Era of Globalization

Chinas Climate-Energy Policy

Domestic and International Impacts

Western Bankers in China

Institutional Change and Corporate Governance

Xinjiang in the Twenty-First Century

Islam, Ethnicity and Resistance

China Studies in the Philippines

Intellectual Paths and the Formation of a Field

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Contemporary-China-Series/book-series/SE0768

Western Bankers in China

Institutional Change and Corporate Governance

First published 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

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2019 Jane Nolan

The right of Jane Nolan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Names: Nolan, Jane, author.

Title: Western bankers in China : institutional change and corporate governance / Jane Nolan.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge contemporary China series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018021504| ISBN 9780415584647 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780429445712 (ebook : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Banks and bankingChinaCross-cultural studies. | Banks and banking, ForeignChinaCross-cultural studies. | Banks and banking, InternationalChinaCross-cultural studies.

Classification: LCC HG3334 .N65 2019 | DDC 332.10951dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021504

ISBN: 978-0-415-58464-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-44571-2 (ebk)

So many people, from so many parts of the world, have supported me over the course of this project. First and foremost, I would like to thank my research participants who contributed so generously with their time and their ideas. Much of what follows emerged from their insights, as much as from mine. Among my many contacts and informants in China, I would especially like to thank Jian Yi and Wan Yingqun.

The research was funded by a Nuffield Foundation New Career Fellowship and I am grateful to the Foundation for the financial assistance they provided. The Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Magdalene College, Cambridge, also provided a stimulating environment during the development of the project. Colleagues at the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham have also helped me along the way, some offering critical friendship, others just good old-fashioned, alcohol-fuelled friendship.

While all the research presented here is original, parts of some chapters have been adapted and re-worked from journal articles. Part of Chapter 6 originally appeared in The influence of western banks on corporate governance in China, Asia Pacific Business Review, 16(3), 417436 ( 2010 Taylor & Francis; all rights reserved). Part of Chapter 7 originally appeared in Good guanxi and bad guanxi: Western bankers and the role of network practices in institutional change in China, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(16), 33573372 ( 2011 Taylor & Francis; all rights reserved).

I could not have completed this research without the guidance and intellectual inspiration of my mentor, Professor Malcom Warner, of the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He has been with me through all the complications, stresses and rewards that accompany a project like this. I would also like to thank my publisher, Peter Sowden, editor at Routledge, for his advice, and his patience. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Sue Chadwick and Mark Whyman for their unending good humour and shrewd observations on life in general.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Christine Nolan (19402011) and Brian Nolan, for their love and their care. Throughout my life they have always encouraged me to follow my interests and they have supported me across numerous endeavours, in academia and beyond. This book is dedicated to them.