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themselves in the 1940s. They are not professional managers. If they are professionals, they can argue and agree even if their opinions differ. But as owners themselves, if I am the founder, then my idea is the idea."
This view was supplemented by others' remarks such as 'there are large companies and small companies. The small ones do not want to be under others' control'; 'thirty-three mills have thirty-three managing directors, and who will give up?' This fierce insistence on entrepreneurial independence and autonomy is a likely cause for the stark contrast between Chinese industry and its Japanese and Western equivalents - the rarity of oligopolistic groupings such as the Zaibatsu, the cartels, and the trusts in Chinese industry.
Autonomy
David C. McClelland has extended his studies on achievement motivation to the Chinese case (1963: 6-17). Apart from methodological problems, his investigation is marred by the unsatisfactory questions that guide his research. The meaningful question, I think, is not whether the Chinese are keen to achieve or not, but what targets they are striving for and what kind of individual cost-and-benefit calculations are involved. Various studies on Chinese economic values and conduct point to a common feature: self-employment is at a premium. A small Hong Kong industrialist expressed this vividly when he was reported to say that 'a Shanghainese at forty who has not yet made himself owner of a firm is a failure, a good-for-nothing' (King and Leung 1975: 34; see also Sit, Wong and Kiang 1979: 297-310; Olsen 1972: 291; Ryan 1961: 20-31). Since most of these studies are concerned with Chinese businessmen operating firms of limited scale, it is possible that such a preference is engendered by the structure of small industry. Therefore, the attitude toward self-employment among the spinners who were large employers will help to decide whether the autonomy value is prevalent throughout Chinese industry. In my interviews, I put forth the following hypothetical situation:
'Let's assume that during the earlier part of your career, you had the options of becoming either the senior executive
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