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several blind spots. It is not attuned to opinions held in private: it disregards the views of the 'silent majority'; and it tends to neglect unstated assumptions. The forced choice method, on the other hand, is more sensitive to these issues. It is also more specific and representative in its coverage, and the responses can be quantified with less ambiguity. Of course, it has its own limitations. The main one is that the themes and 'ideological choices' are imposed on the respondents. In other words, their saliency to the businessmen is problematic. With these features of the forced choice method in mind, let us examine the response patterns of the Hong Kong Chinese cotton spinners in relation to the following themes: social responsibility; government-business relationships; industrial harmony and conflict; competition and cooperation; autonomy and self-employment; as well as profit-sharing.
Social responsibility
The emergence of a business doctrine of social responsibility is sometimes thought to be related to the separation of ownership and control in industrialized societies, (Nichols 1969: 52-57). Theorists of this persuasion argue that such a separation has given birth to a new class of professional manager-directors. Their relationship to industrial capital is said to differ from that of the traditional owner-directors, thus they tend to have a dissimilar business orientation. They are presumed to be less concerned with maximizing profits for their companies and are more prepared to adopt a broader vision for the public weal and collective welfare. If this theory is sound, we should expect to find fewer adherents to the ideology of social responsibility among the Hong Kong Chinese industrialists than their Western counterparts because of a much lower degree of dissociation between ownership and control in the Colony. As they were mostly owner-directors, the Hong Kong cotton spinners might adopt the classical position of laissez-faire. After all, they were living in an environment which was regarded as conducive to this classical ideology. One observer describes Hong Kong as 'John Stuart Mill's Other Island', while another believes that "[free] competition provides local industries with a Darwinian test of their ability to survive', (Smith 1966; Owen 1971; for a more
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several blind spots. It is not attuned to opinions held in private: it disregards the views of the 'silent majority'; and it tends to neglect unstated assumptions. The forced choice method, on the other hand, is more sensitive to these issues. It is also more specific and representative in its coverage, and the responses can be quantified with less ambiguity. Of course, it has its own limitations. The main one is that the themes and 'ideological choices' are imposed on the respondents. In other words, their saliency to the businessmen is problematic. With these features of the forced choice method in mind, let us examine the response patterns of the Hong Kong Chinese cotton spinners in relation to the following themes: social responsibility; government-business relationships; industrial harmony and conflict; competition and cooperation; autonomy and self-employment; as well as profit- sharing.
Social responsibility
The emergence of a business doctrine of social responsibility is sometimes thought to be related to the separation of ownership and control in industrialized societies, (Nichols 1969: 52-57), Theorists of this persuasion argue that such a separation has given birth to a new class of professional manager-directors, Their relationship to industrial capital is said to differ from that of the traditional owner-directors, thus they tend to have a dissimilar business orientation. They are presumed to be less concerned with maximizing profits for their companies and are more prepared to adopt a broader vision for the public weal and collective welfare. If this theory is sound, we should expect to find fewer adherents to the ideology of social responsibility among the Hong Kong Chinese industrialists than their Western counterparts because of a much lower degree of dissociation between ownership and control in the Colony. As they were mostly owner-directors, the Hong Kong cotton spinners might adopt the classical position of laissez-faire. After all, they were living in an environment which was regarded as conducive to this classical ideology. One observer describes Hong Kong as 'John Stuart Mills' Other Island', while another believes that "[free] competition provides local industries with a Darwinian test of their ability to survive', (Smith 1966; Owen 1971; for a more
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