Poor management has long been suspected as a major constraint on job creation in the manufacturing sector in low-income countries. In this sector, countless micro and small enterprises in industrial clusters account for a large share of employment. This paper examines the roles of industrial...

This article provides an explanation for Thailand’s long-term policymaking patterns from 1980 to 2011, with particular reference to macroeconomic and industrial policies. It develops a typology of reform orientations in Thailand, conditioned by government type (strong or fragmented) and...

In China industrial clusters consisting of small and medium enterprises have been proliferating in areas where private sectors have successfully developed. This study inquires into the process of forming a new industrial cluster and the roles of local and distant urban traders in the garment...

While it is by now well known that the privatization of township- and village-run enterprises (TVREs) has been rapidly and widely taking place in China, it is much less known whether and to what extent privatization has improved resource allocation and productivity. As a first step toward the...

In industrial clusters, transaction costs are kept low and free riding is discouraged by a community mechanism developed through dense and repeated interactions among entrepreneurs. In such environments, new entrants without established reputations and connections are put at a distinct...

In recent years, several randomized controlled experiments as well as experiments that are not randomized have been conducted to assess the impacts of management training intervention on the productivity and other aspects of business performance of firms. Yet the role played by management...

Family-based traditional microenterprises are abundant in developing countries, and in many cases they are a major source of income and employment for both urban and rural poor. With a few exceptions, however, most these family-based traditional microenterprises in the rural areas of developing...