Can the Concept of ‘Early’ and ‘Late’ Industrialization Explain the Key Institutional and Organizational Characteristics of National Business Systems, and Do They Have Any Bearing on Long-Term National Competitiveness?

Can the concept of ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization explain the key institutional and organizational characteristics of national business systems, and do they have any bearing on long-term national competitiveness?

Introduction

The concept of industrialization has been used among different nations and regions, while many countries have carried out their own industrialization progress during the past several decades, which stimulates the development of organizations and better corporate performance. There are different kinds of national business systems with their distinctive characteristics varying among countries. Then ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization is applied to describe two main types of national businesses that existing in developed and developing countries, which explains the key institutional and organizational differences among countries in particular to some extend. Each country has fallowed different pathway and carried out their industrialization in different period. It is known that the UK is the first country that achieved early industrialization revolution, which was followed by the US. And then in the late twentieth century, Germany, Japan and China implemented their industrialization process with dramatic change on their economic performance.

The purpose of this essay is to use the conception of ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization to explain the key institutional and organizational characteristics of national business systems by comparative perspective. First of all, the theories of industrialization will be displayed. Then this paper will concentrate on five main comparative countries, which are United States, Japan, Britain, Germany and China, to clarify major differences of national business systems. Moreover, further implications and debates upon these countries long-term national competitiveness will be given to assess the effectiveness of industrialization.

Theories of ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization

The UK was...