Merchant Association Networks and Product Quality Control: A Case Study of the Silk Pongee Industry in Shandong

Wei Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Wei Zhang: Institute of Economics, Nankai University

Chapter Chapter 6 in Imitation, Counterfeiting and the Quality of Goods in Modern Asian History, 2017, pp 107-122 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter focuses on the question of the role of merchant groups in creating systems to control product quality in the context of international tradeInternational trade networks and early industrialization. It first describes the trade networksTrade networks in the Shandong silk pongeeShandong silk pongee industry from 1900 to 1930. Then it depicts the initiatives taken by merchant association networksSilk pongee quality with regard to quality control, analyzing the identity of merchantsMerchants in different positions of this industry. Last, this chapter examines whether the regional associations had the ability to break through the limitations to cooperate with each other. We find that the stronger the duality of the market and the more segmented the spatial market, the stronger the incentives are for individuals in the market to construct associations and association-based networksNetworks to complement the private networksPrivate networks based on the differential mode of association for gaining scarce resources. However, the effectiveness of this kind of association network for quality control needs to be reinforced by other elements, such as the strong ties that come from sharing a common native-place.

Keywords: Merchant associations; Product quality; Trading network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:stechp:978-981-10-3752-8_6

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789811037528

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-3752-8_6

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Studies in Economic History from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().