The influence of the environment and enterprise reform on commitment to technology development in China: an empirical analysis

This paper examines the influence of the environment and enterprise reform on commitment to technology development in Chinese enterprises. Two forms o f commitment are examined, the first being 'commitment to innovation' and t he second being 'commitment to good practice'. These are hypothesized to be determined by the technological environment, the business environment and the nature of the firm, especially with respect to the extent to which it h as been 'marketized'. Data from a large-scale survey of Chinese enterprises carried out in 1997 is used to measure both forms of commitment and the in dependent variables, and to test the hypotheses. The results show that ther e are significant relationships between both forms of commitment to technol ogy development, the environment and some aspects of marketization. Some ev idence in support of a predicted moderating role for other aspects of marke tization is found but the support is weak.