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This paper proposes that ethnic identity and identification in the modern nation-state is a process of dialogical interaction between self-perceived notions of identity and sociopolitical contexts, often defined by the state. Each example of ethnic identification has at least two levels of discourse, articulated internally and externally. As suggested by Bakhtin, whose study of Dostoevsky posed fundamental questions of self and society, identity and ideology: The endlessness of the external dialogue emerges here with the same mathematical clarity as does the endlessness of internal dialogue. … In Dostoevsky’s dialogues, collision and quarrelling occurs not between two integral monologic voices, but between two divided voices quarreling (one of those voices, at least, is divided). The open rejoinders of the one answer the hidden rejoinders of the other (Bakhtin, 1981 [1963], pp. 253, 254).

Luxury and communism are perceived to be ideologically incompatible values. Prior to the end of the Cold War, luxury tourism and socialist economies had an accommodating relationship and were rationalised at the national level for foreign exchange revenues, showcasing national development in some instances and finally promoting leisure and political education. However, contemporary scholarship on political ideology and luxury tourism is limited given changes in the political and tourism domain over the last two decades. The start of luxury travel and increasing private promotion in Vietnam comes at a time where the communist regime is hurriedly developing the economy at a breakneck speed. Key cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have become the forefront of luxury travel for Vietnam. Luxury malls, fine dining and five-star hotel resorts have sprung over the years in tandem with Doi Moi (economic restructuring). Tourism literature has seldom ventured into regime politics and luxury tourism. Using a historical approach, the chapter traces the preamble of luxury tourism in the age of Vietnam's modernity. A critical assessment of contemporary luxury tourism in Vietnam reveals a favourable relationship with socialist principles.

We conceptualize corporate social capital within the context of Chinese guanxi culture. We assert that the formation and mobilization of corporate social capital are culturally and institutionally contextualized. Building upon a relational approach to corporate performance, we examine culture-sensitive properties of Chinese guanxi and compare guanxi social capital with non-guanxi social capital. We then explain why guanxi-based corporate social capital is of growing significance to the Chinese transitional economy in an era of increasing market competition and institutional uncertainty. We conclude by proposing a research agenda about the roles that guanxi-based corporate social capital plays for boosting corporate performance.

In this article we investigate the impact of the 1996 pension crisis in Russia on several measures of subjective well-being (SWB). Using a difference-in-difference strategy and an individual fixed-effects model, we find that an exogenous shock to the redistribution system has a significant negative effect on the SWB of pensioners who fail to receive their pensions. The effect differs across aspects of life evaluation; the shock has a significant negative effect on current life satisfaction (LS), whereas it has no effect on self-assessed health. The effect of the shock extends to non-pensioners who live with pensioners in arrears: they experience an equally strong and significant decline in LS even after accounting for personal income. In addition, we find that the pension crisis leads pensioner households to neither receive more nor send less money to extended family, thus leaving these households to bear alone the entire monetary cost. Lastly, we find suggestive evidence that the crisis, despite being a purely monetary shock, affects well-being in ways that go beyond the monetary size of pension loss. Policies aimed to fully compensate for such disruptions in the redistribution system would need to take these externalities into account.

Purpose – This chapter examines the challenges in exploring, analysing and developing the concept of social capital, seen as the proclivity (or otherwise) of societies to engender stable structures for cooperativeness that support economic exchange and control. The authors focus on Asia and outline a theory of researchable social capital elements. Methodology is considered against the contexts of Asia. The authors emphasize the role of higher education as determinant, seeing it as crucial to the accumulation of human capital and often at the centre of many theories of societal progress.

Findings – The authors’ findings are that social capital is a contested concept that does not rest within a bed of widely adopted theory; researching it comparatively requires acknowledging societal meaning structures; there is emerging acceptance of complexity theory, evolutionary dynamics, and multi-disciplinary analysis; it is possible to disaggregate the concept into researchable issues; many research methods are available.

Implications – Modes of human cooperativeness are crucial for the understanding and comparison of economic systems. Implications are strong and pervasive for policy and practice. The authors find no evidence of a distinct indigenous ‘Asian’ perspective in research but much evidence of powerful contributions from Asian scholars working collaboratively with colleagues internationally.

Originality/Value – The chapter provides a helicopter perspective of an emerging field, notes conceptual challenges and gives practical guidance for researchers.

Bureaucratic power – the power derived from the formal authority of the bureaucratic organization – has become a central organizing mechanism in modern societies. In this study, we develop theoretical arguments to identify institutional sources as well as limitations of bureaucratic power. We argue that the very institutional sources of bureaucratic power also cultivate the countervailing forces that set limit to the exercise of bureaucratic power in formal organizations. These arguments and considerations are illustrated in two case studies of the “inspection and appraisal” processes in the Chinese bureaucracy. Our study raises issues about organizational isomorphism and calls for a closer look at the behavioral patterns in organizational processes.

Pay varies across individuals. Some variation is endemic to a country's institutions including a country's level of development and its technological infrastructure. Some variation is based on differences in individual attributes, particularly an individual's ability to acquire human capital. Finally, some variation is based on incentives instigated by the government, by one's employer, or by one's family. These incentives often operate indirectly by influencing educational choices, labor force participation, and even cohabitation and marital arrangements. This volume contains eight articles on aspects of the distribution of income. One deals with technology change and the distribution of earnings, two deal with internal labor markets, four deal with incentives that motivate work related behavior, and finally one deals with immigrant labor market success.