China’s Social Market Economy

In 2011, China continues to be the world’s largest recipient of direct foreign investment—which in 2010 totaled US$105 billion. China is also the world’s second largest economy after the U.S. Once a staunchly Communist state, China now advocates a “social market economy” as its business system. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, this paper seeks to understand what is meant by a “social market economy”. Second, the paper analyzes the traditional shareholder and stakeholder debate by examining different national economies together with their respective societies in terms of business systems. Third, the paper discusses some implications of the emergence of the Chinese economy and business system in the context of potential contributions to social science research. This paper shows that China’s social market economy has many similarities to the stakeholder business system increasingly advocated in global ethics research and presents the challenges to be faced by China’s social market economy in the future.