The Alibaba Way
Unleashing Grass-Roots Entrepreneurship to Build the World's Most Innovative Internet Company
By Dr Ying Lowrey, 2016
Recently, world economic experts have been looking at the rise of China when it comes to economic might. Despite this, in the past it was mostly looking at China from a political perspective, it is only recently, with companies like Alibaba, that they have realized it is not just the state of China that is formidable. It is also the young minds conquering western markets with their businesses.
In this book Ying Lowrey is examining the contribution of Alibaba to the Chinese economy and makes a convincing argument that the future prosperity of China will be dependent on the forces of grassroots entrepreneurship. This means that, for the future prosperity of China, it is vital to have more and more cases like Alibaba. "If Alibaba can prosper by unleashing grassroots entrepreneurship, so can the nation," is an excellent, and in my opinion accurate quote. Ying has many years of experience as a Chinese scholar excelling in the field of US academia and supporting the research of US small business administration. Ying combines his knowledge of the theory with field research through the networks of Tsinghua University and Alibaba. Ying forges a term called “Innopreteneurship”, which describes a hybrid grid, which transforms once improvised villages into entrepreneurial communities like the village of Taobao. This opinion of Lowrey’s is seconded by many experts in the field, including Edmund Phelps, who states Alibaba has displayed contagious and auspicious dynamism, and that is the future path of Chinese business in the world.
This is an excellent book for anyone seriously interested in the field of Chinese business. Entrepreneurs, students, even economists. To anyone who thinks about the way the structural shifts globalization has created a rift that China is beginning to cross. The book plays a lot of emphasis on small business, and how with a platform ecosystem like Alibaba, they can unleash their own creativity and propel their production into world-scale competitiveness. Alibaba creates a large platform for small business, which enables China to take an even stronger grip on the west.
