[2] .... The notion that, in certain circumstances, networks represent a competitive alternative to integration is an important conclusion for business historians and marks a departure from both Williamson [O.E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies; Analysis and Anti-Trust Implications (New York, 1975); idem, 'The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes', Journal of Economic Literature, vol.19 (1981), pp.1537-68; idem, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism (New York, 1988)] and Chandler [A.D. Chandler, Jr. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of Business Enterprise (Cambridge, MA, 1962); idem, The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in America (Cambridge, MA, 1977); idem, Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge, MA, 1977)] . ... The view that networks are little more than an intermediate form of organisation has left Chandler and Williamson open to criticism of concentration on the Western -if not American- economic system. In East Asian economies, however, it is impossible to separate the family firm from its networks. In societies like Taiwan and Hong Kong networks are so