Fiona Case - Soho

The mid-1980 witnessed the advent of personal computer and fax machine as well as overt breaking through in telecommunications, which permitted the decentralization of office workers. In many foreign countries, the term SOHO, namely the small office home office working style, has been heading to be full-fledged penetrating the business circle since then. In the following paragraphs, the popularization of SOHO both in China and many other developed countries will be outlined at first. Then the beneficiaries and deficiencies which have triggered hot disputes will by further explored. In the end, will emerge the reason why this topic is selected and the gap between the previous study and this dissertation.

SOHO, a new model of operation management, deriving from the developed countries like US and Britain, wins popularities and blazes new trails in recent decades. As McKenzie described in his article "Last year, according to an International Data Corporation study, people in nearly 37 million U.S. households used a home office for telecommuting, working at part-time or second jobs, or running businesses.", it can be inferred that the SOHO term is quite familiar to developed countries. (McKenzie, 2011)[1] Simultaneously, it has also cut a figure in China, especially coastal metropolis, namely Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. In addition, this management model has been successively renovated, redefined and enriched. Initially, SOHO was tailored for designers, painters, free-lance journalists and writers. Subsequently, as it is explored by Barbagallo, "The SOHO market is ripe for a variety of offers such as insurance, postal services, printers, publications, business credit cards and lines of credit, merchant account services, high speed Internet services, computers, telecommunications, security, accounting services, and office supply catalog", SOHO is far beyond working in small office or home office.( Barbagallo, 2003 )[2]

Accordingly, many deliberations pertain to this new model emerge concerning the merits and beneficiaries of this model. Wan Xi once articulated that SOHO is bound to be widely adopted thanks to the development of science and technology as well as the process of urbanization elongating the distance between residential areas and working places. (Wan, n.a.)[3] Bestowed with competitive edges, SOHO model fascinated the employers and contribute to higher profits in all circles. It can be validated by Collins remarks, "Currently, 15 million small businesses are active in the US, if a small business is defined as an enterprise with one to 500 employees. Almost 80% of small companies and self-run businesses enjoyed the same or higher profits in 2002, even though just under half noticed a slowdown in their business sector." (Barbagallo,2003).

Besides, with respect of the corporate management, SOHO also triggered boiling discussion upon its flaws, the risks brought about and requirement