Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown - Chinese Business Enterprise in Asia

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS IN ASIA

Volume 7

CHINESE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE IN ASIA

First published in 1995 by Routledge

This edition first published in 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

1995 Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-48274-6 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42825-8 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-36768-5 (Volume 7) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42951-4 (Volume 7) (ebk)

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

1995 Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown

Typeset in Times by LaserScript, Mitcham, Surrey

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Mackays of Chatham PLC, Chatham, Kent

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Brown, Rajeswary Ampalavanar, 1943-

Chinese business enterprise in Asia/ Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown. p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. China - Foreign economic relations - Asia. 2. Asia - Foreign economic relations - China. 3. International business enterprises - China. 4. Business enterprises - Social aspects - China. 5. Family-owned business enterprises -China. 6. Industrial management - China. I. Title.

HF1604.Z4A7813 1995

337.5105-dc20

94-33826

CIP

ISBNCM15-11487-X

This volume is the result of a workshop held at SO AS in March 1993 on Chinese business houses in Asia since 1870. It attracted scholars from Japan, Hong Kong, South East Asia, Europe and the USA. We then invited Andrea McElderry, Robert Gardella and Okke Braadbaart to contribute chapters and are grateful for their co-operation. The workshop and the publication of this volume were made possible by generous grants from the British Academy (South East Asia Committee), the Sino-British Friendship Trust and the SOAS Research and Publications Committee. This help is enormously appreciated. I would also like to thank Ms Irene Cummings and Dr Ian Brown for organising this workshop. Mrs Catherine Lawrence prepared the maps in this book. My greatest debt is to Ms Kirsty Orchard, who rescued the manuscript in a period of crisis and prepared it for publication. My husband and sons also made it possible for me to finish this volume despite all odds.

Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown,
Hitchin, June 1994

Note on transliteration: The pinyin system has been used in this volume to achieve uniformity in the transcription of Chinese sounds into alphabetic writing. In spite of that, some proper names, such as Wing On and Taipei, might still create some confusion among readers.

Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown

It is well established that the Chinese have held a powerful economic position in South East Asia and the Pacific Rim countries since the mid-nineteenth century. Much of the existing literature has emphasised Chinese ethnicity and culture as powerful determinants of this entrepreneurial success. This body of research identified family, dialect and the Confucian value systems as peculiarly suited for business. But what is frequently ignored is the relationship between culture and environment, and how the institutions themselves are embedded not only in culture but also in history and economics. Thus a culturally induced propensity for business may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition of business success; ethnic resources could provide a competitive edge but structural and institutional factors are equally important. This volume is therefore intended as a further contribution to the critique of ahistorical assumptions about Chinese business development in Asia as well as attempting to impose a rigorous institutional model of analysis on the subject.

This emphasis on institutions has three main foci. First, how far Chinese family and networks assisted in reducing transaction costs and substituted for deficiencies in capital resources and industrial innovation and technology. Second, how far did these institutions of family, lineage and networks affect Chinese entrepreneurs in achieving greater efficiency or productivity when compared to either native or Western firms? Third, how successful were these institutions in breaching national sovereignty, as well as state restrictive policies, through alliances with both ethnic and international trading and financial networks?

The hypotheses thereby generated would be useful in explaining the rise, functioning and growth of Chinese business in the dramatic restructuring of the newly industrialising countries (NICs) in the post-1950 years. Were Western, Korean and Taiwanese direct investments vital in reshaping these historical Chinese trading networks into dynamic third world multinationals? The informal business networks of the Chinese also meant foreign firms faced institutional constraints in Asia while similar barriers were encountered by local non-Chinese entrepreneurs who had to overcome the substantial presence of Nanyang Chinese businessmen to succeed, in spite of government intervention on their behalf. This emphasis on institutions thus disturbs the statists school of R. Robison, A. Macintyre and K. Yoshihara, who perceived links of Chinese business to the state as critical to the debate on Chinese business in South East Asia.