Entrepreneurial Leadership in Ethnic Chinese Business (MGMT304): Home

Since the mid-1980s intra-regional trade and investment links in East and Southeast Asia have expanded rapidly with the shift of production by firms from Japan and newly industrializing countries to lower-cost, neighboring countries. Ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia are actively involved in these massive transformation and integration processes. The course will scrutinize their role as well as some of the (culturally biased) misperceptions about their business leadership conduct. The degree, to which their extensive business networks succeed because of ethnic characteristics, or simply because of the sound application of good business practice, is a key issue that will be discussed throughout the course. Based on various corporate case studies and a multi-disciplinary explanatory framework, we will assess the role, characteristics and challenges of Chinese entrepreneurial leadership and business networks in the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in an era of global market expansion.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Explain what makes ethnic Chinese business in Asia tick;
• Appreciate both structure and functions of Chinese business organizations, networks and their global reach;
• Challenge some of the culturally biased misperceptions about the business conduct of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurial leaders in Asia such as their homogeneity, tribal image and socio-economic exclusivity;
• Critically discuss the challenges, which the rapidly progressing integration of East and Southeast Asia’s market cultures into the global market system pose, for ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs, their family businesses, conglomerates and network ties.