Rethinking Chinese transnational enterprises : cultural affinity, networks, and family control

Affinity to the Chinese culture, personalized social networks and a firm control of ownership and management have often been considered the key ingredients for the success of many diaspora Chinese transnational enterprises in South China and Southeast Asia.

In view of the recent Asian crisis and the rapid changes imposed by globalization, scholars are increasingly concerned whether these family-owned Chinese transnational enterprises would survive the challenges in the new millennium.

Bringing together a group of scholars and researchers from different fields and disciplines, this volume documents and dissects the dynamics of Chinese transnational enterprises throughout the 20th and into the 21st century.

The book begins by clarifying and highlighting the concepts, theories and work in progress that are currently being contested in the discourse on Chinese transnational enterprises. A wide variety of case studies follows, illustrating how Chinese entrepreneurs and their businesses have used their business ties and networks to organise their capital and labour to create new business opportunities, and to restructure their enterprises to adapt to and overcome grave economic and socio-political conditions.

Specifically, contributors examine the recent transformation of Chinese transnational enterprises in terms of business structures, modes of operation, style of management and crisis management strategies in the face of increasing internationalization and globalization.

The extension of western enterprise into China in the shape of joint ventures is also scrutinised.