my article: THE PROSPECT OF FAMILISM IN THE GLOBAL ERA

Abstract

The ethnic-Chinese business is often characterised by a central role of the family both in the structure of the firm and in its corporate culture. This has political as well as cultural reasons. The centrality of the family in business has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it enables a fast, efficient and flexible process of decision making. On the other hand, it often contradicts modern business professionalism. The younger generation of ethnic-Chinese business actors tend to preserve crucial elements of such family-centred characteristics. Yet, globalisation and changes in local political and social contexts drive them to transform their business style, lessening its dependence on family resources and adopting more modern professional ideas. As such, the present ethnic-Chinese family business is unique in the sense that it responds to the challenge of globalisation in a different way not only from the Western model but also from the conventional ethnic-Chinese one.

Complete text: Journal of Business Ethics, 2008, 79:311-317
(DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9399-z)