Chinese Family Businesses in Southeast Asia

Autorentext

Lee Kean Yew, Ph.D., is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Chinese Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. He received his Ph.D. from the Asia-Europe Institute with a specialization in Economics and Administration studies at the Universiti Malaya. His research interests span Chinese businesses in Southeast Asia, Malaysian Chinese society, and the cultural innovation of the Malaysian Chinese community. He currently forms a research team exploring cultural innovation of Chinese family businesses in Southeast Asia. His recent publications include Chinese Family Businesses in Malaysia: Fostering Tacit Knowledge Innovation (Routledge, 2025) and the article "From China to fostering rooting innovation in Nanyang: three generations of Malaysian Chinese family businesses in food manufacturing" (2023) published in The European Journal of Social Science Research.

Klappentext

Connecting family business research with Southeast Asian studies, history, sociology and Chinese diaspora studies, this volume demonstrates how Chinese family firms respond to generational transition and changing business environments.

Showcasing country-based studies covering Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, the book examines critical dimensions that affect the relationship between family businesses and their environments, presenting a richly textured account of adaptation. The book focuses on succession and inheritance, professionalization and managerial effectiveness, political-business relationships, the construction of social capital, and the mechanisms of innovation and knowledge transfer. By addressing these themes, it provides a nuanced understanding of how institutional factors shape the strategies and outcomes of Chinese family businesses.

The book will benefit scholars and postgraduate students working in Asian studies, Chinese studies, and business studies, as well as family business practitioners, business historians and those interested in understanding Chinese entrepreneurship and Southeast Asia*.*

Inhalt

1. Generational Transition of Chinese Family Business in Thailand: A Case Study of Central Group

2. Professionalising Tacit Knowledge through the Art of War in Chinese Family Businesses: Evidence from Rubber SMEs in Malaysia

3. Multiple Embeddedness and the Transformation of Singapore Hokkien Family Business: The Case of Teckwah Group

4. Nurturing Succession in Chinese Indonesian Family SMEs

5. Resilience Process in Chinese Family Firms in Brunei Darussalam

6. From Ethnic Capital to Corporate Governance: The Generational Evolution of Guanxi and Xinyong in Chinese Filipino Business

7. Predominance: A World-Systems Analysis of Sino-Khmer Networks and Chinese Hegemony in Cambodia

8. Legacy of Myanmar Chinese Family Business: Yangon, Penang, and Singapore

9. The Business Culture of the Vietnamese Chinese

10. Afterword