Chinese Business in East Asia, 1850-1950

Many people in business studies argue that Chinese business is often successful because of special Chinese cultural characteristics, which aid business success, characteristics such as family networks, "guanxi" capitalism, and, more recently, Confucian ethics. This book discusses the factors which make for successful Chinese business by charting over a long period the rise of an important family business – the Chen family business, Kin Tye Long, one of the most important family businesses in South China – and in East Asia more widely – over the course of the twentieth century. The book, based on extensive original research, provides exceptionally rich detail on how Chinese business works in practice. One particularly interesting conclusion is that the effective use of family and other networks is not a natural approach, but rather a consciously chosen strategy, albeit a strategy which can take advantage of Chinese cultural characteristics.