'Business Groups in East Asia' examines some East Asian business groups and their subsequent restructuring following the Asian Crisis of 1997. This crisis affected the inter-relationships among the socio-cultural environment, the state and the market of each country quite differently.

Business Networks in East Asian Capitalisms: Enduring Trends, Emerging Patterns builds on the foundational studies conducted in the 1990s by gathering contemporary empirical and theoretical chapters which explore these themes in a comparative perspective. The book includes contributions from authors working on the relationship between personal and business networks in countries including China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Authors emphasize enduring trends in social and business networks and/or track new emerging patterns, both within East Asian nations or between East Asia and other regions such as Europe, Africa, and the Americas. - Provides contemporary, up-to-date empirical material and theoretical interpretation, charting the influence of more recent globalizing trends and institutional change in the region - Includes studies of networks within PRC, between PRC and other regions, and in Chinese communities - Offers studies centered on Korean, Japanese, and South East Asian Networks - Includes a geographical scope that will be broader than other books, aiming to include studies of newly developing economies in South East Asia that share a common cultural heritage (e.g Vietnam)

The 1997 Asian Crisis principally affected Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Korea, as well as other East Asian countries heavily dependent on intra-regional trade. Banks and other financial institutions quickly become insolvent, and heavily indebted industrial firms went bankrupt. Many of these firms were affiliated with the business groups of this region, yet most groups did not immediately collapse, indeed they proved remarkably robust, some surviving and even prospering. This book examines these East Asian business groups and their subsequent restructuring following the Asian Crisis. East Asian nations embarked on very different trajectories to this common external shock. The Asian Crisis affected the inter-relationships among the socio-cultural environment, the state, and the market of each country quite differently and had distinct effects on the operations of these countries' business groups. This slow yet divergent pattern of development provides evidence against theories of rapid global convergence. Yet East Asian business groups face an uncertain future. Foreign investors' influence has increased substantially since the crisis, as East Asian governments had to accommodate their demands to keep attracting foreign capital. Governments supervise banks more closely and have loosened restrictions on mergers and hostile takeovers, further strengthening the discipline of the market. Various entry barriers that had inhibited foreign multinationals from competing in national markets were lifted, exposing business groups to intensified foreign competition. Under these new conditions, business groups in East Asia should reconfigure their business structures and adjust their corporate governance systems to regain momentum for further growth. Business groups will continue to be important vehicles for the sustained future growth of this region, and this book presents a substantial amount of new data on this, which will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced students of East Asian business, and business practitioners working within the region.

"East Asian Business in the New World" discusses how to conduct business in East Asia. The main objective of the book is to help American workers and American businesses gain competitive advantages in the global marketplace, in which the emerging Asian economies are rapidly becoming major players. The American economy appears to be on decline, especially relative to the rapidly rising economies such as China. To revitalize the American economy and those of the old world, we must pay close attention to the economies with which America competes. The objective of this book is two-fold: First, to focus opportunities and challenges of doing business in East Asia. The book will help readers understand Asian economies and business practices so that they can compete more successfully in Asia. Second, to discuss how the U.S. can learn from East Asia in revitalizing its own economy. This sets the book apart. It analyzes the social institutions in major Asian countries, including the political, economic, and cultural institutions, and compares them with the institutions in the U.S., identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. institutions, and providing strategic and policy recommendations that may help the U.S. economy and firms to compete in the global marketplace. Discuss how America and older economies can learn from AsiaProvides a theoretical framework of rule-based vs. relation-based governance to help readers understand the differences in doing business in Asia vs. doing business in mature economiesOffers business insights based on the author s business experience in AsiaApproaches the topic from a comparative perspective"

This book argues that the position is in fact much more complex, varying in the different countries of South-East Asia and changing over time. It presents empirical findings from various South-East Asian countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and Indonesia - and demonstrates that Chinese businessmen employ a variety of strategies in the networking, entrepreneurship and organisational and form development.

In this major contribution to comparative-international business Richard Whitley compares and contrasts the dominant characteristics of firms and markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, relating these to their particular social, political and economic contexts. At the level of the firm he looks at such areas as management styles and structures, decision-making processes, owner-employee relations, and patterns of company growth and development. He also discusses market development, customer, supplier and inter-firm relations, and the roles of the financial sectors and the state in market and industry development. The book also examines the ways in which key social institutions in each country have affected the evolution of business. Finally, the author makes a comparison of East Asian business systems with dominant Western practices.

Following in the tradition of generations of expatriate Chinese merchants, they began establishing small family businesses. Today, the authors show, these have expanded into conglomerate business empires. Entrusting corporate divisions almost exclusively to relatives, and dealing extensively with fellow expatriates, these entrepreneurs have formed close-knit and formidable business spheres throughout Southeast Asia - a "bamboo network."