Dynamics of Family Business: The Chinese Way

Much of the prevailing literature today and even the learned perception of many academic researchers claim that Chinese family businesses face growth restrictions that stem from cultural characteristics, preventing them from developing into full-fledged multinational enterprises. If this view is correct, it is particularly disturbing for Singapore, where public policy is directed at developing local enterprises, which are dominated by Chinese family businesses, into large and successful international corporations in Asia and the rest of the world.

This book presents an in-depth study of five Chinese family businesses in Singapore that have overcome supposedly culturally inherent restrictions to growth and have successfully made the intergenerational transitions. They have also grown in size across family generations to become business empires in the Asia Pacific and the West. The analysis of the success factors of these five successful Chinese family businesses includes an examination of cultural and institutional factors, and importantly, the entrepreneurial role of the family business leaders. The success of these five outstanding entrepreneurially oriented Chinese family businesses and the profile of their family business leaders are templates for other Chinese family business leaders and potentially future large and successful Chinese family businesses to follow.

KEY FEATURES
(1) Breaks the long-held misconception of Western researchers that Chinese family businesses cannot develop into full-fledged multinationals.
(2) Detailed case studies of Chinese family businesses across various industries and at different stages of succession by succeeding generations of the family.
(3) Features Singapore s successful companies, such as Hong Leong Group Singapore, Eu Yang Sang International Limited, The Hour Glass Limited, Popular Holdings Limited, and Qian Hu Corporation Limited.

FOCK Siew Tong is the Associate Dean (External Relations) and an Associate Professor of Banking & Finance at the Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Outside of Nanyang Business School, Professor Fock is well sought after for consultative training in corporate lending and private banking. He has provided consultative training for various leading financial institutions in Asia and consulted for entrepreneurs involved in large Chinese family conglomerates in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining NTU, his background included twenty years of corporate banking experience, having served as Vice President and Chief Executive Officer in both the Singapore and New York offices of leading North American banks. He obtained his PhD from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and received his MSc (Management) from the National University of Singapore. Both his Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honors) degree in Sociology and Bachelor of Arts degree are from the University of Singapore.