(Re)creating the comfort zone: From common ethnicity towards commonwealth: The transnationalisation process of Malaysian Chinese small and medium enterprises

East Asia

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 195-211

  Zwart, Esther ^a  

^a THE HAGUE UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Business development; Chinese Malaysian SMEs; Ethnic identity; Malaysia; Transnationalism

Indexed keywords

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT; CULTURAL IDENTITY; ETHNIC GROUP; ETHNICITY; MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE; NATIONALISM; SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE;

ASIA; EURASIA; MALAYSIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 34548023077     PISSN: 10966838     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s12140-007-9014-z     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Terence Gomez and Michael Hsiao, eds., Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship (London: Routledge Curzon, 2004).
2. See for instance Charles Perrow, Complex Organizations. A Critical Essay (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986)
3. Joan Martin, Cultures in Organizations. Three Perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)
4. and J. Tennekes, Organisatiecultuur Een antropologische visie (Leuven: Garant, 1995).
5. J. Tennekes, Organisatiecultuur Een antropologische visie. (Leuven: Garant, 1995).
6. Translated by the author from Dutch: "Een organisatie is echter niet alleen een samenwerkingsverband, maar ook een samenlevingsverband, waarbinnen mensen een belangrijk deel van hun leven doorbrengen".
7. E.g. Joel Kotkin, Tribes. How Race, Religion, and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy (New York: Random House, 1993)
8. and John Naisbitt, Megatrends. Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives (New York: Warner, 1984), Re-inventing the Corporation. Transforming Your Job and Your Company for the New Information Society (New York: Warner, 1985) and Megatrends Asia. Eight Asian Megatrends That Are Reshaping Your World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
9. E.g. Gordon Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993)
10. and Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Random House, 1995).
11. Gordon Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993).
12. Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang, Gifts, Favors and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994).
13. See for instance Joel Kotkin, Tribes. How Race, Religion, and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy (New York: Random House, 1993)
14. John Naisbitt, Megatrends. Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives (New York: Warner, 1984), Re-inventing the Corporation. Transforming Your Job and Your Company for the New Information Society (New York: Warner, 1985) and Megatrends Asia. Eight Asian Megatrends That Are Reshaping Your World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996)
15. Gordon Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993)
16. and Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Random House, 1995).
17. Kian Woon Kwok, "Being Chinese in the Modern World," in Lynn Pan, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 125.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. As described by Manuel Castells, The Information Age I: The Rise of the Network Society. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996)
21. Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini, eds., Ungrounded Empires. The Cultural Polities of Modern Chinese Transnationalism (New York, London: Routledge, 1997)
22. and Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship. The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2000).
23. Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship. The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2000), 65.
24. Halleh Ghorashi, "How Dual Is Transnational Identity? A Debate on Dual Positioning of Diaspora Organizations," Culture and Organization 10:4 (2004), 329.
25. Steven Vertovec, "Transnationalism and Identity," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27:4 (2001), 573-582.
26. L.-Y. Chang and T. Tam, "The Making of Chinese Business Culture: Culture versus Organizational Imperatives," in Edmund Terence Gomez and Michael Hsiao, eds., Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism, and Identity (New York: Routledge, 2003), 33.
27. Gary Hamilton, "The Economic Organization of East Asian Capitalism," in M. Orrù, ed., The Economic Organization of East Asian Capitalism (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1997)
28. Gary Hamilton, ed., "Culture and Organization in Taiwan's Market Economy," in Robert Hefner, ed., Market Cultures. Society and Morality in the New Asian Capitalisms (Boston: Westview Press, 1998).
29. Gary Hamilton, "Culture and Organization in Taiwan's Market Economy," in Robert Hefner, ed., Market Cultures. Society and Morality in the New Asian Capitalisms (Boston: Westview Press, 1998), 12.
30. See Edmund Terence Gomez, Political Business in East Asia (London: Routledge, 2002).
31. Halleh Ghorashi, "How Dual Is Transnational Identity? A Debate on Dual Positioning of Diaspora Organizations," Culture and Organization 10:4 (2004), 330.
32. Ibid.
33. Yasmin Hussain, Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity (Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005), 5.
34. It will become clear from this paper that what people think is their way doing of business.
35. As described by Gordon Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993)
36. Gary Hamilton, ed., Asian Business Networks (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1996)
37. and Laurence Ma and Carolyn Cartier, eds., The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity (Lanham, Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003).
38. For a more elaborated description see Gordon Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993)
39. Constance Lever-Tracy, David Ip and Noel Tracy, The Chinese Diaspora and Mainland China. An Emerging Economic Synergy (Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 1996)
40. Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Random House, 1995)
41. Henry Yeung and Kris Olds, eds., The Globalization of Chinese Business Firms (London, New York: Pelgrave Macmillan, 2000).
42. 'Bumi status': Companies had to have a bumiputera director in the management. Bumiputera literally means 'sons of the soil' usually referring to the Muslim Malay inhabitants of Malaysia.
43. For many Chinese it is not possible to go to a universily in Malaysia because of a quota system favouring the Bumiputera.
44. This debate is thoroughly described by Ien Ang, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West (London: Routledge, 2001)
45. Laurence Ma and Carolyn Cartier, eds., The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity (Lanham, Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003)
46. and Steven Vertovec, "Transnationalism and Identity," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27:4 (2001), 573-582.
47. An association of nations consisting of the United Kingdom, its dependencies, and many former British colonies that are now sovereign states with a common allegiance to the British Crown, including Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia (http://www.answers.com/ topic/commonwealth-of-nations).
48. Before 1965 Singapore was a part of the Malaysian Federation, but the process of nation-building after independence did not work out as expected. The Chinese inhabitants felt like second-class citizens and considered their economic future uncertain. The situation became so insufferable that in August 1965 it was decided that ethnic-Chinese-dominated Singapore had to leave the Malaysian Federation.
49. See for instance Ien Ang, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West (London: Routledge, 2001)
50. Laurence Ma and Carolyn Cartier, eds., The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity (Lanham, Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003)
51. and Smadar Lavie and Ted Swedenburg, eds., Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996).
52. S.-L. Wong, "Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Trust," in Gary Hamilton, ed., Asian Business Networks (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996)
53. E. Chen and Gary Hamilton, "Introduction: Business Groups and Economic Development," in Gary Hamilton, ed., Asian Business Networks (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996)
54. H. Holbig, "Trust and Its Limitations: A Changing Discourse on Money during the People's Republic of China's Reform Period," in Chan Kwok Bun, ed., Chinese Business Networks. State, Economy and Culture (Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2000)
55. W.-P. Wu, "Transaction Cost, Cultural Values and Chinese Business Networks: An Integrated Approach," in Chan Kwok Bun, ed., Chinese Business Networks. State, Economy and Culture (Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2000).
56. Chan Kwok Bun, ed., Chinese Business Networks. State, Economy and Culture (Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2000), 9.
57. William A. Callahan, Diaspora, Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism: Overseas Chinese and Neo-Nationalism in China and Thailand (Southeast Asia Research Centre Working Papers Series, No. 35, 2001).
58. Gordon Redding, "Weak Organizations and Strong Linkages: Managerial Ideology and Chinese Family Business Networks", in Gary Hamilton, ed., Asian Business Networks (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996).
59. More about de-essentialising the cultural aspect can be found in Michael Jacobsen, De-linking the Chinese Diaspora. On Manadonese Chinese Entrepreneurship in North Sulawesi (Hong Kong: SEARCH, City University Hong Kong, Working Paper Series no. 60, 2004) and Cross-Border Communities and Deterritorialising Identities. Assessing the Diaspora Triangle: Migrant-Host-Home (Hong Kong: SEARCH, City University Hong Kong, Working Paper Series no. 19, 2002)
60. Edmund Terence Gomez, Chinese Business in Malaysia. Accumulation, Accommodation and Ascendence (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999)
61. and L.-Y. Chang and T. Tam, "The Making of Chinese Business Culture: Culture versus Organizational Imperatives," in Edmund Terence Gomez and Michael Hsiao, eds., Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism, and Identity (New York: Routledge, 2003).
62. As stated by Gordon Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993)
63. Constance Lever-Tracy, David Ip and Noel Tracy, The Chinese Diaspora and Mainland China. An Emerging Economic Synergy (Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 1996)
64. Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Random House, 1995)
65. and Henry Yeung and Kris Olds, eds., The Globalization of Chinese Business Firms (London, New York: Pelgrave Macmillan, 2000).
66. As stated by Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini, eds., Ungrounded Empires. The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism (New York, London: Routledge, 1997).
67. Halleh Ghorashi, "How Dual Is Transnational Identity? A Debate on Dual Positioning of Diaspora Organizations," Culture and Organization 10:4 (2004), 339.
68. Gregor Benton and Edmund Terence Gomez, Chinatown and Transnationalism. Ethnic Chinese in Europe and Southeast Asia (Canberra: Centre for the Study of the Chinese Southern Diaspora, 2001), 30.
69. Ibid.