Ethnic Chinese Entrepreneurship in Malaysia ─ On Contextualisation in International Business Studies

"The study of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia has a long tradition, and what is most striking in these studies is just how difficult it is to generalise about this ethnic group in the region. Whether or not they have been able to identify as Chinese hasdepended on different processes social and political engineering, which in turn make them more or less distinct ethnic group. In the case of Malaysia, national schemes such as the affirmative action policy indirectly force the Malaysian ethnic Chinese toconceive of themselves as a coherent collective, and yet, Chinese entrepreneurs maintain that despite the affirmative action policy ethnicity is not the defining factor when it comes to identifying business partners. This book focuses on the consequencesof these kinds of policies in the field of inter-ethnic business practices and entrepreneurship in Malaysia within the wider context of the relationship between local, national and global markets. It focuses on the complexities of inter-ethnic relations and in particular, the strong economic position of the ethnic Chinese and their impact on the Malaysian economic scene as well as on the wider Southeast Asian region, underlining the degree to which inter-ethnic relations in Southeast Asia are crucial to understanding the political and economic complexities characteristic of the region. In turn, it takes small and medium-sized enterprises as case studies, and shows how they are being shaped and in return shape the society in which they constitute a part. In doing so, the book highlights how these companies not only relate to the domestic economy, but also cater to the global economy, and presents a compelling argument for the introduction of a glocalised perspective in international business studies"--

Michael Jacobsen is Associate Professor in the Department of International Economics and Management at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark