Table Of ContentGLOBALIZATION OF CHINESE BUSINESS FIRMS
Globalization of
Chinese Business Firms
Edited by
Henry Wai-chung Yeung
and
Kris Olds
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40349-3 ISBN 978-0-230-59992-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230599925
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-22805-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Globalization of Chinese business firms / [edited by] Henry Wai-chung
Yeung and Kris Olds.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-22805-7 (cloth)
1. Corporations, Chinese. 2. International business enterprises–
–China. 3. Family-owned business enterprises—China. 4. China–
–Foreign economic relations. I. Yeung, Henry Wai-Chung. II. Olds,
Kris, 1961– .
HD2910.G56 1999
338.8'8951—dc21 99–39487
CIP
Selection, editorial matter and Chapters 1 and 12 ©Henry Wai-chung Yeung and
Kris Olds 2000
Individual chapters (in order) ©Gordon Redding; Gary G. Hamilton; Henry Wai-chung
Yeung; Hong Lui; Haiyan Zhang and Daniel Van Den Bulcke; Siu-lun Wong; Yu Zhou;
Katharyne Mitchell and Kris Olds; Chia-Zhi Tan and Henry Wai-chung Yeung; Alan Smart
and Josephine Smart 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-71629-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on the Contributors xi
1 Globalizing Chinese Business Firms: Where are
They Coming From, Where are They Heading? 1
Henry Wai-chung Yeung and Kris Olds
PART 1 GLOBALIZATION OF CHINESE BUSINESS:
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
2 What is Chinese about Chinese Family Business?
and How Much is Family and How Much is Business? 31
Gordon Redding
3 Reciprocity and Control: The Organization of
Chinese Family-Owned Conglomerates 55
Gary G. Hamilton
4 The Dynamics of the Globalization of
Chinese Business Firms 75
Henry Wai-chung Yeung
5 Globalization, Institutionalization and the Social
Foundation of Chinese Business Networks 105
Hong Liu
6 Internationalization of Ethnic Chinese-Owned
Enterprises: A Network Approach 126
Haiyan Zhang and Daniel Van Den Bulcke
PART 2 MANAGING CHINESE BUSINESS ACROSS
BORDERS
7 Transplanting Enterprises in Hong Kong 153
Siu-lun Wong
v
vi Contents
8 Bridging the Continents: the Roles of Los Angeles Chinese
Producer Services in the Globalization of Chinese Business 167
Yu Zhou
9 Chinese Business Networks and the Globalization
of Property Markets in the Pacific Rim 195
Katharyne Mitchell and Kris Olds
10 The Internationalization of Singaporean Firms into China:
Entry Modes and Investment Strategies 220
Chia-Zhi Tan and Henry Wai-chung Yeung
11 Failures and Strategies of Hong Kong Firms in China:
An Ethnographic Perspective 244
Alan Smart and Josephine Smart
PART 3 IMPLICATIONS
12 Epilogue 275
Henry Wai-chung Yeung and Kris Olds
Bibliography 279
Name Index 309
Subject Index 316
List of Tables
1.1 Leading Chinese business firms among the top 50 TNCs
from emerging markets, ranked by foreign assets, 1995 3
1.2 Major ethnic Chinese transnational corporations from
East and Southeast Asia 4
1.3 Distribution of ethnic Chinese outside China 7
1.4 Ethnic Chinese in East and Southeast Asia, 1995
1.5 Financial statistics of the 500 largest public companies in
Asia controlled by ethnic Chinese, 1994 7
1.6 Multi-disciplinary research into
‘overseas Chinese’ business 8
4.1 Sources of foreign capital in China, 1979–93 91
4.2 Listed members of the Charoen Pokphand
Group, Thailand 93
4.3 World-class hotels owned and controlled by
Chinese business firms from Hong Kong 94
4.4 Characteristics of Chinese business firms in
their globalization process 98
8.1 Chinese occupational patterns in Los Angeles County 172
8.2 Chinese-owned financial institutions headquartered
in Los Angeles County 184
10.1 Estimated overseas Chinese population of
Hainan origin, by country 223
10.2 Singapore’s contracted FDI value and number
of projects approved in Hainan (in US$million) 224
10.3 Hainan’s realized foreign investment from
Asian countries (in US$million) 224
10.4 Investment strategies of Singaporean firms in Hainan 236
11.1 Provincial distribution of foreign capital in PRC (1996) 246
vii
List of Figures
1.1 World map 6
2.1 Business dealings between the major ethnic
Chinese in Asia, 1990–4 39
4.1 A network spectrum of different forms of
organizing international production 97
6.1 Impact of networks on the internationalization of the firm 132
6.2 Investment scenarios of Chinese-owned multinational
enterprises from a network perspective 140
9.1 Pacific Place on the former Expo ’86 site
(North Shore/False Creek) 208
10.1 Location of Singaporean investments in China 228
10.2 Modes of entry of Singaporean investments in Hainan 230
10.3 Hainan Zilong Group Co. 231
11.1 Number of failures per 10 000 firms in
Hong Kong, 1981–92 253
viii
Acknowledgements
This collection originates out of cross-border collaborative research
into Chinese business firms and their global operations that has been
under way since 1992, though the book itself has more recent origins.
We first contacted almost all of our authors in April 1996 to discuss the
possibility of contributing to this volume, and they have all since been
very supportive of the project. One of the difficulties we faced was the
geographical spread of the two editors and the contributors, and we did
not have the good fortune to host a conference through which papers
could be collated for publication. However, everyone eventually sub-
mitted quality chapters, and we hope all have forgiven us for the con-
stant e-mail messages we sent. In short, we are extremely thankful to
our contributors for their kind agreement to participate in this venture.
Macmillan has been a wonderful firm to work with, being both support-
ive and patient with our slow progress through the production process.
The production process was slowed down by Kris Olds’ two overseas moves,
in 1996 and 1997, and the review process we instituted. We adopted a
double review process in which we invited one of the contributors to
evaluate anonymously another manuscript submission. In some cases
when the subject area did not fit, we had to turn to an external reviewer
for constructive comments and suggestions. Both of us also went through
each submission and offered critical feedback. These comments and
suggestions were then consolidated and given back to the contributors
for possible revisions of their chapters. The revised chapters were fur-
ther edited by us to ensure consistency of format, usage of terms and
cross-referencing. We hope our contributors will not find their chapters
appear too different from their original manuscripts.
At the National University of Singapore (NUS), we would like to thank
the Department of Geography and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
for the research and administrative support that has made our editorial
task more tolerable. In particular, we wish to acknowledge the exem-
plary editorial support provided by Elen Sia, whose employment was
funded by the NUS via an ongoing research project – RP970013: ‘Sin-
gapore’s Global Reach’. Kris Olds would also like to acknowledge sup-
port via the Vancouver Centre for the Study of Immigration and the
Metropolis <http://www.riim.metropolis.net/>, which is funded by the
Government of Canada. Of course, we bear the usual responsibility for
any editorial mistakes and errors. Henry Yeung also wants to thank his
ix
