Managing in ethnic Chinese communities: Culture, institutions, and context

In this Special Issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Management on Managing in Ethnic Chinese Communities, we seek to shed light on the complex and dynamic relationships existing in many ethnic Chinese businesses around the world. This is an exciting time to study ethnic Chinese business. Ethnic Chinese business used to mean Overseas Chinese firms, that is, enterprises run by Chinese business people based outside of Mainland China. That definition is no longer sufficient: successful ethnic Chinese businesses exist and are thriving all around Asia and increasingly, elsewhere (Ahlstrom & Wang, 2010; Pan, 1990; Zeng & Williamson, 2007). In particular, the rise of East Asian economies from Mainland China, Taiwan, to Southeast Asia has encouraged much study of how these economies (and their firms) grew so briskly while inspiring a model for economies in the developing world (Berger & Hsiao, 1988; Carney, Gedajlovic, & Yang, 2009; Fallows, 1995; Ramo, 2004; Seagrave, 1995). Asia Pac J Manag (2010) 27:341–354 DOI 10.1007/s10490-010-9218-4