Asia-pacific Business Series – serie

Guanxi (interpersonal relationship) is one of the major dynamics of Chinese society. It has been a pervasive part of the Chinese business world for the last few centuries. It binds literally millions of Chinese firms into a social and business web. It is widely recognized to be a key determinant of business performance, because the life-blood of the macro economy and micro business conduct in the society is the guanxi network. Any business in this society, including local firms as well as foreign investors and marketers, inevitably faces guanxi dynamics. No company can go far unless it has extensive guanxi in this setting. In China's new, fast-paced business environment, guanxi has been more entrenched than ever, heavily influencing Chinese social behavior and business practice.Despite the current academic and practical interest in guanxi, there is no book-length treatment systematically and vigorously exploring the concept and practice from the business perspective. This book fills that gap by exploring the various social economic cultural, and business issues relating to the complex concept and practice of guanxi.

Latest Edition: From Adam Smith to Michael Porter: Evolution of Competitiveness Theory (Extended Edition)Traditionally, a nation's international competitiveness has been explained by international trade theories originating from Adam Smith. However, today's global economy is too complicated to be explained by the traditional trade theories. Recently, Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School introduced a new competitiveness theory, the so-called diamond model. He differentiated his theory from the traditional trade theories by arguing that national prosperity is not inherited, but created by choices; in other words, national wealth is not set by factor endowments, but created by strategic choices. He showed different choices of creating wealth, which had been quite limited in the world of traditional trade theories. His diamond model has lately been extended by several scholars. This book highlights Porter's achievement by comparing it with those of traditional trade theorists and presents new developments of competitiveness theory. By discussing the “before” and “after” of Porter's theory, the authors provide the reader with a holistic picture of competitiveness theory.

Latest Edition: From Adam Smith to Michael Porter: Evolution of Competitiveness Theory (Extended Edition)Traditionally, a nation's international competitiveness has been explained by international trade theories originating from Adam Smith. However, today's global economy is too complicated to be explained by the traditional trade theories. Recently, Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School introduced a new competitiveness theory, the so-called diamond model. He differentiated his theory from the traditional trade theories by arguing that national prosperity is not inherited, but created by choices; in other words, national wealth is not set by factor endowments, but created by strategic choices. He showed different choices of creating wealth, which had been quite limited in the world of traditional trade theories. His diamond model has lately been extended by several scholars. This book highlights Porter's achievement by comparing it with those of traditional trade theorists and presents new developments of competitiveness theory. By discussing the “before” and “after” of Porter's theory, the authors provide the reader with a holistic picture of competitiveness theory.

Interpersonal relationship (guanxi) is one of the major dynamics of Chinese society. Guanxi has been a pervasive part of the Chinese business world for the last few centuries. It binds literally millions of Chinese firms into a social and business web. In China's new, fast-paced business environment, guanxi has become more entrenched than ever, heavily influencing Chinese political landscapes, social behavior, and business practice.This book delineates social and cultural principles and philosophies underlying guanxi dynamics, along with guanxi's social norms that have been long embedded in the Chinese society. Although guanxi is embedded in almost every part of social life in China, companies demonstrate different needs and capacity toward guanxi cultivation. Chinese firms develop guanxi as a strategic mechanism to overcome competitive and resource disadvantages by cooperating and exchanging favors with government authorities and other stakeholders. This book presents an integrative framework about guanxi development according to institutional, strategic, and organizational factors. It further articulates how foreign firms adaptively develop their own legitimate and effective guanxi in China's highly dynamic and complex environment.Guanxi is really dynamic that its practices have been constantly changing and its normative and cognitive legitimacy is shifting as the social and economic structures in the society are drastically transforming. For this reason, this third edition of the book has added numerous new and emergent issues such as moral degradation and guanxi, qualitative and quantitative review of guanxi studies, and guanxi ties between organizations.

In order to sustain their ventures in the Indian market, businesses developed an ecosystem to promote their current and future business. Over time, more and more small business owners emerged and organised their own settings to sustain business activities.Contemporary times challenge emerging economies — like India — to adopt entrepreneurship in order to boost its economy. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the preferred way of addressing these challenges; however, the ecosystem required to promote these MSMEs poses significant challenges and requires change to be sustainable.This book examines original case studies, quantitative studies and qualitative research highlighting the organisation of new business, reflecting a wide range of sectors across India. The book offers new insights to budding entrepreneurs to help organise new and established firms to infuse entrepreneurial intentions among the workforce.

The cooperative movement has played a vital role in economic development around the world. Cooperatives also contribute to the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They generate revenue for economic growth, support the development of communities and local culture and help protect the environment. Cooperatives in Asia have been leaders in their approaches with comprehensive and supportive policies. Across Asia, there are unique models of cooperatives — some of which can be replicated internationally. They utilise collectivisation as an economic model with the cooperation of their populations. Cooperatives from Bangladesh, India, Israel, Japan, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates are also well-known for their proactive approach to sustainability.This book seeks to document the governance, leadership and sustainable best practices of cooperatives, to pave the way for the development of cooperatives internationally, utilising the sustainable cooperatives of Asia as examples. Addressing the current gap in research about cooperatives, the chapters showcase lessons for the cooperative world in its movement towards sustainability through the examination of original case studies, as well as quantitative studies. The volume offers new insights to researchers and policymakers to understand the ecosystem surrounding cooperatives and actions to take to work towards their strengthening and welfare.

Over the years, India has emerged as the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world, earning itself the reputation of being the emerging land for delivering unicorns. It has become one of the most attractive regions in the world for initiating and scaling up new business ideas. Many venture capitalists have invested in India's start-up ecosystem, and the government has also launched a variety of schemes to promote this growth. Indian organisations have become more competitive, making their global presence felt and expanding their reach into new industries and sectors.What factors have been pivotal for the growth of Indian start-ups? How did the Indian ecosystem evolve to fuel this growth? Is the role of leadership in start-ups more crucial than in other organisations?This book, through its diverse range of chapters, not only provides answers to the above questions, but also makes sincere efforts to highlight the innovative potential that start-ups carry and the leadership that is required to sail them through global competition. The book also provides an insight on the race of unicorns and how Indian start-ups have been extremely successful in bagging this coveted title. This edited book is a must-read for budding entrepreneurs and researchers who aim to understand and conduct research on Indian start-ups and their ecosystem support.

Straddling North Africa and Western Asia, the Middle East has been a cradle of civilisation and entrepreneurship — well before the arrival of Islam. In this region, gender roles were traditionally specified by culture, with women often expected to stay within the family environment, while men would trade in society at large. This book contributes to the literature on a highly neglected field of study: women entrepreneurs in the Middle East. Recognising that entrepreneurship does not take place in a vacuum, it focuses on contexts, and the ecosystems of this region with largely patriarchal societies, that are influenced by culture, religion, and colonial experience.This book provides readers with a topical analysis of women entrepreneurs in the Middle East on the context, ecosystems, and future perspectives for the region. Authors have presented the reality of 11 countries from the region based on women entrepreneurs' historical backgrounds, challenges, and achievements, as well as the contribution towards economic development in their local/immediate communities and the Middle East at large. Following the country analysis by the authors of each chapter, the editors provide a general assessment of the future of women entrepreneurs in the region by focusing on the current entrepreneurship policy and strategies of various countries in the region. This volume will be an essential reading for anyone researching or working on projects related to women's entrepreneurship and small businesses in the Middle East.

Research has shown that the pandemic has had a profound impact on the dimensions of environmental uncertainty. With the advent of technology, marketing and advertising have undergone constant development and refinement in order to adapt to the growing needs of buyers and investors alike. This book aims to provide a comprehensive review of strategic management and cultural intelligence, in relation to the measurement of financial information quality in recent times. It illustrates how marketing and advertising have changed from conventional to digital marketing, discussing the latest technological features, in addition to the variety of benefits that existing and emerging immersive technologies can bring to retailers and consumers.The study of the transformation of a market-oriented economy is crucial to a successful transition, along with the advancements in exchange efficiency and effectiveness. The book also covers cultural intelligence and financial literacy among in terms of spending, saving, borrowing, and investment in Vietnam.

In this landmark book, Leo Dana makes it clear that entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon, but much can be learned about the nature of entrepreneurial activity when we delve into the unique characteristics of different regions of the world.The profound differences both among and within the countries of Asia become vividly apparent in the pages of this book. Dana juxtaposes the explosion in entrepreneurial growth within China against the struggles to build an entrepreneurial community in Japan, or the enlightened public policy leadership in Singapore against the crisis-driven developments in Korea.The range of factors identified within each of the 15 countries examined by Dana are not random influences on the entrepreneurial process, they can be construed in more systematic and logical ways. Thus, the book uncovers the Chinese model of gradual transition, the Royal Cambodian model, the Doi-Moi model, and others. The reader is challenged to grasp these different models, and identify their commonalities and differences.

To truly understand the current interest in the development of Islamic banking and finance in South-East Asia and how it is different from the conventional banking system, one must first understand the religious relationship originating from the Qur'an, and then trace the historical geographic and political developments of Islam over recent centuries. Only on this basis can the reader, without prejudice or cynicism, begin to appreciate Shari'ah law and Islamic jurisprudence. With this platform established in the first part of the book, readers are invited to learn about the financial products and services offered, understand the challenges in their development, and ultimately recognize the significant opportunities that Islamic banking and finance can provide both Muslims and non-Muslims.This second edition contains updates of statistics and dates with regards to the development of Islamic banking in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei. In particular, the chapter on Singapore details significant developments such as the direction which major banks are taking towards Islamic banking and the increase in Islamic banking products being offered.Although written by a non-Muslim author, this highly-regarded book is being translated into Arabic by a leading Islamic university in the Middle East.

Guanxi or interpersonal relationships is one of the major dynamics of Chinese society. A pervasive part of the Chinese business world for the last few centuries, it binds literally millions of Chinese firms into a social and business web. Any business in this society, including local firms and foreign investors and marketers, inevitably faces guanxi dynamics. In China's new, fast-paced business environment, guanxi has been more entrenched than ever, heavily influencing Chinese social behavior and business practice. However, as in other emerging economies, corruption in China is becoming more rampant, which makes guanxi and corruption often intermingled. As such, business executives need to place greater caution today in the practice and process of guanxi development and utilization.Due to the growing academic and practical interest in guanxi, this second edition provides a timely update to the systematic and vigorous exploration of the various social, economic, cultural, and business issues relating to the complex concept and practice of guanxi.

In this landmark book, Leo Dana makes it clear that entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon, but much can be learned about the nature of entrepreneurial activity when we delve into the unique characteristics of different regions of the world.The profound differences both among and within the countries of Asia become vividly apparent in the pages of this book. Dana juxtaposes the explosion in entrepreneurial growth within China against the struggles to build an entrepreneurial community in Japan, or the enlightened public policy leadership in Singapore against the crisis-driven developments in Korea.The range of factors identified within each of the 15 countries examined by Dana are not random influences on the entrepreneurial process, they can be construed in more systematic and logical ways. Thus, the book uncovers the Chinese model of gradual transition, the Royal Cambodian model, the Doi-Moi model, and others. The reader is challenged to grasp these different models, and identify their commonalities and differences.

This book serves as a textbook for courses on Asian studies with a focus on ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs and business management in Asia. It provides a comprehensive Asian perspective on the organizational peculiarities and changing business practices of ethnic Chinese businesses and their leaders who continue to form the backbone of Asia's dynamic economies. The book features selected chapters written by reputable scholars on Chinese business, covering diverse and yet closely related topics such as the role of ethnic identity, trust, guanxi, Chineseness, leadership, change management, learning and knowledge management in organizations owned and managed by ethnic Chinese.

Islamic Banking and Finance in South-East Asia by Angelo M Venardos has been a “must read” since its first edition in 2005 and has already been translated to Arabic.Now in its 3rd edition, the book offers important updates you can look forward to, starting with the foundations of Islamic banking, developments and issues. The reader is then treated to a timely survey of Islamic banking in five South-east Asian countries. Most of these chapters have been completely revamped from the last edition. One additional chapter has been added on Islamic Succession Planning, which introduces an increasingly essential aspect of Muslim life — that of managing one's wealth now and in the afterlife.Whether you are new to the topic or a practitioner in the industry, you will appreciate the accessible way in which the book is written. According to the Asian Journal of Comparative Law, the book gives a broad overview yet “manages to achieve this in a rather slim volume while providing depth of analysis at the same time”.

With Foreword by Michael PorterFollowing the success of the First Edition published in 2000, this extended edition of From Adam Smith to Michael Porter: Evolution of Competitiveness Theory provides a thorough explanation of the evolution of international competitiveness theories and their economic and strategic implications. The theories range from classical theories such as Adam Smith's theory of absolute advantage, to new theories such as Michael Porter's diamond model. Professor Cho and Professor Moon have updated their research with their latest theoretical advancements, such as the double-diamond-based nine factor model, and MASI (Measure, Analyze, Stimulate, and Implement) model.This newly revised volume is suitable for International Economics, Business Strategy, and International Business courses on both the graduate and upper-division undergraduate levels. Policy makers and corporate managers will also find useful implications from this book's systematic integration and application of important competitiveness models.

With Foreword by Michael PorterFollowing the success of the First Edition published in 2000, this extended edition of From Adam Smith to Michael Porter: Evolution of Competitiveness Theory provides a thorough explanation of the evolution of international competitiveness theories and their economic and strategic implications. The theories range from classical theories such as Adam Smith's theory of absolute advantage, to new theories such as Michael Porter's diamond model. Professor Cho and Professor Moon have updated their research with their latest theoretical advancements, such as the double-diamond-based nine factor model, and MASI (Measure, Analyze, Stimulate, and Implement) model.This newly revised volume is suitable for International Economics, Business Strategy, and International Business courses on both the graduate and upper-division undergraduate levels. Policy makers and corporate managers will also find useful implications from this book's systematic integration and application of important competitiveness models.

This book serves as a textbook for courses on Asian studies with a focus on ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs and business management in Asia. It provides a comprehensive Asian perspective on the organizational peculiarities and changing business practices of ethnic Chinese businesses and their leaders who continue to form the backbone of Asia's dynamic economies. The book features selected chapters written by reputable scholars on Chinese business, covering diverse and yet closely related topics such as the role of ethnic identity, trust, guanxi, Chineseness, leadership, change management, learning and knowledge management in organizations owned and managed by ethnic Chinese.

In this book, Leo-Paul Dana makes it clear that much can be learnt about the nature of entrepreneurial activity when we delve into the unique characteristics of different nations of South Asia, South-east Asia and East Asia. Through in-depth analyses and comprehensive reviews of many Asian countries, the profound differences both among and within countries of the region become vividly apparent. Dana juxtaposes the explosion in entrepreneurial growth within China against the struggles to build an entrepreneurial community in Japan, or the enlightened public policy leadership in Singapore against the crisis-driven developments in Korea. The range of factors identified within each of the 15 countries examined by Dana is not an example of random influences on the entrepreneurial process, because they can be construed in more systematic and logical ways. Thus, the book uncovers the Chinese model of gradual transition, the Royal Cambodian model, and the Doi-Moi model, among many others. The reader is challenged to grasp these different models, and identify their commonalities and differences.