Shock-imprinting: External shocks and ethnic Chinese business groups in Indonesia

This paper examines the effect of external shocks on corporate strategy of ethnic Chinese business groups in the context of Indonesia. It reports on an in-depth, longitudinal, and comparative case study of four prominent Indonesian Chinese groups, all of which implemented major strategic changes in response to the Asian financial crisis. As theories emphasizing strategic continuity and strategic adaptation are only partially able to explain the results, an alternative explanation is offered. Results are generalized towards a novel notion of “shock-imprinting” which implies that companies continue to employ defensive strategies after an external shock has subsided.