Southeast Asian capitalism: History,institutions, states,and firms

This paper examines the structures of capitalism in Southeast Asia. Following the lead of Gordon Redding and others, it argues that parallel to varieties of capitalism elsewhere, there are distinctive features to the Southeast Asian business system, but that institutions play a relatively large role compared to firm specific resources or industry structures. Historically, with the exception of Thailand all the countries in the region are former colonies. All including Thailand share a distinctive style of nationalism, and partly as a result of this, all are governed by states that claim to be strong and lay wide claims but whose capacities are low. Typical features of the region, particularly the roles of large business groups and the Chinese minority, also can be interpreted as a result of this history. One of the outcomes of the analysis is an extension of the varieties of capitalism approach along the dimensions of state capacity and state direction, and of the approach to the internationalizing firm along the dimensions of dynamic capacity and control of subsidiaries. A further outcome is a questioning of the traditional picture of indigenous Southeast Asian business people as lacking in entrepreneurial skills, or more broadly of Southeast Asian nations as lacking in entrepreneurial values. Rather, the past history of these countries has resulted in a set of structures that militate against successful entrepreneurial activity.

Frank B. TiptonEmail:

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Frank B. (Ben) Tipton   (AB, Standford University and PhD, Harvard University) was educated at Stanford and Harvard, where he studied under economic historian David Landes and Nobel laureate economist Simon Kuznets. He holds a Personal Chair in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney, where he has taught since 1979. For many years the Head of the Department of Economic History, in 2004 he became Chair of the newly created Discipline of International Business. His most recent books are A History of Modern Germany since 1815 (London and Berkeley: Continuum and University of California Press, 2003) and Asian Firms: History, Institutions, and Management (London: Edward Elgar, 2007). His research concentrates on the role of culture in international business and on the intersection of public and private structures of governance, particularly in East and Southeast Asia.