Beschreibung
The study aims at finding an explanation to the economic
development of Southeast Asia. To achieve this end,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines have been
chosen as the foci of the study.
To explain the region’s recent success, the study is guided
by the hypothesis that overseas Chinese entrepreneurship,
exercised by a group belonging to a discriminated ethnic
minority, is an indispensable component of the capitalist
development of Southeast Asia.
Overseas Chinese businesses dominate nearly all branches of
the economy of their respective countries of residence. On a
regional scale, they are acknowledged to control two-thirds
of the region’s retail trade.
The hypothesis of the study is validated by the empirical
findings. Furthermore, the study has arrived at the
conclusion that Southeast Asia is host to a type of
entrepreneurship – Overseas Chinese entrepreneurship –
that
evolved and developed throughout the centuries and proven
for its resiliency and risk-taking abilities. It did not
create the boom in the region, however. Liberal government
policies, the inflow of huge foreign capital, and the
availability of cheap and skilled labor among the indigenous
population are among the more crucial factors that
facilitated this transformation.
