Failures and Strategies of Hong Kong Firms in China: An Ethnographic Perspective

There has been a great deal of scholarly and journalistic interest in the remarkable accomplishments of business firms controlled by ethnic Chinese outside the People’s Republic of China, and the distinctive organizational and strategic features of these firms in comparison to Western enterprises. A central narrative theme in these accounts revolves around ‘success’, both for individual firms and for the societies where these firms are concentrated (Cumings, 1993; Dirlik, 1997; Nonini and Ong, 1997). While some analysts have discussed whether the features that have served small and medium enterprises well will undermine their viability once they become large corporations (Redding, 1990), in general there has been very little study of occasions when ethnic Chinese firms have not achieved success or have completely failed. Is there something to be learned from the failures that inevitably beset firms run by Chinese entrepreneurs, just like any others? This chapter begins an exploration of the experience, discourse and implications of failure for an understanding of the nature of ethnic Chinese-operated businesses.