ABSTRACT
Chinese family firms and far-flung, much elaborated business networks have demonstrated increased capacity and growing determination to wield their economic clout, and, on occasion, political influence around the globe. Wellington Chan focuses on Western views of the family firm, and he, too, argues against a deterministic approach that fails to appreciate the changing cultural and institutional contexts of Chinese family firms. Madeleine Zelin shows the consistencies and inconsistencies in Chinese Marxist approaches to business history mirror the checkered course of Communist Party dogma and policies. Albert Feuerwerker interprets Chinese business history and suggests some continuities in three historical periods dating from around 1600 to the present. China scholars in the West have naturally been influenced by models of Western business development. Feuerwerker contends that business in China still operates without a truly unified and effective polity, as China has yet to develop the basic political and values systems appropriate to its ongoing revival as a great civilization.
