ABSTRACT

In the recent past, studies on entrepreneurship in Asia emphasised the individual background of the businessmen concerned. This was often based on the notion that industrialisation in Europe was mainly achieved by self-made men, whose entrepreneurial behaviour was supported by specific religious and cultural values. Entrepreneurs in Asia, on the other hand, were generally thought to be culturally more inclined to operate along collective forms of business organisation. The predominance of joint-family enterprises in India and of business networks among Chinese entrepreneurs in East and Southeast Asia were held responsible for the lack of economic development in Asia because they hindered Asian entrepreneurs to become large-scale productive industrialists who are able to compete with their Western counterparts.