Conclusion: Whither Business and Management in South East Asia?

Abstract

In order to make sense of the diversity of business and management in South East Asia, we consider the notion of ‘divergence’ vis-á-vis ‘convergence’. We then go on to examine the four national exemplifications represented in this collection, namely studies set in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Finally, we look at the lessons to be learnt from the comparisons and contrasts drawn.

Keywords:

• Business
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Management
• Singapore
• Vietnam

Notes

¹ The notion suggested that economies that industrialize become similar in their characteristics to each other.

² The Overseas Chinese have often been accused of economic dominance in their communities and have been penalized for doing this, for example in Malaysia a policy of affirmative action was established to given the local Malays countervailing power.

³ See Warner et al. (2005), for a comparison between China and Vietnam.

⁴ Statistical data on all four countries is set out in Table II in the ‘Introduction’ to this collection.

⁵ At the time of writing, Vietnam was the country the most afflicted by cases of bird flu.

⁶ But most of the ‘external shocks’ in the region had also hit tourism detrimentally over the decade, not just health scares.