Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Economic Success of Chinese Merchants in Southeast Asia

Identity, Ethnic Cooperation and Conflict

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Janet Tai Landa

    1. Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers a unique, transdisciplinary theoretical perspective of Overseas Chinese merchants’ success

  • Presents empirical ethnographic data not available elsewhere in the literature

  • Will be especially relevant to scholars doing research on merchant networks in China

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-2
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Introduction

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 3-41

  3. Empirical Studies of Chinese Mutual Aid (Pang 帮) and Economic Organizations in Singapore and Malaysia

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Chinese Mutual Aid (PANG 帮) and Economic Organizations: General Background

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 45-66

    3. Marketing of Pontian Smallholders’ Rubber: Mutual Aid Arrangements Among Hokkien Dealers

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 67-101

  4. The Ethnically Homogeneous Middleman Group and the Chinese Family Firm: Theoretical Approaches

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Coasean Foundations of a Unified Theory of Western and Chinese Contractual Practices and Economic Organizations

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 105-120

    3. A Theory of the Ethnically Homogeneous Middleman Group: An Institutional Alternative to Contract Law

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 121-136

    4. The Economics of Symbols, Clan Names, and Religion

      • Jack L. Carr, Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 137-161

    5. Personal versus Impersonal Trade: The Size of Trading Groups and Contract Law

      • Robert Cooter, Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 163-172

    6. Cognitive and Classificatory Foundations of Trust and Informal Institutions: A New and Expanded Theory of Ethnic Trading Networks

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 173-189

    7. The Role of Culture and Institutions in Promoting Middleman-Entrepreneurship in Less-Developed Economies

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 191-213

    8. The Co-evolution of Markets, Entrepreneurship, Laws, and Institutions in China’s Economy in Transition: A New Institutional Economics Perspective

      • Janet Tai Landa
      Pages 215-247

    9. The Socio-Economic Functions of Kinship and Ethnic Ties in the Establishment and Growth of the Tan Kah Kee Family Firm in Singapore: A Transaction Costs Approach

      • Janet Tai Landa, Janet W. Salaff
      Pages 249-276

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 355-371
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book provides an original analysis of the economic success of Overseas Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia: The ethnically homogeneous group of Chinese middlemen is an informal, low-cost organization for the provision of club goods, e.g. contract enforcement, that are essential to merchants’ success. The author’s theory - and various extensions, with emphasis on kinship and other trust relationships - draws on economics and the other social sciences, and beyond to evolutionary biology. Empirical material from her fieldwork forms the basis for developing her unique, integrative and transdisciplinary theoretical framework, with important policy implications for understanding ethnic conflict in multiethnic societies where minority groups dominate merchant roles.

Reviews

“This book, examining Bangladeshi labour migration to Singapore, contributes significantly to our understanding of the growing phenomenon of migration within Asia. … In this book, author Mizanur Rahman departs from the economic narrative that is dominant in the migration literature to explain the drivers of Bangladeshi migration and instead relies on social and cultural explanations in his analysis. The strength of this book is that it is based on extensive fieldwork by the author, conducted over close to two decades.” (Mathew Mathews, Journal of Contemporary Asia, April, 2018)​

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada

    Janet Tai Landa

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Economic Success of Chinese Merchants in Southeast Asia

  • Book Subtitle: Identity, Ethnic Cooperation and Conflict

  • Authors: Janet Tai Landa

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54019-6

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-54018-9Published: 15 December 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-662-56864-4Published: 05 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-54019-6Published: 30 November 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVI, 371

  • Number of Illustrations: 37 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Regional/Spatial Science

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation