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Article
Managing Change in Asian Business: A Comparison between Chinese Educated and English Educated Chinese Entrepreneurs in Singapore
Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
  • Thomas MENKHOFF, Singapore Management University
  • Ulrike Badibanga
  • Yue Wah CHAY, Singapore Management University
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
1-2007
Abstract

Against the background of the current rapidly changing business environment, the article examines the organizational change management behaviour of the owner-managers of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore. The analysis of survey data is aimed at ascertaining whether there are any differences between Chinese and English educated small (ethnic Chinese) businessmen in terms of Change Management (CM), a dichotomy that is of great historical and politico-cultural significance in Singapore. The survey data show that there are indeed differences between the subgroups (eg with regard to the initiation of a more participatory people management style) but these variations turned out to be far less pronounced than expected. Access to information and actionable managerial knowledge appears to be a key precursor to the various change management approaches used by both groups. Chinese educated businessmen in particular seem to be somewhat disadvantaged in this respect, as modern change management literature is still largely only published in English.

Keywords
  • Ethnic Chinese,
  • small and medium-sized enterprises (SME),
  • Singapore,
  • organizational change management
Identifier
10.22439/cjas.v25i0.1429
Publisher
Copenhagen Business School
Copyright Owner and License
Publisher
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.22439/cjas.v25i0.1429
Citation Information
Thomas MENKHOFF, Ulrike Badibanga and Yue Wah CHAY. "Managing Change in Asian Business: A Comparison between Chinese Educated and English Educated Chinese Entrepreneurs in Singapore" Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 25 (2007) p. 50 - 73 ISSN: 1395-4199
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/thomas_menkhoff/15/