GSB 723 Asian Business Management
This unit is concerned with management and business issues, specifically in East Asia. Economic growth in East Asia in recent decades is receiving a great deal of attention from both academics and the business community. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong (which reverted to China in July 1997), and China are amongst the most dynamic economies in the world, despite the crisis of 1997 and the stagnation of Japan for much of the 1990s.
This unit examines modern Asian business structures and management practices. Historical, cultural, political and economic factors are fundamental determinants of the character of any society—and business people need to understand this context. This unit emphasises the historical evolution of Asian business: cultural influences and business networks; technological innovation; services of finance and entrepreneurship; and the relations between business, the state and financial institutions.
Please note that this unit does not provide a comprehensive examination of management in the international environment, nor of the various managerial techniques available from both Western and Eastern cultures. (These are covered in GSB 726 International Business, and GSB 691 Management of International Organisations.) Instead, this unit’s focus is specifically on the social, cultural, economic and political environments in which business operates in East Asia—and on what these environments imply for conducting negotiations for joint ventures, for organising finance and, generally, for working within the institutional environments of these countries.
The unit is taught through a detailed examination of business in particular countries, using case studies of individual enterprises. The principal countries covered are Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, while the case studies of particular businesses include the Mitsubishi Corporation, the Wing On Company, the China Merchants’ Company, the Hong Kong Bank, the Liem Group, the Khaw mining group and the Bangkok Bank.
This unit has three principal objectives:
- It introduces you to the field of international business strategy and management practices in Asia, and it develops an analytical institutional framework from which to work for a company’s market-entry strategy into an Asian market.
- It helps you apply this analytical framework to explore business activities in the Asian region from the perspective of the firm, and from this perspective to examine how some major firms have evolved, thus gaining an insight into the requirements for successful performance within these major firms.
- It equips you with the basic skills which will enable you to conduct business in the Asian region.
- The work load in this unit is comparable to that in other MBA units.