Epilogue

Through its interdisciplinary contributions, this book, we hope, has advanced our understanding of the nature and processes of Chinese business firms that are venturing increasingly into the global economy. In particular, the book has shed theoretical light not only on the nature and social organization of Chinese family businesses, but also on the dynamic and institutional aspects of their globalization processes. We think these theoretical insights are important because so much of the previous research into Chinese business has focused too narrowly on their home-country operations. We hope future studies into the cross-border operations of Chinese business firms will apply and extend some of these theoretical insights. Though we do not intend to argue for an ethnocentric model to understand the globalization of Chinese business firms, we do advise future studies of these ethnic firms to take into account the peculiar historical and geographical contexts in which their globalization takes place. In addition, this book has brought together some very useful empirical studies of how globalizing Chinese business firms are managing their operations across borders. The chapters in Part 2 have identified various problems and strategies of Chinese business firms in their globalization drive. We hope their findings offer some important lessons for Chinese business entrepreneurs and managers, academic researchers and policy-makers in different institutions.