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The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative review and analysis of peer‐reviewed journal articles on overseas Chinese family businesses.

Journal articles were selected from relevant sources and broadly analyzed by research area, type of research (theoretical or empirical), geographical coverage, and method (quantitative or qualitative). The main themes of changes and continuity were identified and summarized.

The literature suggests that overseas Chinese family firms around the diaspora are beginning to differ from one nation to another. At the same time, the literature suggests the continuity of the challenge of the forces of globalization on overseas Chinese family firms and the need for these firms to learn to adapt and compete.

The findings suggest that future research would need to pay more attention to differences between overseas Chinese family businesses from one country to another.

This paper provides a novel comparative analytical review and summary of the literature on overseas Chinese family businesses in peer‐reviewed journals. It is useful for scholars who are new to the area.

The family business is one of the business entities that contribute to the economy of a country. Succession in the family business occupies a strategic position, especially in maintaining the company’s sustainability. The Chinese family business has unique characteristics in maintaining and growing its business with the cultural values that underlie how their business. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the cultural values of Chinese ethnic and their implications in the succession process in small family businesses in Bandung, Indonesia.

This research uses a qualitative method with the in-depth interview method as a data collection technique. The sampling technique uses purposive sampling, while to test the validity of research data using a triangulation technique. A total of four small Chinese-owned family businesses participated as informants in this study. The study will identify the stage of succession process in the Chinese family business.

There are several stages identified in the succession planning of small Chinese-owned family business in Bandung which include succession antecedents, succession activities and desired outcomes. The results showed that small Chinese-owned family business in Bandung has not applied the rules and procedures in the succession process. Most of the Chinese family business in this research still holds Confucianism culture; they prioritize boys as business successors, who have a greater responsibility rather than successor with other gender.

Several implications are discussed. One of them is the Chinese family business holding cultural values in the process of family business succession.

This research is expected to provide theoretical and practical implications for academics and family companies with similar cases.

This explorative paper considers the recent developments in the emerging small family business sector in post‐reform China as the country embraces socio‐economic and structural transition from a centrally planned to a market‐orientated system. The important contributions that Chinese small family firms play in the acceleration of private sector development across the social and industrial sectors as well as the geographic boundaries of the Pacific Rim are highlighted. The authors propose typologies of Chinese entrepreneurship and tentative enterprise policy recommendations for the future development of small private family businesses in China.

This paper aims to explore and explain how predecessors (incumbents) of ethnic Chinese family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia or appropriately called Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs nurture their successors in procuring transgenerational entrepreneurship.

A total of 25 participants were involved in this qualitative study which employed a multi-method triangulation design with the following research instruments: semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts, incumbents and successors of Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs, field notes from conversations and observations during engagement with participants affiliated to the family SMEs, a focus group discussion with academicians and literature reviews. Another key approach is source triangulation, where different participants – e.g. from among the experts, from among the incumbents, successors and family members in each family business case were interviewed and engaged outside the interview sessions.

The proposed theoretical framework depicts comprehensive attributes of nurturing Chinese-Indonesian successors to continue enterprising at the helm of family SMEs. Propositions are used to explain the impacts these attributes have on transgenerational entrepreneurship specifically. At the personal level, incumbents have to focus on discovering the successors’ passions and nurture them in formal education, childhood involvement, as well as bridging them in entrepreneurial knowledge through cultural values, mentorship, autonomy and role modelling. Incumbents also had to plan for their retirements to provide autonomy for successors. At the firm/family level, incumbents must be able to set a foothold on family governance, firm governance and ownership distribution to reduce conflicts in their family businesses. Furthermore, as a minority group with past traumatic experiences, Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs usually equip themselves with contingency plans to protect their assets for the long-term future.

This study was conducted in Indonesia amongst Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs and thus it is not generalisable in other settings. Literature reviews on family SMEs succession are still scant, especially on the Chinese-Indonesian.

Predecessors/incumbents of Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs could consider implementing the proposed nurturing strategies to their successors to sustain the longevity of the business based on trust, stewardship and harmony. The theoretical research framework resulted from this study offers general suggestions on how to nurture the next generation specifically from personal/interpersonal perspectives, which must be accompanied by specific scopes of family and firm aspects. This study extends beyond indicating the factors (ingredients) by explaining how to nurture transgenerational entrepreneurship (cook the ingredients) in SMEs for a tactful transition. Hence, the incumbents play vital roles and must be poised to adjust their mindsets to certain aspects indicated in this study.

Most overseas Chinese businesses are family-owned, and besides Indonesia constituting the largest Chinese population outside the Republic of China, this 3 per cent of Indonesia’s people are known for controlling about 70 per cent of the economy. Furthermore, SMEs play a significant role in the Indonesian economy, as they provide about 97 per cent off the country’s employment and 57.8 per cent of the gross domestic product. Hence, the longevity of Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs must be well managed to bolster the economy and social welfare of the country.

A transgenerational entrepreneurship model in the context of Chinese-Indonesian family SMEs which incorporates the nurturing process of the successor to step up the helm of the business is proposed in the study.

Utilises recent advances in the evolutionary theories of the firm to analyse the competitive strategies of small Chinese family firms in Asian latecomer economies such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Nangyang. Begins with an examination of the distinctive features of a Chinese family firm. Argues that the unique features of these establishments form firms’ resource bases and contribute to their competitive advantages. The two notable competitive advantages are: the capability to maintain a high degree of flexibility; and reducing transaction costs. These arguments are analysed from two aspects: first, the organisational structure and internal communication methods (internal capabilities), and second, the subcontracting networks (external capabilities). Furthermore, given the organisational structure and the resource bases, most Chinese family firms choose not to upgrade their technological bases within global competition. Rather, they tend to pursue guerrilla entrepreneurship, imitative follower‐my‐leader and specialise in international co‐ordination. These strategies enable them to compete and survive in the world market.

Much of the extant literature on the Chinese Family Firm highlights the unique cultural heritage and social context in which they are embedded as primary determinants of their strategic behavior. In contrast, few studies have examined the strategic behavior of Chinese Family Firms from an economic perspective. In this paper, we address this gap in the literature by applying Dunning's eclectic theory of the MNE to the Chinese Family Firm. In doing so, we generate a series of testable propositions. We suggest that although the strategic behavior of Chinese Family Firms will differ significantly from those of classic Western MNEs, they are nonetheless amenable to interpretation according to Dunning's analytical constructs of ownership (O), internalization (I) and locational (L) advantages. More specifically, we find that like the classic Western MNE, the Chinese Family Firm can be understood as a viable mechanism for capitalizing on particular configurations of OLI advantages in international markets.

This paper aims to examine the UK’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) policies under Margaret Thatcher’s era in the 1980s, with a view to understand the success stories, historical development and the structures of Chinese family business through a case study of See Woo Holdings Ltd.

The authors have achieved the objective on the study of the SMEs policies under Margaret Thatcher through critical evaluation of the historical literatures, books, journals and newspapers. The study on overseas Chinese business and the case of See Woo Holdings Ltd. is mainly through the research of the Chinese overseas in the UK and Southeast Asia, and the companies report from the Companies House in the UK. The authors have used the latest 2011 UK Census statistics and academic reports to locate the most current demographic changes and Chinese business characteristics in the UK and the Northeast of England.

First, the UK’s SMEs policies under Margaret Thatcher were quite receptive towards the ethnic business. Second, the case of See Woo Holdings Ltd. indicates that family business networks are still one of the characteristics of Chinese business. Finally, the broader UK’s SMEs policies play an important role in this case study.

The authors provide a tentative linkage between the UK’s SMEs policies under Margaret Thatcher and Chinese family business. In addition, the case study of See Woo Holdings Ltd. improves the current understanding of Chinese family business with a clearer picture about their structure, practice, characteristics and development.

With features of both “family” and “business,” family businesses must seek a balance between the emotional aspect of “family” and the economic aspect of “business” in its organizational and decision-making processes to ensure the sustainability of the family’s entrepreneurship. This study aims to focus on how internal institutional complexity combined evolves alongside the growth of the family business.

The research looks, from the perspective of institutional logic, into the Charoen Pokphand Group, which is an epitome of overseas Chinese family businesses and proceeds to build a model of family business growth in the context of institutional complexity.

The research finds that as a family business grows, institutional complexity inside the organization would change from aligned period to sustaining period and then to dominant period. Then further elucidates the process of proactive response in different stages of the development of a family business. Attaching equal importance to the cultivation of entrepreneurship and to the continuation of family values and culture is the crucial mechanism by which Chinese family businesses seek a balance between family logic and business logic.

This paper unveils the change of institutional complexity in the evolution of family businesses and the process of action of its agency as an organization, and simultaneously partly reveals the features of entrepreneurship that overseas Chinese family businesses have as they grew, which is of positive significance for exploring and building a path of growth unique to Chinese family businesses.

To date, research on migration and entrepreneurship has rarely focused expat-preneurs. Based on recent developments in both fields, this paper aims to investigate the under-researched phenomenon of Chinese self-initiated expatriates who choose to temporarily live and do business abroad on their own volition.

To address this research gap, 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Chinese expat-preneurs living in Portugal were conducted, exposing their narratives about their multiple challenges.

The findings corroborate the theoretical need to look beyond narrow economic explanations for why individuals engage in transnational entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial itinerancy. A collective identity and ethnic community are important because they influence how opportunities are identified and pursued.

This is a qualitative and interpretative study in a limited geographical area, which does not intent to ensure generalizability. More research is needed to further understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurial itinerancy in Europe and among other ethnic communities.

The findings provide insightful inputs to Portuguese policymakers and locals on how to support ethnic entrepreneurship. Chinese expat-preneurs also benefit from understanding how to strength their ethnic social ties in connection with local communities.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship and international mobility literatures by providing new insights into the nature and dynamics of Chinese “expat-preneurs”, including their entrepreneurial itinerancy, necessary to properly understand entrepreneurs’ diversity and assist in extending transnational entrepreneurial theory.

According to the real environment of China, the authors collect micro data about Chinese family firms (FFs) to explain why some Chinese FFs still tend to introduce external managers though they have to face governance conflict between family-based managers and external managers.

This study analyzes the effect of governance conflict between family-based managers and external managers on firm performance by using ordinary least square test, which is also used to test which factor has influence on governance conflict’s profit promotion effect.

This study finds that governance conflict significantly improves firm performance (profit promotion effect). The governance conflict caused by the introduction of external managers in Chinese FFs can significantly improve a firm’s performance by raising its management efficiency and capital investment.

The governance conflict of the family business needs to be further refined in following research. Besides, this study is only based on the empirical study of cross-section data.

Different from the existing related research is mainly based on the sample data of listed family enterprises, the China employer-employee matched survey data includes a large number of small and medium-sized FFs, and has obtained the actual situation of how many of the middle and senior managers are external not family members.