Chinese Family Firms in Indonesia and the Question of 'Confucian Corporatism'

Abstract

This paper applies differing models of culture and law to analyse the notion that Confucian culture is an independent variable in the operation of East Asian corporate law. Its case study is Chinese family firms in Indonesia. The study is apt because these firms dominate the private commercial sector. They display many of the characteristics of "Confucian corporatism" – including strong family and group affiliation, highly diversified and networked conglomerates, and paternalistic and secretive styles of corporate management. Yet, they are subject to a Western-style company law which spectacularly failed to maintain, let alone improve, corporate governance in the run up to the economic crisis in late 1997.