Entrepreneurship, State–business Ties and Business Groups in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study analyses how domestic companies in Bangladesh emerged as major conglomerates, despite little help from a weak state that could hardly nurture its enterprises. Using a business history approach, this study traces the development of Bangladesh’s leading business groups. The history indicates that the entrepreneurial capacity and the creation of close ties with the State were the core factors that helped these business groups survive and grow in an economy led by a state that could do little to promote and offer policies that help in fostering the growth of domestic companies in an emerging economy.