Strategic management in private and family businesses

Abstract

This Special Issue, taking five years to come to fruition, presents the latest researchon strategic management in private and family businesses in Asia Pacific regions.Asia Pacific societies have a long history of private and family businesses. Forexample, a Chinese classic, Records of the Grand Historian (known by its Chinesename Shiji, which was written from 109 BC to 91 BC), includes a chapter,“Biographies of Usurers” (Huozhi liezhuan), which describes private business peoplesuch as merchants and handcraftsmen over 2,000 years ago. During China’s QingDynasty (1644 to 1912), Chinese money merchants, who usually received in-vestments from family members, already established subsidiaries in Japan. InIndia, Tata Group, established in 1860, is regarded as the number one familybusiness in terms of size and scope. In Japan, a majority of large corporationstoday, such as Toyota and Suzuki, were actually developed from traditionalfamily businesses.There are some distinctions between private and family businesses. However,many people may think of these types of organizations as synonymous, since suchorganizations could be new ventures, small and medium-sized enterprises, and/orlarge corporations. “Private business” covers a wide range of enterprises that are