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The Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Academic Year 2021/22
Term 1

MGMT332 APPROACHING ASIAN BUSINESS THROUGH CLASSICS

Instructor Name: Dr. Tan Wee Liang
Title: Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Tel: 6828 0157
Email: wltan@smu.edu.sg
Telegram: @DrTanWeeLiang
Office: LKCSB #5029

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course focuses on world-changing ideas that have shaped the business world and the thinking of people in East
and Southeast Asia. It analyzes the relevance and impact of selected readings in history and philosophy on economic,
social and cultural changes in East and Southeast Asia. It will examine issues including state and corporate
governance, work and organizations, gender, inequality and religious beliefs, and evaluate the trade-offs Asian
societies make between individual liberty, national progress, regional imperatives and global capitalism.

Please note that this is a 300 level course: 300 level courses are more advanced courses that require students to
be demonstrating coherence and breadth or depth of knowledge and skills. They are usually taken by more senior
students.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students will develop
• A deeper appreciation of the enduring influence of ideas drawn from selected texts on business, history
and philosophy, and how they have shaped individual and national challenges in Asia.
• An ability to understand their lives as students and their role as citizens in Asia from a wider and a longer-
term perspective.

PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)

Please refer to the Course Catalogue on OASIS for the most updated list of pre-requisites / co-requisites for this
particular course.
Do note that if this course has a co-requisite, it means that the course has to be taken together with another course.
Dropping one course during BOSS bidding would result in both courses being dropped at the same time.

ASSESSMENT METHODS
Students will be assessed through a combination of group projects, team presentations and individual contributions:
(1) Group Project 25%
(2) Team Presentation 15%
(3) Class Participation 20%
(4) Reflection Essay 40%

(1) Group Project (25%)

Students will produce a group/video presentation that demonstrates their grasp of ideas and concepts explored in
required readings.

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(2) Team Presentation (15%)

Every week students will participate in discussion of readings or a film.

(3) Class Participation (20%)

Individual class participation in class activities and discussions will be assessed.

(4) Reflection Essay (40%)

Students will write an essay on an Asian theme that reflects their experiences and course readings. Their essay
should be less than 2,000 words. Students may choose also to produce a video to illustrate their take on issues
discussed in class.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND EXPECTATIONS

Focus of Class
This course will allow students to examine diverse perspectives on the role of the individual and business in Asian
societies. Close reading of excerpts of texts will form the focus of this class. The professor will give an overview
of the materials at the outset of each class placing them in the context of other readings and the themes of the
course.

Expectation
Students will be assessed on the quality of their argument and contributions to class discussions. To support these
discussions, students will

• Complete the reading required each week.

• Take an active part in class discussions
• Make presentations on topics and projects

Consultation
Consultation with the professor is by appointment.

Readings and Films

Readings will be distributed electronically. Videos and documentaries shown will be from public websites.

RECOMMENDED TEXT AND READINGS

Hong Hai (2020). The Rule of Culture: Corporate and State Governance in China and East Asia.

UNIVERSITY POLICIES
Academic Integrity
All acts of academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, facilitation of acts of
academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of exam questions, or tampering with the academic work
of other students) are serious offences.

All work (whether oral or written) submitted for purposes of assessment must be the student’s own work.
Penalties for violation of the policy range from zero marks for the component assessment to expulsion, depending
on the nature of the offense.

When in doubt, students should consult the instructors of the course. Details on the SMU Code of Academic
Integrity may be accessed at https://oasis.smu.edu.sg/Pages/DOS-WKLSWC/UCSC.aspx.

Copyright Notice
Please note that all course materials are meant for personal use only, namely, for the purposes of teaching,
studying and research. You are strictly not permitted to make copies of or print additional copies or distribute
such copies of the course materials or any parts thereof, for commercial gain or exchange.

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For the full copyright notice, please visit: https://smu.sg/Copyright-notice or OASIS -> CAMPUS LIFE & EXCHANGE -
> CONDUCT & DISCIPLINE -> UNIVERSITY COUNCIL OF STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Accessibility
SMU strives to make learning experiences accessible for all. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic
barriers due to disability, please let me know immediately. You are also welcome to contact the university's
disability services team if you have questions or concerns about academic provisions: included@smu.edu.sg. Please
be aware that the accessible tables in our seminar room should remain available for students who require them.

Emergency Preparedness for Teaching and Learning (EPTL)

As part of emergency preparedness, instructors may conduct lessons online via either the Zoom or WebEx
platform during the term, to prepare students for online learning. During an actual emergency, students will be
notified to access the Zoom or WebEx platform for their online lessons. The class schedule will mirror the
current face-to-face class timetable unless otherwise stated.

WEEKLY TOPIC

WEEK TOPIC READINGS

Week 1 Introduction: Geography, Demography and Luck
Week 2 Theories and Business Knowledge
Week 3 Markets and States
Week 4 Work and Organizations
Week 5 Gender and Society
Week 6 Inequality and Morality
List Below
Week 7 Culture and Public Policy
Week 8 Break Week
Week 9 Identity and Adaptation
Week 10 Beliefs and Progress
Week 11 Corporate and State Governance (online week)
Week 12 & 13 Group Project Presentations

PRESCRIBED READINGS (AS OF MAY 2021)

Underlined Readings are links to web pages or pdf files.

Week 1
• Frank, 2016, Why Luck Matters More Than You Might Think
• Kahneman, (2011)Thinking Fast and Slow (pages 173-175, 200-202)

Week 2
• Adam Smith (1776, 1991) The Wealth of Nations, Book Five, pp 301-357.
• Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson (2013). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty,
pp.45-69, 428-462.
• Hong Hai (2020). The Rule of Culture: Corporate and State Governance in China and East Asia. Chapters 2
and 4.
• Bruton & Lau, 2008, The impact of national culture and economic ideology on managerial work values: a
study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China

Week 3
• Daron Acemoglu & James A Robinson (2019). The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies and the Fate of Liberty,
pp. 1-32, 201-236 and 464-496.
• Hong Hai (2020). The Rule of Culture: Corporate and State Governance in China and East Asia, chapter 8, pp.
112-121.
• Hong Hai (2020). Democratic Governance with Singaporean Characteristics, chapter 7, pp. 94-111.

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• Tan Kim Song and Manu Baskaran, “The Role of the State in Singapore: Pragmatism in Pursuit of Growth”,
in Linda Lim (ed.). Singapore’s Economic Development: Retrospection and Reflections, 2016, pp 51-82.
• Linda Y C Lim (2018) “Singapore’s Success: The Myth of the Free Market Economy”, Business, Government
and Labor: Essays on Economic Development in Singapore and Southeast Asia, pp. 3-16.
• Pang Eng Fong & Linda Lim, Political Economy of a City State (pdf to be provided, Singapore Business
1982)
• Gordon Redding, 2005, The thick description and comparison of societal systems of capitalism

Week 4
• Karl Marx,(2009) "The Fetishism Of Commodities And The Secret Thereof", Das Capital, Volume 1, Part
1, Chapter 1, Section 4.
• Weber, 2009, Bureaucracy
• Joshua B. Freeman (2018). Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World, ch. 7
(Foxconn City: Giant Factories in China and Vietnam), pp. 270-313.
• NPR, 2015,The Robots Are Coming For Your Jobs
• Smith & Anderson, 2014, Future of Jobs
• Rotman, 2015,Who will own the robots?
• Harari, 2017, "The meaning of life in a world without work."
• David A Ralston et al., 2007, The impact of national culture and economic ideology on managerial work
values: a study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China

Week 5
• Beauvoir, 1989, The Second Sex- Introduction
• Friedan, 2001,The Second Sex- Chapter 1 & relevant Excerpts
• National Geographic Issue on Women: A Century of Change, Nov (2019)
• Edge, 2005,The Science of Gender and Science: Pinker vs. Spelke, a Debate
• Burkeman, 2014, Implacable optimism: Steven Pinker on human nature, violence, feminism and religion
• Choi, 2019, Women’s political pathways in Southeast Asia
• Wright et al., 1995, The Gender Gap in Workplace Authority: A Cross-National Study.

Week 6
• Evans, 2013,Equality in hunter-gatherer societies
• Trump,(2013) Status Quo and Perceptions of Fairness
• The Economist, (2019), Economists are rethinking the numbers an inequality
• The Economist, (2019) Inequality could be lower than you think (inequality illusions)
• Collins, (2017),Agents of Inequality: How Wealth Managers to the Super-Rich Undermine Society and
What We Can Do About It
• Stiglitz, 2011, Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%.
• Slater, 2013,The Cost Of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All, Oxfam 2013
• Thomas Piketty, 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, chapters 9 & 10 (pp 314-376)
Classics 19-20 T2\Piketty ch 9 &10.pdf

Week 7
• To make the world richer, let people move – Migration The Magic of Migration (Economist, 14 Nov
2019)
• https://www.economist.com/printedition/specialreports (New Stripes, 7 Dec 2019)
• Frank Trentman, 2017. Empire of Things, ch 8: pp. 355-399.
• George S. Yip and Bruce McKern (2016). China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation,
chapter 8, pp. 221-253.

Week 9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_network
• Hong Hai (2019). “Relationship Networks in Chinese Business”, The Rule of Culture: Corporate and State
Governance in China and East Asia, chapter 3, pp. 31-43.
• Terence Gomez and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, 2004, Chinese Business in Southeast Asia : Contesting Cultural
Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship.

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• Joefe Santarita 2015, Migration and Business: a survey of Indian Communities in the Philippines by
• Xavier & Gomez, 2017, Ethnic Enterprises, Class Resources and Market Conditions: Indian owned SMEs
in Malaysia
• Markus & Kitayama, 1991, Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Week 10
• Steven Pinker (2018). Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, ch 23, pp.
410-453.
• Sean Carroll, 2017. The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself, pp.394-411.
• John Minford (translator, (2018)). Tao Te Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Book of the Tao, vii-
xxxii.
• Albert Camus (internet encyclopaedia of philosophy, sections 6 and 7)
https://www.iep.utm.edu/camus

Week 11 (online)
• Hong (2019), chapters 5 and 6
- “Japanese Culture and Management”, pp. 61-80
- “Culture and Changing Governance in Korea”, pp. 81-93
• Jeon, 1995, Exploring the three varieties of East Asia's state-guided development model: Korea, Singapore,
and Taiwan

READINGS:
Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2013). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. Profile Books
Ltd.

Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2019). The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty. Penguin Press.

Beauvoir, S. de. (1989). The second sex. Vintage Books.

Bruton, G., & Lau, C. (2008). Asian management research: Status today and future outlook. Journal Of Management
Studies, 45(3), 636–659. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00758.x

Burkeman, O. (2014, June 28). Implacable optimism: Steven Pinker on human nature, violence, feminism and
religion. PsyPost. https://www.psypost.org/2014/06/implacable-optimism-steven-pinker-on-human-nature-
violence-feminism-and-religion-26068

Carroll, S. (2017). The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself (Reprint edition). Dutton.

Choi, N. (2019). Women’s political pathways in Southeast Asia. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 21(2), 224–
248. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2018.1523683

Collins, C. (2017, June 21). Agents of Inequality: How Wealth Managers to the Super-Rich Undermine Society and What
We Can Do About It. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/agents-of-inequality-how-wealth-managers-
to-the-super-rich-undermine-society-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/

David A Ralston, David H Holt, Robert H Terpstra, & Yu Kai-Cheng. (2007). The impact of national culture and
economic ideology on managerial work values: A study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China.
Journal of International Business Studies, 39(1), 8–26. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400330

Edge. (2005, May 16). The Science of Gender and Science: Pinker vs. Spelke, a Debate. https://www.edge.org/event/the-
science-of-gender-and-science-pinker-vs-spelke-a-debate

Evans, D. (2013, January 17). Is the struggle for equality a fight against nature? Aeon Newsletter.
https://aeon.co/essays/is-the-struggle-for-equality-a-fight-against-nature

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Frank, R. H. (2016, April 13). Why Luck Matters—Much More Than You Think. The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/why-luck-matters-more-than-you-might-
think/476394/

Freeman, J. B. (2018). Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World (1 edition). W. W.
Norton & Company.

Friedan, Betty. (2001). The feminine mystique. Norton.

Gordon Redding. (2005). The thick description and comparison of societal systems of capitalism. Journal of
International Business Studies, 36(2), 123. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400129

Harari, Y. N. (2017, May 8). The meaning of life in a world without work. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/08/virtual-reality-religion-robots-sapiens-book

Hong, H. (2020). The rule of culture: Corporate and state governance in China and East Asia. Routledge.

Jeon, J. (1995). Exploring the three varieties of East Asia’s state-guided development model: Korea, Singapore, and
Taiwan. Studies in Comparative International Development, 30(3), 70–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02717495

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow (1st ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation.
Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224

Marx, K. (2009). Karl Marx’s Das Kapital A Modern-Day Interpretation of a True Classic (Steve. Shipside, Trans.).
Infinite Ideas.

National Geographic. (2019, November). Women: A Century of Change. Magazine.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/11/

NPR. (2015, May 18). Attention White-Collar Workers: The Robots Are Coming For Your Jobs. NPR.Org.
https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/05/18/407648886/attention-white-collar-workers-
the-robots-are-coming-for-your-jobs

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Rotman, D. (2015). Who Will Own the Robots? MIT Technology Review.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/06/16/11184/who-will-own-the-robots/

Santarita, J. (2015). Migration and Business: A Survey of Indian Communities in the Philippines. Journal of Critical
Perspectives on Asia, 51(1).
https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=224
45927&AN=102025797&h=1bBTqV%2ffAW09VDBxxDiXwr5biU%2b%2fhaRSV0fuqFzktm5gtEjaEEkCPwtS
l6JYknmrdN8OH4Ng8%2fHsXdKnR1VorA%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCr
lNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dc
rawler%26jrnl%3d22445927%26AN%3d102025797

Slater, J. (2013, January 18). The Cost of Inequality: How wealth and income extremes hurt us all | Oxfam Policy &
Practice. Policy & Practice. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/*

Smith, Aaron, & Anderson, J. (2014, August 6). AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs. Pew Research Center: Internet,
Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/08/06/future-of-jobs/

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Smith, Adam. (1991). Wealth of nations. Prometheus Books.

Stiglitz, J. E. (2011). Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105

The Economist. (2019, November 28). Economists are rethinking the numbers on inequality. The Economist.
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/11/28/economists-are-rethinking-the-numbers-on-inequality

The Economist. (2019, November 28). Inequality could be lower than you think. The Economist.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/11/28/inequality-could-be-lower-than-you-think

Trentmann, F. (2017). Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the
Twenty-First (Unabridged edition). Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio.

Trump, K.-S. (2013). The Status Quo and Perceptions of Fairness: How Income Inequality Influences Public
Opinion. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2324255

Tzu, L. (2018). Tao Te Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Book of the Tao (J. Minford, Trans.).
Penguin Classics.

Weber, M. (2009). From Max Weber essays in sociology. Routledge.

Wright, E. O., Baxter, J., & Birkelund, G. E. (1995). The Gender Gap in Workplace Authority: A Cross-National
Study. American Sociological Review, 60(3), 407–435. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096422

Xavier, J. A., & Gomez, E. T. (2017). Ethnic Enterprises, Class Resources and Market Conditions: Indian owned
SMEs in Malaysia. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 35(2), 5–29.
https://doi.org/10.22439/cjas.v35i2.5444

Xiao, Xinhuang., & Gomez, E. Terence. (2004). Chinese business in Southeast Asia: Contesting cultural explanations,
researching entrepreneurship. RoutledgeCurzon.

Yip, G. S. (2016). China’s next strategic advantage: From imitation to innovation. The MIT Press.

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