Confucian business practices and firm competitiveness: The case of Sinyi Real Estate

Throughout the 20th century, many East Asian societies imported and transplanted the institutional foundations for industrialization and market economies, which has provided for substantial advances in material well-being. However, Confucianism, the predominant basis of traditional Chinese morality since antiquity, has begun staging a comeback in the recent years. Yet it is unclear as to how modern Confucian firms in a market economy will be organized, or how this will affect firm competitiveness. To shed further light on these issues, we examine the extant literature and identify several characteristics associated with Confucian business practice along with their potential impact on firm performance. We illustrate each of these characteristics with a company that explicitly follows Confucian business practice—Taiwan-based Sinyi Real Estate. It is found that, in general, Sinyi Real Estate conforms to the description of Confucian-based business practice that is expounded in the extant literature. However, there are a few surprises.