Modern Family Business and Corporate Capability in Thailand A Case Study of the CP Group

Akira Suehiro

doi:10.5029/jrbh1984.14.31

Modern Family Business and Corporate Capability in Thailand

A Case Study of the CP Group

Akira Suehiro

Author information

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1998 Volume 14 Pages 31-57

DOI https://doi.org/10.5029/jrbh1984.14.31

Details

Published: March 15, 1998 Received: - Available on J-STAGE: June 28, 2010 Accepted: - Advance online publication: - Revised: -
Correction information
Date of correction: June 28, 2010 Reason for correction: - Correction: CITATION Details: Right : 1Akira Suehiro,“Family Business Reassessed:Corporate Structure and Late-starting Industrialization in Thailand,”in The Developing Economies31/4,December1993,p.378.
2Calculated from the author's company data base,Thailand Company Information1993-94(Bangkok,1994),Tara Siam Information Ltd.(ed.),Thai State Enterprises1994/95(Bangkok,1995).
3E.S.Herman,Corporate Control,Corporate Power,New York:Cambridge University Press,1981,p.79.
4A.D.Chandler,Jr.,The Invisible Hand:The Managerial Revolution in American Business,Cambridge:Harvard University Press,1977.
5G.G.Hamilton,et al.,“Enterprise Groups in East Asia:An Organizational Analysis,”in Shoken keizai,no.161(September1977).
6.Kei-ichiro Nakagawa,“Keizai hatten to kazokuteki keiei”[Economic development and family-type business].His original paper was published in1968and later included in K. Nakagawa,Hikaku keieishi josetsu[An introduction to comparative business history],Tokyo:The University of Tokyo Press,1981.
7Nakagawa,Hikaku keieishi josetsu,pp.249-61.
8Hidemasa Morikawa,Nihon zaibatsushi[History of Japanese zaibatsu],Tokyo:Kyoikusha,1992,pp.227-30.
9Takeo Kikkawa,Nihon no kigyo shudan:zaibatsu to no renzoku to danzetsu[Business groups in Japan:Continuity and discontinuity within zaibatsu],Tokyo:Yilhikaku,1996,pp.54-55.
10See Akira Suehiro and Makoto Nambara,Tai no zaibatsu:famiri bijinesu to keiei kaikaku[Zaibatsu in Thailand:Family business and management reforms],Tokyo: DObunkan,1991;Krunthep Thurakit,ed.,Ri-enjiniaring:Yok Khruang Ongkon [Reengineering:Upgrading the organization],Bangkok,1994.
11Survey by the author on the basis of Million Baht Business Information Thailand(various years)and Thailand Company Information(various years).
12“C.P.Group”brochure distributed at World Teck'95,4November-16December1995,Technopolis of Suranaree University of Technology,Nakhon Rachasrima,Thailand.
13Interviews by the author of high-ranking staff at the CP Group's headquarters in Bangkok in May and September1997.
14For an account of the historical development of the CP Group's business,see Akira Suehiro,“Tai ni okeru aguribijinesu no tenkai:shiryo,buroira-sangyo no rokudai gurupu”[Development of agribusiness in Thailand]in Tsutomu Takigawa,ed.,Tonan Ajia no nogyo gijutsu henkaku to noson shakai[Agricultural technology changes and rural society in Thailand],Tokyo:Institute of Developing Economies(IDE),1987,pp.275-321;Suehiro and Nambara,Tai no zaibatsu,ch.2(pp.73-108);Wichai Suwannaban,C.P.Thurakit Rai Phromathen[CP:Endless expansion],Bangkok:Than Setthakit,1993.
15For the overseas activities of the CP Group,see Wichai,C.P.Thurakit Rai Phromathen,ch.4(pp.113-42);Hiroshi Yamamoto,“Thailand:A Case Study of the CP Group,”in Kyoichi Ishihara,ed.,Economic Internationalization in China and East Asia,Tokyo:IDE,1997,pp.303-32.
16For an account of the members of the Chiarawanon family,see“Kan Toepto khong CP:Borisat Khamchat Rai-raek khong Thai”[The growth of the CP:The first multinationalized company in Thailand],in Young Executive2,no.12(September1987),p.80;and Wichai,C.P.Thurakit Rai Phromathen,pp.8-13.
17Wichai,ibid.,pp.44-48,271.
18Thanin emphasized that the CP Group always conducted a careful and lengthy study of markets and production technologies before advancing into new businesses.See“Interview with Thanin Chiarawanon,the President of the CP Group,”in Prachachat Thurakit,11July1984.
19Calculated from Table12in Suehiro,“Tai ni okeru aguribijinesu,”p.304.
20This information is mainly based on the author's interviews with relevant persons and business associations in both Japan and Thailand.See also Suehiro and Nambara,Tai no zaibatsu,ch.2;and A.Suehiro,ed.,Tai no kogyoka:NAIC e no chosen[Thai industrialization:Challenge to NAIC],Tokyo:IDE,1987.
21For the commercial contracting farming system,see Sompop Manarungsan et al.,Contract Farming and Outgrower Schemes in Southeast Asia:Thailand,Bangkok,1990.
22Scott Christensen,Coalitions and Collective Choice:The Politics of Institutional Change in Thai Agriculture.Ph.D.dissertation,The University of Wisconsin,1990,p.170.
23The concept of“coalitional linkages”is formulated by Christensen,op.cit.,chapters2and5.
24Wichai,C.P.Thurakit Rai Phromathen,pp.52-57.
25See Table IV in Suehiro,“Family Business Reassessed,”pp.394-95.
26Securities Exchange of Thailand,ed.,Sarup Kho Sonthet Borisat Chot Thabian Borisat Rap Anuyat2532[Information summary of listed and authorized companies1989],vol.1,Bangkok,1990,pp.407-408.
27Interview by the author with staff in the CP Group in Bangkok in May1997.
28The following discussion is based on the author's interviews with staff in the Human Resources Development Center at the CP Tower Head Office in May and September1997.
29The CP Group is said to accumulate information on a large number of talented Thai students in the United States,Europe,and Japan through Thai embassies and other personal networking.When advancing into the telecommunications industry,the CP Group also attempted to compile personal records on Thai engineers working in electronics and computer sciences inside and outside Thailand.
30In recruiting new employees,the Siam Cement Group expects Thai students to have an academic average of2.7points or higher.A similar criterion is adopted among the leading Japanese manufacturing firms in Thailand.
31For an account of the economic crisis in Thailand,see A.Suehiro,ed.,Tai keizai bumu kara keizai kiki e-Seido soshiki kaikaku no yosei[Thailand from economic boom to economic crisis:The need for institutional reforms],Tokyo:Nihon-Tai Kyokai,1998.

Corresponding author

Correction information

Register with J-STAGE for free!