Vietnamese values, networks and family businesses in London

The article explores the so-called Confucian values associated by Hofstede and Bond (1993) with competitive advantage in business and investigates the role of ‘trust’ and ‘trusted networks’ amongst the Vietnamese of London. It investigates the extent to which distinctive cultural attributes can be detected in the ways this Overseas Vietnamese community has adapted to London, and how the Vietnamese either resemble or differ from another migrant community with whom they share a common history, namely the Overseas Chinese. The study explores the extent of Confucian influence on core values and how these may account for the relative success of Vietnamese businesses in London. The findings support the idea that the cultural inheritance of the Vietnamese has conferred a competitive advantage in business activity, but this is not exclusively Confucian.