The Rise and Fall of Capital: Corporate Malaysia in Historical Perspective

Abstract: This article argues that better informed insights into the benefits and repercussions of the form of development of East Asian economies could be obtained when the theoretical perspectives from two different bodies of literature are employed collectively. If the concepts from the discipline of political economy, specifically the body of literature dealing with the developmental state now commonly deployed in analyses of East Asian economies, is used in combination with concepts from the literature on business history based on the work of Alfred Chandler, the reasons for the rise and fall of major enterprises in East Asia can be better understood. A case study of enterprise and economic development in Malaysia is presented to substantiate this argument.