Change and Continuity of Indonesian Business Groups: from the Perspective of Transformation of Political Systems

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24510366
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Area studies
• Research Institution: Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization
• Principal Investigator: SATO YURI 独立行政法人日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所, その他部局等, 研究員 (00450453)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 東南アジア / 企業グループ / インドネシア / 政治体制 / 経済危機 / コア / ネットワーク / 経営資源

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aims to explore a development mechanism of Indonesian business groups that survived institutional transformation from authoritarianism to democracy. Major findings are as follows. First, I found continuity in faces and discontinuity in businesses. In the top 100 groups in the 2010s, more than 80 percent was old faces who survived the system change. However, they greatly restructured their businesses, shifting from heavy manufacturing to plantations, mining and services.
Second, I drew a hypothesis that Indonesian business groups developed and survived with having owner-managers as a core, and using networks for procuring resources. I called this a “core & network hypothesis”. Business groups can derive their profit from simultaneous multiple utilization of the core resource, and from networks that save costs in mobilizing external resources. The hypothesis can present a business model of emerging country corporations that flexibly adapt to ever-changing environment.

Free Research Field

地域研究