Main Characteristics of Chinese Family Business in the Context of Confucian Culture

The paper defines the Chinese family business and analyzes its main characteristics under the background of Confucian culture. It shows that the limited kinship-based trust makes the Chinese family businesses choose the management pattern whose decision-making and management right are highly centralized by the owners. The owners divide the staffs into the insiders and the outsiders and give different treatment according to degree of trust. Therefore, the management pattern of Chinese family businesses is a trust-based relationship management. The businesses are led by individual authority in the enterprise.