家族企業的隱性知識創新、企業發展和世代交替：馬來西亞華人塑膠製造業的縱向個案研究

Tacit Knowledge Innovation and Enterprise Development in Chinese Family SMEs of Malaysia: Longitudinal Case Studies on Plastic Production Across Generational Change

在發展中國家有關家族企業的文獻指出，由於家族企業的組織創新，因而製造出利基產品。世界銀行估計華人家族企業占馬來西亞股票交易所67.2％的股票，有30％的中小型企業和上市公司是由第二代所管理。當馬來西亞進行工業化，華人中型家族企業（FSMEs）經歷著世代交替，然而很少研究著重在這些企業如何發展其創辦人的隱性知識。本文章以11個在塑膠製造業表現出色的馬來西亞華人中小型家族企業為縱向評估個案，以便探討華人企業的新一代如何培育創新管理、製造和行銷技巧。透過回顧商業歷史的處理方法作為鋻定隱性知識的發展，本文章驗證了馬來西亞華人家族企業必須實行機構改革以便讓隱性知識具體化，藉此才可以確保永續發展。由於只有三分之一的家族企業成功由第二代接管，有一些甚至傳到第三代，因為馬來西亞擁有大量的華人家族企業，所以即將到來的世代交替過渡時期將會對國內經濟帶來巨大的衝擊。然而，當一個家族企業被新一代接管後，它的運作會出現相當多的改變，它會以第一代的隱性知識為基礎朝向高度創新的企業形態發展。

This paper undertakes the tacit knowledge innovation and the trends of enterprise development among Chinese family-owned small and medium enterprises (FSMEs) in Malaysia to keep pace with an increasingly global economy and changes in the policy setting. A World Bank study showed that 67.2 percent of shares quoted on the Bursa Malaysia were owned by Chinese family owned while 13.4 percent were state owned. Thus, Chinese family firms have a dominant presence in the Malaysian corporate sector. The economic prosperity of Malaysia is largely dependent upon the success of these Chinese family firms in an increasingly ‘global’ marketplace as well as the adaption to the local government policy. This paper thus analytically and empirically delineates to highlight the issues about the tacit knowledge innovation and the generational change of Malaysia’s Chinese FSMEs in the plastic production by using longitudinal case studies. This paper also appraises the succession of the new generation as owners of the family business, to transform the firm’s knowledge. The case studies will assess first-generation, second-generation and third-generation Chinese family SMEs of family history, family tree and organization structure. Accessing the contention that a family business does not survive beyond the 3rd generation, this paper, in fine, provides a set of policy recommendations to facilitating the evolution from family capitalism to professional firms.