Rural Capitalists in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia: Three Cases, Two Debates, One Analysis?

There are divergent explanations but common empirical themes in the study of rural entrepreneurship in South and Southeast Asia. Most studies are based on empirical data collection in one country and present their data within an analytical framework that is specific to the particular Asian sub-region concerned. Studies on the entrepreneurial class in South Asia tend to focus on the structural aspects of entrepreneurial behaviour, while studies on the entrepreneurial class in Southeast Asia tend to focus on the cultural aspects of their behaviour. By comparing the findings of field-work among Hindu, Muslim, and Chinese rural capitalists in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, this paper argues that there is sufficient common ground in the type of empirical subject studied for a unified, comparative framework to be developed which will give us a better understanding into the emergence of the entrepreneurial class in both South and Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]