8
The Moscow School of Management (SKOLKOVO) and HKUST
IEMS co-organized a 2-day joint workshop at HKUST covering
four key themes: wealth possessors in Russia and China;
entrepreneurship in Russia, Hong Kong, China’s Pearl River
Delta Region; microfinance in Russia, China, and India; and
business education for the future.
Ruslan Yusufov
and
Marianna Slutskaya
, both with the
SKOLKOVO Wealth Transformation Center (SWTC), presented
findings from a recent survey of dozens of Russia’s wealthiest
business owners. One of the most interesting results was
that only 20% of respondents involved children and relatives
as business managers, which indicates that nepotism is not
as large a factor in Russian family businesses as many may
believe.
Roger King
, Director of the HKUST Tanoto Center for Asian
Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies, and
Winnie
Qian Peng
, Associate Director of the Center for Asian Family
Business and Entrepreneurship Studies at HKUST, presented
their research findings countering the ancient Chinese adage,
“Wealth does not go beyond 3 generations.” In China, family
succession of firms is much more common than in Russia,
with some succeeding beyond three generations. Based on
their case study research, Drs. King and Peng concluded
that the 3 major success factors for Chinese businesses to
endure past 3 generations of family ownership were having a
sustainable business model, maintaining a balance between
Western and Eastern values, and an occasional pruning of
high-level management.
Steven Lee
, Director of the HKUST Entrepreneurship
Center, discussed his observations on the current state of
entrepreneurship in Hong Kong and China’s Pearl River Delta.
Along with a strong desire of most educated local youths
to seek stable employment in large companies as opposed
to starting a business, Dr. Lee stated that Hong Kong’s
astronomical housing costs are a main factor in the recent
decrease in the “quality” of the Hong Kong’s entrepreneurial
pool. In contrast, in Beijing and the Pearl River Delta
region, entrepreneurial interest amongst local youths is
incredibly high, buoyed by support for such entrepreneurial
activities from both private enterprises and the government
at municipal, state, and federal levels. Venture capitalists
thus have flocked to the region, investing heavily in start-
ups in areas such as precision manufacturing, robotics, and
automation.
Vladimir Korovkin
, Head of Digital Research at SKOLKOVO
IEMS, presented research on Russian attitudes toward China
based on a textual analysis of a sample of over 16,000 Russian
social media followers commenting on topics involving the
two countries. Generally speaking, Russians have a positive
attitude towards the Chinese, with increasing discourse
on Russia using China as a “replacement for the West”. Dr.
Korovkin stated that this rhetoric increased substantially after
the Ukrainian-Russia conflict and the resulting US and EU
sanctions against Russia.
On the topic of microfinance, presentations were given by
Dr. Korovkin on the future of microcredit in Russia;
Albert
Park
, Director of HKUST IEMS, on the impact of microfinance
on poor villages in China; and
Sujata Visaria
, Assistant
Professor at the HKUST Department of Economics, on how
to improve the effectiveness of microfinance schemes in rural
India. Today most microcredit in Russia and some in China
is profit-oriented. India and China also have a diversity of
microfinance programs led by NGOs or government agencies
that pursue poverty alleviation.
SKOLKOVO’s
Andrey Shapenko
and HKUST Business School’s
Associate Dean
Sean Ferguson
offered their insights on the
future of business education, with both agreeing that the
future may see less emphasis on traditional MBA programs
and more emphasis on blending careers and education, for
example through part-time programs. Successful business
schools must continuously assess how their programs can
better create real value for their students in both the short
and long term.
Business andWealth in Russia and China
SKOLKOVO-HKUST Joint Workshop (2015.03.09-10)
Video recordings, papers, and presentation
slides are avaiable at
