Abstract
Asian enterprises are becoming an ever more prominent feature of the small business population and, thus, have attracted the attention of academics, policy makers and practitioners and are increasingly eulogised in the popular press keen to laud free enterprise heroes. Whilst recent studies highlight this growing importance, when charting the success of the Asian entrepreneur they tend to focus on the transformation from rags to riches and the majority of studies concentrate on the characteristics of the owner, start up and the barriers to accessing finance. This study analyses the higher echelons of the Asian business community and seeks to draw out trends within this increasingly important sector of the economy. This study draws on data provided by the annual Asian wealth index which focuses on the 200 richest Asians in the UK. The paper analyses the wealth generating capacity of the top end of the Asian business community through a comparative economic and sectoral analysis. The analysis suggests that the Asian business community has delivered significantly higher than average growth and that this growth has been driven by a shift towards higher value industrial sectors. This questions the extent to which the traditional stereotypes of the Asian entrepreneur maintain their currency and value. For policy makers and the business support community this paper offers new insights into the economic nature of this growing business sector to which they have paid increasing attention. The originality of the research process and data raises new issues in research into Asian entrepreneurship and thus offers significant challenges to academics.