Abstract
The continued success of Asian entrepreneurs in the UK testifies to the sustainability of the Asian business community which appears to combine the dynamism of the free market with the dynamic, risk taking heroism of the entrepreneur. Asian wealth in the UK has become more diverse in terms of the type of entrepreneur and the types of business. It now crosses from first through to second and third generations. It spans manufacturing and services, entertainment and fashion, hotels and property, food and pharmaceuticals. Asian enterprises have attracted the attention of academics, policy makers and practitioners and are increasingly enjoying a higher profile in the popular press. 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 longer established, more successful enterprises of the Asian business community and seeks to draw out trends within this increasingly important sector of the economy and consider their economic sustainability. The study draws on data provided by the annual Asian wealth index which focuses on the 200 richest Asians in the UK. It analyses the wealth-generating capacity of this upper spectrum 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, questioning the extent to which the traditional stereotypes of the Asian entrepreneur, portrayed in the academic literature, maintain their value. For policy makers and the business support community the paper offers new insights into the economic nature of this growing business sector. The originality of the research process and data raises new issues in research into Asian entrepreneurship not just the UK. It thus offers significant challenges to the academic community.