Chinese social-institutions imitating nature?

This study provides a theoretical foundation explaining the long-standing paradox of Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneurs'' highly successful economic behaviour. Combining Western and Eastern philosophies, this study examines the role of culture in prescribing beliefs and practices that affect human efforts to self- actualise, notably the motivations underlying these entrepreneurs'' business practices. It applies Aristotle''s notion of phronesis (practical knowledge or wisdom) to organisation studies. The enquiry employs the concept of self- organising systems (drawn from complexity theory) to ground the Confucian organismic conception of the cosmos. The underlying empirical study investigated Chinese entrepreneurs'' strategic actions in a particular field (Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia), an environment characterised by complexity, uncertainty and social instability.