Chris Rowley is Professor of HRM at Cass Business School, City University, London, UK and Director of the Centre for Research in Asian Management and Director, Research and Publications, HEAD Foundation, Singapore. He has published widely in the field of HRM and Asian business and management in the leading journals and in edited books. He is currently co-editor of the Asia Pacific Business Review.

Jonathan Michie is Professor of Innovation & Knowledge Exchange at the University of Oxford, UK where his is President of Kellogg College, Director of the Department for Continuing Education, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Mutual and Employee-owned Business. He is also a member of DEFRA's Economic Advisory Panel.

The 25 years leading up to the global financial crisis have been depicted as 'capitalism unleashed', with deregulation, privatisation, demutualisation and financialisation. Yet, given this economic and political context, co-operatives and mutuals appear to have been gaining ground in many countries, albeit modestly, even before the financial crisis and the global recession, from which the global economy is still only slowly recovering. This book looks at the contribution of co-operative, mutual and employee-owned firms to the Asia Pacific economy and the challenges the standard 'Western' model faces. This book was originally published as a Special Issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

Foreword 1. Introduction: Differing forms of capital - setting the scene for mutuality and co-operation in the Asia Pacific Region 2. The long march of Chinese co-operatives: towards market economy, participation, and sustainable development 3. Old and new rural co-operative medical scheme in China: The usefulness of a historical comparative perspective 4. The Role and characteristics of social entrepreneurs in contemporary rural co-operative development in China: case studies of rural social entrepreneurship 5. Governmental influences on the evolution of agricultural co-operatives in Vietnam: an institutional perspective with case studies 6. Development and challenges of cocoa co-operatives in Papua New Guinea: case of Manus Province 7. Growth pattern of an employee-owned business: a narrative inquiry concerning the new venture creation experience of Wowprime in Taiwan 8. From corporate social responsibility to creating shared value with suppliers through mutual firm foundation in the Korean bakery industry: a case study of the SPC Group 9. Assessing the performance of co-operatives in Malaysia: analysis on co-operative groups using a data envelopment analysis approach 10. Conclusion: Mutuality in the Asia Pacific Region