BingBing Ge
Her research focuses on family business management, entrepreneurship, and strategy. In particular, she looks into the role of knowledge, history, and stories in the family business entrepreneurial journey. She also contributes to knowledge exchange projects, including development and delivery of the Family Business Excellence Programme and Global Family Business Learning Symposium, and collaboration with Entrepreneurs in Residence (in Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy).
Quiet Echoes: Methodological Discussions of Researching the Ge Trade Family
This research makes a methodological contribution to business history discussions in areas where a lack of archives leads to a lack of understanding. We investigate the business history of the trade family Ge, a significant component of a nationally famous trade group Dongting Shangbang (洞庭商帮) from the Ming dynasty (1368) in China. Through methodological bricolage, we collected and interpreted data using the Ge family’s surviving family genealogies (3rd edition, Year 1673; and 4th edition, Year 1924), oral history, field trips, and documentation. This research discusses the methodological implications of researching the less-studied contexts through family records and bricolage. We exemplify and contribute to the discussion of the imperatives of expanding business history research methodologically, as well as reveal key insights into Chinese family business history.