• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.641-662
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• 2010

Through the comparative studies on Korean and Chinese ethnobanks in the U.S., this research finds the difference in the social capital between Korean and Chinese American economy and reinterprets the social capital in overseas Chinese. In many ethnic studies, the ethnobanks in the U.S. are thought as the main drive of the economic prosperity in the ethnic communities. For the success of these ethnobanks, the relationship banking of these ethnobanks are contrasted with the arms-length banking of the mainstream U.S. banks. However there are the differences both in performance and business strategies even among different ethnobanks. Contrary to the Korean ethnic banks having much portion of business loans, Chinese ethnic banks have stressed real-estate loans in their loan portfolio. This research regards the differences of business strategies and performance of these ethnobanks as the result of the different social, cultural contexts in each ethnic community. From these finings, we can improve the understanding of the concept of social capital in overseas Chinese economy.