Petty-bourgeois nationalism – a case study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is, first, to show how certain bank capitalists in an Asian country (AC) make credit decisions and what methods they use to justify their irrational investment decisions, and second, to investigate why they make such unproductive investment decisions. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts the case-study methodology, using the theory of petty-bourgeois nationalism as the theoretical framework for data analysis and interpretation. Findings The research findings provide evidence to strengthen the theory of petty-bourgeois nationalism. They reveal that bank capitalists in this country do use “nationalism” as a mask to justify their unproductive investment decisions. The data show that such decisions, aimed at import protection, were made to protect their own domains of business by wasting public resources, thus in effect making road-blocks to economic development in AC. Research limitations/implications The paper attempts to fill a gap in the literature pertaining to bank lending and its co-integration with a country’s economic development. Social implications This study argues that such irrational unproductive investments are made under the guise of nationalism and/or patriotism, motivated by egoistic bank owners to protect their spheres of business. Originality/value The research in this paper is original because it is the first critical analysis of a case from an AC on petty-bourgeois nationalism.