HomeResearch & Knowledgeback to HomeFamily Businessback to Research & KnowledgeIndorama Ventures PLC: Charting its own path to successback to Family Business

Case Study

Indorama Ventures PLC: Charting its own path to success

By Joachim Schwass, Anne-Catrin Glemser and Martin Králik

10 pages

October 2014

Order this case study

Reference: IMD-7-1604

The case charts the past 30 years in the history of Indorama Ventures Plc, an ethnic Indian-owned family business expanding into Southeast-Asian markets including Thailand. The company has continually drawn on and reinterpreted its story of past adversity as a powerful source of personal, family and corporate leadership. This makes its story stand out, particularly in a cultural context that is typified by a strong preference for looking into the future rather than the past as well as a tendency to gloss over past mistakes and misfortunes. Indorama Ventures’ track record of cultural sensitivity and social responsibility allowed it to start the ongoing process of building a truly global brand. In addition, the company set down clearly articulated, long-term ownership rules which entrust the next generation of the family business owners with investing rather than just managing roles.

Learning Objective

This case is part of a series featuring Southeast-Asian family businesses that exemplify best practices in family, ownership, succession and business governance. It portrays a new type of ethnic minority-owned company whose regional expansion has been driven predominantly by business rather than political considerations. It invites the reader to reflect on and anticipate the company’s choices in steering the business onto a path of continued internationalization and fast growth while grooming the next generation of owners and disseminating its own set of family, cultural and management values.

Keywords

Family Business, Manufacturing, Succession Planning

Settings

Asia, Thailand
Indorama Ventures, Manufacturing, Chemicals, Manufacturing
1st Half 2014

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

IMD case studies are distributed through case clearing houses. In order to browse the collection and purchase copies please visit the links below.

The Case Centre

Cranfield University

Wharley End Beds MK43 0JR, UK
Tel +44 (0)1234 750903
Email [email protected]

Harvard Business School Publishing

60 Harvard Way, Boston MA 02163, USA
Tel (800) 545-7685 Tel (617)-783-7600
Fax (617) 783-7666
Email [email protected]

Asia Pacific Case Center

NUCB Business School

1-3-1 Nishiki Naka
Nagoya Aichi, Japan 460-0003
Tel +81 52 20 38 111
Email [email protected]

IMD retains all proprietary interests in its case studies and notes. Without prior written permission, IMD cases and notes may not be reproduced, used, translated, included in books or other publications, distributed in any form or by any means, stored in a database or in other retrieval systems. For additional copyright information related to case studies, please contact Case Services.

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Keep reading

Article

When does financial slack matter? Family ownership, CEO family status, and SME performance

We offer novel insights into the utilization of heterogeneous types of financial slack (unabsorbed, absorbed, and potential) by family versus non-family small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We hypothesize that agency problems in family SMEs...

Family Business

By Tommaso Minola, Philipp Sieger, Massimo Baù, Giovanna Campopiano, Alfredo De Massis and Francesco Chirico

in Family Business Review

June 2026, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 149–172, https://doi.org/10.1177/08944865261420231

Article

Mastering digital transformation: "4E lessons" from leading multigenerational family firms

Relentless digital transformation is reshaping firm competitiveness, presenting both challenges and opportunities. This is especially true for multigenerational family firms, where complex intergenerational dynamics intensify the impact of transfo...

Family Business Digital

By Marco Mismetti, Samuel Wayne Appleton, Emanuela Rondi and Alfredo De Massis

in Research-Technology Management

June 2026, vol. 69, no. 3, https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2026.2631376

Article

Fly solo, then return home? Offspring's entrepreneurship experience and their future as family business successors

How does early-career entrepreneurship experience of family business offspring affect their likelihood of eventually taking over the established family firm? Considering family business succession as a dual-agency process, we draw on human capital...

Family Business Entrepreneurship

By Philipp Sieger, Jasper Brinkerink, Massimo Baù, Johan Karlsson and Alfredo De Massis

in Journal of Management Studies

29 May 2026, ePub before print, https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.70114

Article

Counterfactual indeterminacy bias in family firm research

Ever since scholars recognized that family firms are heterogeneous, many studies have attempted to compare different types of family firms without ensuring that the source of heterogeneity is unique to family firms. When the source of heterogeneit...

Family Business

By Hanqing Fang, James J. Chrisman and Alfredo De Massis

in Family Business Review

28 May 2026, ePub before print, https://doi.org/10.1177/08944865261454405

Case Study

The Mulliez Family Business: Unlocking the secrets of entrepreneurial DNA (A)

Though little-known outside of its home country of France, the Mulliez family enterprise is one of the largest privately held business networks in the world. The Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM) unites over 1,000 family shareholders and oversee...

Family Business

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie

Case Study

The Mulliez Family Business: Unlocking the secrets of entrepreneurial DNA (B)

Case B of the Mulliez Family Business case series examines the family's entrepreneurial 'DNA': the unique set of characteristics that have enabled the Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM) to successfully nurture the ventures of the next generations...

Family Business

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie

Article

Why family enterprise innovation stalls without outsider leadership

Family enterprise innovation is slowing as firms resist empowering outsiders. New research shows ideas exist, but execution fails without nonfamily leadership.

Family Business

By Alfredo De Massis, Qiuyue Lyu, Junsheng Dou and Hanqing Fang

in I by IMD

When does financial slack matter? Family ownership, CEO family status, and SME performance

By Tommaso Minola Philipp Sieger Massimo Baù Giovanna Campopiano Alfredo De Massis and Francesco Chirico
in Family Business Review June 2026, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 149–172, https://doi.org/10.1177/08944865261420231

Summary

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Family Business

Browse all topics

Mastering digital transformation: "4E lessons" from leading multigenerational family firms

By Marco Mismetti Samuel Wayne Appleton Emanuela Rondi and Alfredo De Massis
in Research-Technology Management June 2026, vol. 69, no. 3, https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2026.2631376

Summary

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Family Business

Digital

Browse all topics

Fly solo, then return home? Offspring's entrepreneurship experience and their future as family business successors

By Philipp Sieger Jasper Brinkerink Massimo Baù Johan Karlsson and Alfredo De Massis
in Journal of Management Studies 29 May 2026, ePub before print, https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.70114

Summary

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Family Business

Entrepreneurship

Browse all topics

Counterfactual indeterminacy bias in family firm research

By Hanqing Fang James J. Chrisman and Alfredo De Massis
in Family Business Review 28 May 2026, ePub before print, https://doi.org/10.1177/08944865261454405

Summary

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Family Business

Browse all topics

The Mulliez Family Business: Unlocking the secrets of entrepreneurial DNA (A)

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie
Case reference: IMD-2748 ©2026

Summary

Reference IMD-2748

Organization Association Familiale Mulliez

Available Languages English