Dr. Lee Kean Yew was born in Jinjang New Village, Malaysia, and is of Hakka descent from Huizhou, China. He earned a PhD in Economics and Administration from the Asia-Europe Institute at the University of Malaya, specializing in Chinese SMEs studies and knowledge management within the Chinese community.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Lee served as Academic Director of the Centre for Malaysia Chinese Studies, where he conducted scholarly research on Malaysia’s Chinese community and disseminated his findings through books, conference proceedings, and a bilingual journal. He is currently a senior lecturer and a full member of both the Department of Chinese Studies and the Malaysian Chinese Research Centre (MCRC) at the University of Malaya. His research spans overseas Chinese business, cultural studies, and the ethical dimensions of religion in business, including contemporary Buddhism. Among his responsibilities is fostering mutual understanding and facilitating collaboration between Malaysian Chinese communities and overseas enterprises.
Dr. Lee’s research interests encompass Chinese entrepreneurial economics, innovation management, family business studies, Asian ethnicity, development studies, and Buddhist studies. He aims to enhance interactions between Malaysian firms and government bodies, strengthen ties among Malaysian and international businesses, and contribute to the development of Malaysia’s economic and trade relations with Europe and China. Recently, he joined the International Council for Small Businesses (ICSB) to support the growth and development of small enterprises in Malaysia. He also holds a one-year diploma in Buddhist Studies from the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka.
Publicly, Dr. Lee publishes in both English and Chinese. In 2018, he received the Best Thesis Award at the 11th TSC Thesis Awards, often regarded as the Oscar of management academia. He has been invited to international conferences in Malaysia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, and a substantial portion of his papers is indexed in the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases.
Dr. Lee is the author of the English monograph Chinese Family Businesses in Malaysia: Fostering Tacit Knowledge Innovation (Routledge, 2025). In 2026, he launched books at prestigious venues including St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge University; Kritika Kultura of Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines; Thammasat University, Thailand; and East China Normal University, Shanghai, highlighting the importance of inter-ethnic partnerships between Chinese and Malay communities as well as dialect-based Chinese businesses in Malaysia. His forthcoming book projects include edited volumes such as Chinese Family Firms in Southeast Asia: Navigating Institutions and Cross-Disciplinary Insights (Routledge, 2026) and Documenting the Chinese Community in Kuala Lumpur: Memory, Religion, and Ethnicity in a Capital City (Peter Lang, 2026). He is also co-authoring Tacit Knowledge in Malaysian Plastics and Food Industries with his student Wong Sau Man (Springer Nature, 2026) and developing a project with Professor Jacob Donald Tan titled Bisnes Keluarga Etnik Cina di Malaysia dan Indonesia: Budaya Adaptasi yang Berinovasi (UM Press, 2027). In Chinese authored book, he has signed a contract with Jinan University Press to work out his upcoming monograph entitled New Knowledge in Tacit Knowledge Innovation : How Chinese Family Businesses in Malaysia Evolved Till Third Generation(Jinan, 2028).
