Indian migrants in Malaysia have engaged in trading and entrepreneurship in the country for
centuries. This paper advances a transactional analysis as a framework for understanding the
pattern of the Malaysian Indian enterprises. Fieldwork, and observations made by the
entrepreneurs themselves, reveals that enterprises are seldom long lived. A common saying is
that the third generation will break the enterprise. This pattern conforms to the model of the
joint family, which is also the usual organizational pattern for the various business
establishments. An entrepreneur rallies support from his family to establish an enterprise; the
second generation continues the enterprise as a joint estate. In the third generation the
enterprise, and the joint family, disintegrates due to the divisive pressure built up by the
conflicting interests of member households for independence.