The ability to think and solve problems creatively in a multicultural environment is critical for success in the 21st century. Integrating research on creative cognition and cultural intelligence, we examine the interactional effects of two cognitive capabilities – cultural knowledge and cultural metacognition – on individuals’ creativity in multicultural teams. We propose that although cultural knowledge is useful for creativity, too much knowledge can be detrimental because of cognitive overload and entrenchment. This inverted U-shaped relationship however, is moderated by cultural metacognition. Results of our study support our hypothesis of an inverted U-shape relationship between cultural knowledge and creativity. As expected, we found that the curvilinear effect of cultural knowledge occurs only for individuals with low metacognition. For high cultural metacognition individuals, cultural knowledge has no effect on creativity. These findings offer new insights and practical implications for creativity in today's global environment.

To deepen our understanding of organizations’ heterogeneous responses to institutional demand, we develop a ‘relational complexity’ argument to highlight organizations’ diverse institutional linkages as another important source of practice variation. We argue that diverse relations between organizations and the institutional authority can filter distinct institutional pressures and expectations, shape organizational interpretations of environmental demands, and thus trigger heterogeneous organizational practices. We adopt this theoretical framework and distinguish two types of institutional linkages with the state to understand different adoption patterns in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in its early stage of diffusion in China. Based on a national survey dataset consisting of 1,268 firms, our analyses show that firms having a stronger bureaucratic linkage with the state tend to focus on more visible external-oriented CSR practices. In contrast, those firms forming a closer partnership with the state through political or semi-political associations are more likely to take more extensive adoptions by further developing internal CSR structures. This study enriches the institutional analyses by shifting our attention to the relational dynamics between organizations and institutional authority as a key source of practice variation. It also has important implications to the research and practices of CSR in emerging economies.

We study firm level antecedents that drive different motives of internationalization of emerging economy firms. Based on firm's resource based considerations of asset exploitation versus asset augmentation and locational advantages of host countries, we provide a framework to classify the motives of internationalization of emerging economy firms belonging to knowledge intensive industries. Motives of internationalization have been classified into three broad categories – market-seeking, opportunity-seeking, and strategic asset-seeking. We determine motives behind different modes of internationalization – alliances, acquisitions, and greenfield ventures. Drawing upon the adaptability, amalgamation, and ambidexterity (AAA) advantages from the springboard perspective, we find that firm characteristics like R&D investments, availability of financial slack, firm's ownership structure, and family control shape up its motive of internationalization.

We investigate the degree to which the presence of inward foreign direct investments (FDI) influences product innovation by emerging market firms. We begin with FDI spillover effects at the national level, the common approach in the literature. We further examine spillover effects at the subnational level because knowledge spillovers have been found to be localized. We study both intra-industry and inter-industry FDI spillovers in a subnational location, based on the distinction in the cluster literature between Marshall–Arrow–Romer specialization externalities and Jacobian diversification externalities. Using information from more than 346,000 Chinese manufacturing firms from 2000 to 2006, we find that Chinese firms improve product innovation when they are located in cities with concentrated foreign innovative activities in the same industry. These intra-industry spillover benefits decrease quickly, however, as foreign presence increases and, at high levels of foreign concentration, are dominated by the crowding-out effect. We also find evidence of inter-industry spillover benefits in a city; diversity of industries with a foreign presence contributes to product innovation by Chinese firms.

An important change in China's urban land management system is the diffusion of land banking systems – official agencies that govern local land conversions, preparation, and transactions. In this article, I draw on neoinstitutional theory in organizational studies to explore the forces that promote this transformation. I propose-besides rational calculations and indigenous impetus for reform, institutional forces that play a crucial role in accelerating the diffusion process. Event history analysis shows that, over time, local economic characteristics have a declining effect on the adoption of land banking systems and gradually yield to pressure from peer cities, provincial governments, policy professionals, and policy-making communities. Moreover, intergovemmental fiscal arrangements and political status moderate the effect of provincial pressure.

This paper elaborates theories of organizational knowledge creation by exploring the implications of institutional change for organizational knowledge creation in Chinese organizations of different ownership forms. Using a dynamic institutional perspective, we discuss prominent characteristics of the Chinese context and develop propositions about knowledge creation patterns in different organizational forms. We also theorize about the effects of increasing institutionalization on patterns of organizational knowledge creation in China and the consequent implications for innovation. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications of this model and suggestions for further research.

Perkins and Murmann (2018) advance a provocative thesis, based on Tesla Motors, that ‘a well-funded company could develop a new electric vehicle (EV) from scratch and move it into production within 3 to 5 years. . . .’ This thesis of feasibility – indeed likelihood – of more new entrant EV automakers is at odds with my recent work (e.g., Jacobides, MacDuffie, & Tae, 2016; MacDuffie, 2013) which argues that automotive OEMs have been able to prevent extensive value migration to suppliers and new entrants due to their structural role as system integrators with the capabilities to manage a primarily integral product and organizational architecture. This role is bolstered by societal demands for OEMs to meet regulatory requirements for safety and handle legal liability claims. These structural features have helped automotive OEMs avoid the fate of IBM, which saw massive value migration, after introducing the modular PC, to Intel and Microsoft (suppliers of key components). These same features, I argue, will position these OEMs for continued centrality, forestalling a wave of successful new entrants despite many new, disruptive changes in technology and business models.

Previous research has indicated that abusive supervision negatively influences various organizational outcomes. However, the antecedents and psychological mechanisms of abusive supervision are not well understood, especially in the Chinese context. In this study, we propose and test a mediated moderation model to explore the interactive effect of psychological contract breach and negative reciprocity belief on abusive supervision, and the mediating effect of organizational identification. Using a sample of 268 dyads of employees and their immediate supervisors (N = 536) from six companies and two industries in China, we find that when supervisors experience breaches in psychological contract they are likely to increase abusive behaviours toward subordinates, and that the positive association is stronger the more the supervisor holds negative reciprocity beliefs. Moreover, the results indicate that organizational identification mediates the joint effect of psychological contract breach and negative reciprocity belief on abusive supervision. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

An increasing body of research has applied an institutional perspective to understand actors’ responses to conflicting institutional logics and the creation process of new organizational forms. Although China provides a natural, real-time laboratory to study this topic, scant empirical research has been done. Moreover, we find it is insufficient to apply current frameworks, which have been mainly driven by studies conducted in Western contexts, to study actors’ responses to institutional multiplicity in China, especially in its emerging non-profit sector. This article fills research gaps by providing an in-depth case analysis of the creation and legitimation process of the One Foundation – the first independent charity foundation established by civic individuals in China. Our study shows that the coexisting and competing relationship among state, civil society, social mission, and market logics provides impetus for organizational change and innovation. This article theorizes a temporal model by showing that actors seek provisional solutions in different organizational stages and gradually develop capabilities to progress institutional work from individual to organizational and to societal level to achieve their goals. By showing how a charity foundation plays a role as a change agent, this article also sheds light on the condition and process that drive innovation in China's non-profit sector.

There is regular and explicit media coverage of employee behaviour intended to advance organizational goals, but that harms stakeholder interests in ways that exceed necessity and reason. Although several constructs such as workplace deviance, organizational misbehaviour, corporate crime and corruption, and unethical pro-organizational behaviour have been advanced to account for this type of behaviour, no comprehensive framework exists that also includes the full scope of its important consequences. Accordingly, we propose the umbrella construct of detrimental citizenship behaviour (DCB) that allows us to integrate and build upon previous related conceptualizations that have developed mostly in parallel bodies of research. We rely on ethical decision-making, creativity, and instrumental stakeholder theories to embed the umbrella DCB construct within a multi-level and longitudinal model. The DCB model includes processes through which such behaviour and its consequences unfold over time for organizational members, organizations, and society at large. The proposed framework describes, explains, and predicts DCB and also leads to suggestions for future research. In addition, we offer suggestions regarding how to manage this highly consequential type of organizational behaviour, thereby engaging in a much-needed science-practice dialogue in management and organization studies.

Drawing on economic, sociological, and strategic perspectives, we use data of a large sample of 936 Chinese manufacturing firms in the period from 2000 to 2005 to examine how environmental labeling may affect a firm's financial performance. We argue that reducing information asymmetry, increasing legitimacy, and differentiating strategically through environmental labeling may prompt customers to patronize the firm, thereby enhancing firm performance. However, not all firms benefit equally; environmental labeling conveys fewer benefits for larger firms and for firms listed in a stock market, because they are less threatened by information asymmetry or insufficient organizational legitimacy. Our findings suggest that environmental labeling has generally limited influence on financial performance, but for small and unlisted firms, environmental labeling increases sales.

Autonomy is a primary motive, as well as source of satisfaction, for those who start and run their own business. Autonomy is not inherent to business ownership – owner/founders must make concentrated efforts to achieve and maintain autonomy. This study aims to increase our understanding of autonomy by investigating how it is experienced, the factors that affect it, and the actions that business owners take to attain and retain it. We study these topics in the setting of an emerging market – Russia – and compare the outcomes with a similar study conducted in the Netherlands. Our cross-cultural comparison reveals that the way autonomy is experienced and attained can be viewed as an expression of survival values in Russia and of self-expression values in the Netherlands. We posit an underlying structural similarity by theorizing the level of experienced entrepreneurial autonomy to be the outcome of the balance of power and dependencies.

Drawing on the experience of firms of various sizes from Francophone Africa, we explore how the internationalization trajectories of frontier economy firms may vary from those predicted by theory. The firms studied followed social, linguistic, cultural, and institutional gradients to internationalize first to France, rather than to neighboring countries, and did so in search of not only markets and resources but also legitimacy. In turn, the sales, resources, and legitimacy acquired in France supported further international expansion, sometimes even to neighboring countries. Although our insights derive from the experience of Francophone firms from Africa, we argue that for firms from all former colonies, the internationalization trajectory leads through the colonial center. Our findings underline the roles of legitimacy-seeking and network ties in the internationalization of frontier market firms and serve as a salutatory reminder of the lingering influence of colonial ties on international business.

Optimal or rational decision making is not possible due to informational constraints and limits in computation capability of humans (March & Simon, 1958; March, 1978). This bounded rationality serves as a filtering process in decision making among business executives (Hambrick & Mason, 1984). In this study, we propose the concept of CEO reflective capacity as a behavior-oriented cognitive capability that may overcome to some extent the pervasive limitation of bounded rationality in executive decision-making. Following Hinkin's (1998) method and two executive samples, we developed and validated a three-dimensional measure of CEO reflective capacity. Based on two-wave surveys of CEOs and their executive-subordinates in 213 Chinese small-medium sized firms, we tested and confirmed three hypotheses on how CEO reflective capacity is related to a firm's sustainability performance (including economic, societal, and environmental dimensions) through the mediating mechanisms of strategic decision comprehensiveness and CEO behavioral complexity. We discuss the contribution of this study to the literature on the upper echelons and information processing perspectives. We also identify the implications for future research on strategic leadership and managerial cognition in complex and dynamic contexts.

Strategic ambidexterity has been under researched in the context of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI). An ambidextrous FDI, balancing between exploratory and exploitive activities, is strategically desirable but managerially challenging. We examine the role of top management team (TMT) functional diversity in influencing Chinese firms’ degree of FDI ambidexterity, and its boundary conditions in relation to the informal and formal institutional environments within which the TMT operates. Based on a panel of Chinese outward-investing manufacturing firms, our empirical analyses show that a marginal positive effect of TMT functional diversity on a firm's FDI ambidexterity is strengthened by the social faultline presence in the firm's TMT, but is weakened by the development of formal institutions in the firm's external environment.

This study examines how firms use organizational controls in the knowledge exploitation process to enhance endogenous innovation. Some past studies have shown that controls restrict the flexibility needed in innovation, whereas others have shown that controls enhanced innovation by directing the efforts of research and development professionals. Thus, we extend the theoretical development of organizational control theory to examine how different types of organizational controls (clan, behaviour, and output controls) play different roles at different points in the innovation process. First, we propose that codifying knowledge enhances its level of exploitation, with clan control serving as a moderator. Next, we propose that knowledge exploitation enhances endogenous innovation with behaviour and output controls serving as moderators. Our results from a sample of 607 Chinese manufacturing firms show that clan control moderated the knowledge codification–exploitation relationship positively. Behaviour control moderated the knowledge exploitation–innovation relationship positively, but output control had an inverse U-shaped moderating influence in this relationship. The results indicate that examining different types of organizational controls at different points in the knowledge management process provides a more comprehensive understanding for the role of controls in innovation.

Since China's marketization-featured housing reform, homeowner associations have played a greater role in neighbourhood governance. Using the theory of social movements and organizations, this article investigates how homeowner associations strategically reorganize themselves to achieve their goals. Our survey in Beijing suggests that about half of the homeowner associations have adopted bottom-up governance structures, which are not specified in governmental regulations. We find that such innovations are more likely to occur when a neighbourhood needs grassroots participation to deal with external grievances, especially developer-related issues, or to overcome its powerlessness due to little access to the polity. We also find that homeowner associations are more likely to adopt bottom-up structures when their leaders believe strongly in resident participation or actively engage in extra-organizational professional activities as a means to overcome infrastructure deficit.

This article reflects upon the evolution of Brazilian management studies in light of the debate provoked by Management and Organization Review, 5(1), in a special edition on ‘The Future of Chinese Management Research’. Despite an impressive growth in publications, Brazilian management and organization studies have had litde conversation with mainstream international scholarship. The article offers some explanations as to why this might be so and suggests some alternatives for enhancing the international impact of Brazilian studies and advancing the country's reputation in the field. We suggest two routes through which Brazilian management studies could enhance international legitimacy: an outside-in approach, which draws upon established international contributions to theory to inform the investigation, but uses the Brazilian context to enlighten these same theories, and an inside-out approach that draws upon indigenous questions and research design to develop a theory relevant to the Brazilian context, which ultimately contributes to the enhancement of existing or to the creation of new theories. In addition, this article suggests that ambidextrous policies provide a better fit for research strategies intended to foster both approaches.

To examine the bribing behavior of firms, we developed a cross-level moderation model using agency theory at the firm level and anomie theory at the societal level to investigate the relationship between manager control of firms and firm bribery activity. The results of this cross-cultural analysis using a sample of 1,799 firms from 38 nations showed that at the firm level, manager-controlled firms (MCFs) have a higher propensity to bribe than shareholder-controlled firms. At the country level, bribery is higher in MCFs (relative to shareholder-controlled firms) in societies with a low level of institutional collectivism, a high level of uncertainty avoidance, economic change, and income inequality. Contrary to the hypothesis, the relationship between bribery and manager control is stronger rather than weaker in societies with press freedom. Implications for future research and practices are discussed.