Adopting a dynamic view of guanxi, we investigated how the closeness in Chinese coworker relationship changes as a function of interpersonal incidents, exploring factors such as the prior closeness level as well as the valence and job relevance of the incident. Two studies of PRC managers probed the content and dynamics of their coworker relationships. Results indicate that such relationships mix affective and instrumental ties. A key finding about changes is that the increase in closeness created by positive incidents was greater when the prior relationship was distant, and the decrease created by negative incidents was greater when the prior relationship was close. The implications of these findings for theory development and future guanxi research are discussed.

Findings based on 186 teams involving 689 employees, working in twelve Chinese state-owned factories in three cities, indicated that a cooperative in contrast to a competitive approach was related to perceived team effectiveness, as measured by both team managers and team members. The role of conflict types for team effectiveness, on the other hand, is ambiguous. Furthermore, conflict management approaches affect team perceptions of relational and task conflict. Results suggest that a cooperative conflict management approach may be equally useful for Chinese work teams, as it is for teams in the Western context.

We introduce a new perspective on the conceptualization and measurement of ownership identities of China's listed companies. Previous work analyzing the strategy and performance implications of the ownership structure in Chinese firms has used the official categorization provided by state bodies in China. In this categorization, state shareholding, legal person shareholding and A-shares dominate. This official categorization, however, obscures the ultimate identity of a shareholder; this can confound conceptual and empirical work on die strategy and performance implications of ownership identity. We refine the existing classification by recategorizing shareholders into 16 types, which can then be regrouped into relevant categories of shareholders, such as government or private, to enable analysis of ownership identity and ownership concentration issues in China's listed companies. Our new classification can help provide consistency in the burgeoning research on the strategy and performance implications of the concentration and identity aspects of ownership structure in China's listed companies.

We attempt to provide a definition and a typology of indigenous research on Chinese management as well as outline the general methodological approaches for this type of research. We also present an integrative summary of the four articles included in this special issue and show how they illustrate our definition and typology of indigenous research on Chinese management, as well as the various methodological approaches we advocate. Further, we introduce a commentary on the four articles from the perspective of engaged scholarship, and also three additional articles included in this issue. Finally, we conclude with our suggestions for future indigenous research.

To add greater theoretical precision to a fundamental construct in social exchange theory - namely, Gouldner's ‘norm of reciprocity’, this study developed a measure of Sahlins' generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity types and validated its psychometric quality in China. For a comprehensive construct validation of the new scale, we carried out three studies. After generating a pool of items, we used a panel of experts to classify items according to conceptual definitions of the three reciprocity types. Using factor analysis, the first study revealed a factor structure consistent with Sahlins' reciprocity typology. In the second study, confirmatory factor analysis replicated this factor structure as well as demonstrated that the reciprocity factors are distinct from each other and other social-exchange constructs. In line with extant theories, the third study corroborated a nomological network relating reciprocity types to external constructs. Given this broad array of evidence for its construct validity, future researchers can employ this validated scale to investigate various forms of social exchange in Chinese work settings.

In this article, we first review cross-cultural research, especially that concerning similarities and differences between East Asian and Western cultures, on creativity using laboratory tasks and tests. On the basis of this review, we then propose some directions for future cross-cultural research on creativity in the workplace. We emphasize the need to theorize why cultural differences make a difference in creativity and directly investigate, rather than assume, effects of contextual factors on creativity. In this regard, two literatures on creativity – cross-cultural studies using laboratory tasks and organizational studies of employee creativity – can benefit tremendously from integration. We also call for more empirical research examining effects of culture on creativity in the workplace, especially in China.

This study investigates the relationship between level of trust and cooperative behaviours in a social dilemma. We argue that this relationship should depend on the basis of trust (cognition- versus affect-based) and on beliefs about the equality of resource endowments. Results supported our prediction that increasing affect-based trust increases cooperation, but increasing cognition-based trust to a certain level can reduce cooperation because of free-riding tendency. Moreover, these effects of trust are stronger for individuals who believed that other group members had more resources than they did. Thus, our study demonstrates that higher levels of trust do not necessarily encourage cooperation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

This paper applies Dunning's eclectic paradigm of Ownership, Location andInternalization (OLI) advantages to the international activity andperformance dynamics of the Chinese family enterprise (CFE). Through thelens of Dunning's paradigm, we trace the role of cultural and economicfactors in the success of this important form of organization. Indemonstrating the relevance of a theory that originated in the analysis ofWestern multinational firms to this indigenous Chinese type of firm, thepaper supports the larger effort to expand the scope of received theory toinclude Chinese as well as other non-Western forms of organization.

Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in local development in emerging economies, but scholars have paid little attention to this emerging phenomenon. Under the theory of moral sentiments, we posit that some entrepreneurs are altruistically motivated to promote a morally effective economic system by engaging in social entrepreneurial activities. Focusing on China's Guangcai (Glorious) Program, a social entrepreneurship program initiated by China's private entrepreneurs to combat poverty and contribute to regional development, we find that private entrepreneurs are motivated to participate in such programs if they have more past distressing experiences, including limited educational opportunities, unemployment experience, rural poverty experience, and startup location hardship. Their perceived social status further strengthens these relationships. Our study contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by offering a moral sentiment perspective that explains why some entrepreneurs voluntarily join a social entrepreneurship program to mitigate poverty in society.

Over two decades, research in Chinese management has exploited existing questions, theories, constructs, and methods developed in the Western context. Lagging are exploratory studies to address questions relevant to Chinese firms and to develop theories that offer meaningful explanations of Chinese phenomena. Framed as a debate between pursuing a theory of Chinese management versus a Chinese theory of management, this forum, through the voices of thirteen scholars, provides an analysis of the reasons for the current status of Chinese management research and offers alternatives to shape the future of Chinese management studies. Based on the principle of autonomy of inquiry and heeding the warning of the constraint of normal science, the Chinese management research community can shape its own future by engaging in research that may contribute to global management knowledge and address meaningful local management problems.

High levels of trust and shared vision contribute to collaborative behaviour among units belonging to the same corporation. We examined the relationship of language fluency and socialization mechanisms to inter-unit shared vision and trustworthiness, using a sample of 310 inter-unit relationships involving subsidiaries of multinational corporations located in China and Finland. Results show that language fluency related significantly to shared vision and perceived trustworthiness in both the Chinese and Finnish subsidiaries. We also found socialization mechanisms to have a positive relationship to shared vision in the Chinese but not the Finnish sample, and no significant relationship to perceived trustworthiness in either sample. The interaction effects of language fluency and socialization mechanisms produced different results in the Chinese and Finnish samples. The study confirmed the importance of language fluency for inter-unit relationships and offered several suggestions for future research.

Our paper conceptualizes and highlights the role of the supply chains in China's product recall problems. We raise questions about the interrelationships of the focal manufacturer and the supplier firms and the consequences of these relationships. We address some of the causes of the current situation, including a discussion of deep supply chains, the importance of relationships, the role of trust and the impact of cultural misunderstandings. We suggest many future research questions to further understand how the supply chain can cause or deter product recalls.

Research on the globalization of Chinese and other emerging markets' companies has only just begun and is on the verge of taking off. As it does so, additional thought should be given to the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of the theories attempting to capture the phenomenon. Should Western-centric theory prevail? Be adapted? Or abandoned in favour of new indigenous approaches to theorizing, based on context? Finally, should the context itself be the basis of theorizing? While the debate will not stop here, the future may hold a multiplicity of approaches, both indigenous and internationalized, for explaining emerging markets' contexts and, more specifically, for understanding internationalization of their economies and their multinationals. This article provides an overview of the debate on Chinese Theory of Business vs. Theory of Chinese Business, and highlights the contribution of three key articles utilizing a hybrid approach of adapted theory, controlling for the various multinational contexts. We conclude that no theory has a monopoly on explanation and a multi-levelj multidisciplinaiy, and, perhaps, Eastern-centric theory may prove to show great potential in future theories of emerging markets' multinationals.

Demonstrating the equivalence of constructs is a key requirement for cross-cultural empirical research. The major purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to assess measurement and functional equivalence or invariance using the 9-item, 3-factor Love of Money Scale (LOMS, a second-order factor model) and the 4-item, 1-factor Pay Level Satisfaction Scale (PLSS, a first-order factor model) across 29 samples in six continents (N = 5973). In step 1, we tested the configural, metric and scalar invariance of the LOMS and 17 samples achieved measurement invariance. In step 2, we applied the same procedures to the PLSS and nine samples achieved measurement invariance. Five samples (Brazil, China, South Africa, Spain and the USA) passed the measurement invariance criteria for both measures. In step 3, we found that for these two measures, common method variance was non-significant. In step 4, we tested the functional equivalence between the Love of Money Scale and Pay Level Satisfaction Scale. We achieved functional equivalence for these two scales in all five samples. The results of this study suggest the critical importance of evaluating and establishing measurement equivalence in cross-cultural studies. Suggestions for remedying measurement non-equivalence are offered.

Two approaches to the evolution of Chinese scholarship are possible. The first – developing a theory of Chinese management – focuses on applying and refining theories developed elsewhere in a Chinese context. In this sense, the emergence of the Chinese economy represents an important natural experiment for the test and refinement of general management theories. The second – developing a Chinese theory of management – focuses on creating explanations for the existence of Chinese management phenomena that are uniquely Chinese. This approach rejects a research agenda created by Western scholars in favour of a research agenda created by Chinese scholars in order to understand Chinese phenomena. The implications of choosing either of these approaches for the future of Chinese management research and possible relationships between them are discussed.

This paper proposes a new institutional perspective to explain not only the diversity of local business systems in China but also how this diversity results from the integration of major institutional forces. We model the emergence of China's business systems as a co-evolutionary process unfolding along a business–government and a micro–macro-level dimension structured by intergovernmental institutional competition, business to business and business to government networking and public-private corporate governance. We find that: (i) China's emerging business system is the result of local institutional competition at the micro level that reduces the need for national (macro) institutions and impacts on the local implementation of national (including supranational) policies; (ii) the interaction between government and business is structured through networks which operate according to an economic rationale while drawing on cultural norms and traditions; and (iii) local businesses interact with local governments to recombine productive factors and reorganise firms and industries in line with local institutions. We conclude that the astonishing adaptability of Chinese businesses as well as the risk of corruption and lack of formal control at local government level are elements of locally differentiated business systems which are held together by an overarching institutional architecture.

Drawing on perceived organizational support (POS) theory and employee-organizational relationship theories, this research investigated the association between POS and knowledge sharing as well as the potential moderating effects of perceived job security. Study participants were 255 information technology professionals and their supervisors working in the information technology industry in China. Findings showed that POS was positively related to knowledge sharing, and, as expected, perceived job security moderated the association. More specifically, the positive association between POS and employee knowledge sharing held only for employees who perceived higher job security from their organization. In contrast, POS was not significantly associated with knowledge sharing when employees perceived their job security to be relatively low. This latter result is consistent with contentions from employee-organizational relationships theories that limited investment by employers is likely to lead to lower contributions from employees. The findings are also congruent with arguments from social exchange theory that meaningful reciprocity is built on a history of open-ended exchanges whose development may be inconsistent with a shorter-term employment horizon.

This study investigates the institutional influence on the location strategies of Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during the period 1985–2011 across 150 economies using Heckman's two-stage model. The results suggest that Chinese Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are ‘shortsighted’ and show perverse behaviour towards host country risk when deciding on the location of host country and volume of investment undertaken through M&As, which may damage the firm's long-term profitability.

This article sets a new agenda for research on the trajectory of Chinese capitalism. We first critically review the conflicting views on the causes of China's economic development. Then we suggest that insights from the comparative capitalism and economic sociology literatures can provide theoretical tools to understand the critical features of Chinese capitalism in a more systematic manner. The comparative capitalism literature can help us understand how Chinese capitalism resembles or differs from other varieties of capitalism in terms of the relationships between government, firms, and workers. The literature on economic sociology provides insights about how particular markets have evolved and become stabilized. We use these perspectives to suggest a set of possible research agendas for studying Chinese capitalism.