Since 2012, a large-scale Party branches building campaign intending to regain political influence in the private sector has been sweepingly promoted. Drawing on the Chinese Private Enterprise Survey conducted in 2008, 2012, and 2018, this study investigates private enterprises’ strategies in response to the intensified political pressure by integrating socioemotional wealth theory and neo-institutional theory. It is found that (1) private enterprises with high family ownership tend not to establish Party branches until political pressure is very high; (2) enterprises with high family ownership are more likely to adopt a decoupling strategy of evading the Party's political and social goals; and (3) the owners’ perceptions of a better market and legal environment weaken the negative effect of family ownership on the establishment of Party branches. These results reveal the key logic of preserving the socioemotional wealth and ‘embedded agency’ of Chinese private enterprises when they confront institutional legitimacy mandates. This study also sheds new light on the causes of the decoupling phenomenon and the dynamic interactions between institutional environment and organizational behaviors.

Taking an inductive approach followed by validation techniques, we analyzed the meaning and dimensionality of the organizational justice construct in the People's Republic of China (China). By using qualitative and quantitative methods, we found that organizational justice involves a higher level of subjectivity in the Chinese context. Interpretation and organizational justice judgments depend on the specific situation and social relations involved. The findings revealed similarities with the Western conceptualization with one important exception, suggesting both cultural values and institutional environment shape justice judgments and managerial practices in China. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications for management theory, research, and practice.

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.

This study proposes an initial and a revised model of government-oriented public relation (PR) strategies based on the results of two content analyses of website news regarding the PR activities of 76 firms in general and six well-known firms in China in more depth. With the perspective of resource dependence theory, this model reveals that firms in China employ six types of formal PR strategies, including visitation, philanthropy, participation, publicity, party involvement and political propaganda, to manage their dependence on government for resources. Further, the implementation of such strategies involves a four-step process: organizing PR activities with economic, social and political significance; obtaining the involvement and recognition of the government; building firms' resource, moral and cultural legitimacy in the government's eyes; and interacting with the government on the issues of firms' dependence to influence government policies relative to firms. We also explore the differences that exist among firms with different ownership structures in the use of these PR strategies, the level of government involved and the issues pursued.