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The purpose of this article is to put forward China’s Hanyu Pinyin word guanli as an academic basic term to the world.

GUANLI as an academic basic term, which holds multiple meanings of several English words, such as management, administration, governance, etc. As a basic term, GUANLI, derived several words, such as GUANLIOLOGY, GUANLIST/GUANLIER and GUANLIWORK/GUANLIJOB, to precisely and exactly convey the Chinese GUANLI ideas. It is the historical mission and opportunity for the authors to research and establish the Chinese School of Modern GUANLI Science (CSMGS).

It is inevitably necessary to build the combined Chinese–Western discourse system of GUANLI science (CCWDSGS). Some other research results of CSMGS are also presented in this paper.

It is needless to say that there are still lots of problems in China, including in the GUANLI field. These problems will gradually be solved in China’s reform and development that takes place continuously. New problems will come up while old problems are being solved and settled; problems producing in a loop, problems solving in a loop, this is the dialectics. The authors have full confidence in solving problems, as well as in China’s development and future.

Practice comes first and then it is followed by theory. The authors first have the “China Model”, followed by the “Chinese School” consequently. The “China Model” has already been there, and the “Chinese School” relies on the author’s proactive research and innovation. It is just the right time for the authors to study and create the CSMGS. This is the historical mission and opportunity awaited by contemporary Chinese.

Disruptive technology and innovation represent complex conflicts in nature. This paper aims to present an analytical review of the heterogeneity and conflicts that exist in the disruptive technology/innovation between the eastern and western countries using Chinese high-speed railways to illustrate disruptive innovation.

The emerging economy brings about other theoretical and practical conflicts. Qualitative analysis is conducted on Chinese high-speed railways to assess the validity of innovation characteristics using Professor Clayton M. Christensen’s theories of disruptive technology/innovation and conflict. The authors explore the conflicts that can accompany the introduction of disruptive technologies in the current platform and how appropriately this specific context can lessen these conflicts.

The study revealed that Christensen’s theories could be applied 100per cent to the Chinese context if the western disruptive innovation theory can meet the practical requirements of Chinese disruptive technology/innovation. Qualitative analysis showed that Chinese high-speed railways had experienced greater success with disruptive innovation mechanism. The authors conclude that while the Chinese market is critical in shaping the kind of innovations that are emerging there, many disruptive technologies/innovations in China have their roots in the low-end market and new market. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

There exists a research gap in the literature on the Chinese context. Conflict of disruptive technology and innovation within China and the characteristics of the Chinese high-speed railway prompt further research for scholars and practitioners.

China has become the world’s largest vehicle market, because of the strong governmental support to boost car sales and particularly because of the establishment of joint ventures between state-owned enterprises and world-class automakers. However, because many Sino-foreign joint ventures have performed unsatisfactorily in terms of creating indigenous brands, the purpose of this paper is to explore the cause-and-effect relationships among governmental policy support, Sino-foreign joint ventures and own-brand innovation in China’s passenger-car industry.

After briefly introducing the development history of the Chinese auto industry and reviewing relevant literature, first, the analytic hierarchy process method is used to create a unique, context-specific equation to measure the degree of policy support in China. This paper then uses the hierarchical multiple regression method to process the 2014 public data set.

The findings show that the degree of policy support increases the preference of the firms for producing foreign-brand cars, while such a relationship is fully mediated by the establishment of Sino-foreign joint ventures.

The research brings greater and deeper insights into the interplay among governmental policy, the conduct of own-brand strategy and international joint ventures in China’s auto market, showing that policy support may not always be beneficial, but sometimes be detrimental to indigenous innovation.

This paper can be seen as an exciting step that adds to a better understanding of the role of political support in shaping the strategic choices of firms in terms of brand innovation in the Chinese automobile industry. The proposed novel, context-specific approach for evaluating the degree of policy support embodies the distinctive institutional complexity and intricate social network embedded in the local car market during the period of China’s socio-economic transformation – an approach that is original in this field.

This paper aims to introduce ten studies included in this themed issue that illustrate from multifaceted angles some critical management issues and context-specific challenges on strategy and innovation facing the State and enterprises during China’s socio-economic transition. Instead of focusing on topics from the literature, this special issue (SI) pays more attention to characterising unique Chinese business practices in the transformation period.

The ten manuscripts were selected for this SI so that readers can compare how scholars used different research designs and multiple analytical and statistical approaches to draw conclusions.

These studies involve a wide range of aspects, as well as diversified perspectives demonstrating some critical management issues and context-specific phenomenon associated with the development of strategy and innovation in contemporary China. The results show that while pollution-related issues have had a damaging effect on China’s business environment, the Chinese government has to enact and enforce stricter environmental laws to promote technology innovation in a healthier manner; moreover, Chinese firms should pay greater attention to the trade-off between the increasing of resource consumption for growth and the reducing of energy use for the sake of the planet. In response to the grand innovation challenges Chinese manufacturing is confronted with, these papers suggest that policy support may not always be beneficial but sometimes detrimental to independent innovation, and that Chinese manufacturers may ultimately get access to the key and core technology of forerunners by forming a R&D strategic alliance in periphery knowledge/technology first. Overall, the outcomes of these studies provide a bigger picture and intriguing implications that may inspire practitioners, policymakers and academics to further ponder relevant issues in a more comprehensive way.

All ten studies based on original data were not reported elsewhere and demonstrated results that have not been addressed in prior research. This paper enriches one’s understanding of how Chinese firms have been deliberately seeking their own distinctive trajectories of developing strategy and innovation dissimilar to those of advanced economy companies, given the peculiar cultural background and institutional systems. Future research trends and opportunities are also outlined.

The purpose of this paper is to employ a Yin-Yang harmony perspective to propose a novel circled 5C model to understand the unique harmonizing process of how conflicts are resolved in China. Despite increasing research on labor conflicts in Chinese manufacturing, Western theories still can not explain how Chinese culture influences conflict management.

The authors investigate a large manufacturer where a severe labor strike happened in South China. A mixed-methods research design is adopted. The scale of Chinese harmony and analysis of variance are used to identify the underlying unharmonious factors triggering the labor strike. The grounding theory approach (a case study) was adopted to further examine the proposed 5C model.

“Harmony with corporate system”, “Harmony between departments” and “Harmony with firm leader” were found to arouse employee grievances the most. Differences in age, gender, marital status, educational level, tenure and position were discovered to affect workers’ perceptions of workplace harmony. The proposed 5C model was supported.

As a lesson in handling escalating labor conflicts, this study allows foreign investors to better understand how to cope with relevant labor strife issues in China. In addition, this project integrates research with consultancy service, which can be seen as an exciting step forward in bridging academics and practitioners.

Based on Yin-Yang harmony thinking, this study suggests an integrative, context-specific concern – concern for harmony for China to transcend the Western dual-concern model regarding the choice of coping with conflicts. The paper constructs a novel circled 5C model of the Chinese harmonizing process (conflict, clash, communication, comprise and consensus), which characterizes the dynamic, contingent and art-oriented nature of Chinese conflict management.

The purpose of this paper in the editorial review of manuscripts to highlight the emergent aspects of original thinking that provide new perspectives on issues central to management.

A synoptic perspective of a very broad range of topics covered in research by scholars is provided: education, corporate value, quality, corporate social responsibility, risk behavior, managing reputation, expatriation, growth and creativity. In this particular review, the editor emphasizes those facets of the paper that shed original, new light on management. Also, the areas where research provides a theoretical basis for consulting or managerial practice are highlighted to illustrate how research can be of practical relevance.

Some of the insights gained clearly indicate the importance of research. For example, tighter or more rigorous governmental regulations on food quality are unlikely to contribute to the enhancement of firms’ capability in improving food quality. The government needs to do much more than only regulate. Then, there is empirical reaffirmation that guan-xi with government matters: better the relationships, the higher corporate value but only if the firm is in private hands, not for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Then, the Chinese local firms’ nexus with foreign, and international corporations influences their corporate social performance. Even more fascinating, a bank’s risk behavior is dependent on the structural composition of the board of directors. Indeed, research shows that a gender mix in fact lowers the propensity toward taking a high risk. Then, through reflecting upon their deep researches, the authors derive a theoretic framework for coping with reputation loss following a financial restatement. Here, authors showed SOEs to suffer much more in the event of restatement than the privately owned enterprises. Then, in a piece of innovative research of expatriation, authors relate a spectrum of the Chinese cultural values to performance. In a cross-country (civilization) study, the research motivation is: Whether SMEs in China, India and Pakistan are confronting the same environmental challenges? As expected, the answer would be yes in some aspects and no in others. This a significant finding, as the Chinese are raised on a milieu of suppressing one’s emotions: emotional expressiveness can contribute to creativity!

In this paper, the editor highlights some aspects on the original thinking of the authors within this issue of Chinese Management Studies. Also, the editor highlights on how research contained herein is contributing to managerial (consulting) practice.

In the context of an economic downturn and three transitions of political power, Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) kick-started the cross-strait mutual trust mechanism, encouraging university graduates to find employment in mainland China’s job market (in both mainland China and Hong Kong). Academia and industry are both paying great attention to this issue. There is still a paucity of discussions about cognitive style with regard to working in mainland China (Macau)

This study is based on the Q methodology using a sample of Taiwanese university graduates to explore how behavioral factors relate to cognitive style.

This paper defines four cognitive styles based on differences in focus and motivation: lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS), word-of-mouth (WOM), learning/practice match and local market disappointment.

An association is drawn between cognition theory and psychology’s classification of cognitive style. In the context of the four cognitive styles, this paper explores the practical implications of employment and provides recommendations for those intending to work abroad.

This study aims to investigate the effects of environmental risk perception on the evaluation of socioeconomic development and subjective well-being in China.

A questionnaire survey was conducted, and data were collected from 408 participants of four major universities and government organizations in Changsha, China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the collected data and to test the hypotheses with regard to the relationship among latent variables. Bayesian method was used as the statistical inference procedure.

Results show that environmental risk perception has a direct negative influence on perceived socioeconomic development and on subjective total well-being (i.e. both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being). The perceived socioeconomic development has a direct positive effect on the subjective total well-being; thus, it plays a partial mediation role between environmental risk perception and subjective total well-being.

Findings suggest that the environment protection act of the government and their contribution to socioeconomic development will significantly affect the total well-being of people. The empirical analysis is based on survey data; thus, this study may suffer the common problems of questionnaire survey.

Promoting pro-environment and health behaviors is important in developing a happy society.

This study demonstrates a significant negative effect of environmental risk perception on the total well-being of people according to SEM approach. This study determines two independent paths for government and policy makers to increase the total well-being of people in China, namely, increasing socioeconomic value to people and controlling and reducing environmental threats.

This paper is dedicated to answer two questions: What is the business model of interactive television (iTV) ad at China’s Spring Festival Gala; and Why the business model of iTV ad creates different commercial values for different firms.

The two questions can be summarized as what and why problems; so, this paper adopts the method of the qualitative case study. For the first question, this paper uses the method of system activity diagram to design the business model. For the second question, this paper proposes a new analytical method – voice, incentive and convenience (VIC) model, which is used to analyze the commercial value of iTV ad. The proposal of VIC model is based on Wang et al.’s Iceberg theory.

The effect of interactive advertising is significantly better than that of traditional advertising, and interactive advertising is becoming the first choice for marketers. The business model innovation of iTV ad brings new business opportunities. In addition, the larger the area of the triangle surrounded by the three elements of VIC, the higher the commercial value of iTV ad.

Current business model studies focus on business model definitions and innovations, whereas the studies on business model evaluation and its influential factors are rare. A new analytical model named VIC is proposed. It explores the effect of VIC on the commercial value of iTV ad and provides a reference for the quantitative empirical analysis. The combination of activity system theory and VIC model contributes to the understanding of the explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge of iTV ad business model. This framework can be used to guide TV stations and stakeholders for business model innovations and optimizations.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the systematic relationships among dynamic capabilities in startups’ survival.

This study is based on a systematic literature review on dynamic capabilities related to startups’ survival, following the content analysis approach.

This study presents four different perspectives of analysis about dynamic capabilities from resources exchange and business factors that meet needs of startups' survival. It also points out new area for future research in this field. In doing so, this study differentiates itself by its approach not limiting dynamic capabilities research and enriching entrepreneurs' capability theory.

By indicating an evolution of dynamic capabilities theory among tangible and intangible resources exchange in a more favorable adaptation to startups growth, this study boosters and contributes to the society, economy in general and to the science of business management in various perspectives such as overcoming cognitive barriers, entrepreneur’s commitment, innovation capabilities and knowledge capacity of startups.

This study amplifies dynamic capabilities vision in startups’ survival as one of the main sources for growth in this type of organizations. It also develops a deeper understanding about new avenues for dynamic capabilities theory among tangible and intangible resources exchange.