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The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of mainland Chinese hotel firm internationalisation relative to traditional Western internationalisation theory through an analysis of the Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group’s joint venture with the Thayer Lodging Group to acquire Interstate Hotels & Resorts.

The case study method was used to examine the three firms involved in the joint venture acquisition. The technique of elite interviews was used to collect primary data. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with senior corporate executives who were engaged as principals with the conception, execution and administration of the joint venture. Content analysis was performed with the interview data, seeking themes and patterns consistent with the study purpose.

The findings demonstrated specific characteristics that distinguish the internationalisation that Jin Jiang has pursued. The five distinctive characteristics were as follows: a “leap” market entry mode, a pattern of “a small fish eats a big fish”, a preference for purchasing hotels in the West, capital sourcing from Chinese banks and strategic rather than operational control of the acquired firm.

The findings indicate both similarities and differences between the China context of hotel firm internationalisation and that of Western firms. Theoretical implications are examined through an analysis of Dunning’s OLI (ownership, location, internalisation) framework. Generalisability of empirical findings may be limited by the China context and the unique combination of three firms.

The findings advance our understanding of the relationship between Chinese and Western practices, particularly in the approaches that firms take in internationalisation.

The story reported in this paper is about the first firm internationalisation endeavour in the mainland Chinese hotel industry. This is a landmark event for the international hospitality industry that will have historical significance, and represents the leading edge of mainland Chinese hotel firm cross-border expansion. This study contributes an early analysis of how the Chinese hotel sector may approach internationalisation.

This chapter explores how the development of football fandom for the Chinese national team and local football clubs is strongly associated with societal changes. Although the performances of Chinese football teams, especially the national team, have failed to impress the world, football remains the most popular because of millions of supporters with loyalty and passion. Most studies related to fans mainly focus on the economic and political implications of spectatorship along with the rise of China. Nevertheless, few articles are available to answer the fundamental questions, such as ‘When did these supporters come out?’ and ‘What were the factors of the development of fandom?’. By going through archival records and published documents over the last decades, this chapter offers a comprehensive and historical analysis of the development of football fandom in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and deals with these unanswered questions. As such, this chapter does not intend to be the most authoritative one but is one of the rare sources to lay down the foundation for research on Chinese football fandom. Furthermore, this chapter also proves that studies on football fandom can be a useful window for observing Chinese society.

The purpose of this paper is to present an investigation of the effect of different gravity conditions on the penetration mechanism using the two-dimensional Distinct Element Method (DEM), which ranges from high gravity used in centrifuge model tests to low gravity incurred by serial parabolic flight, with the aim of efficiently analyzing cone penetration tests on the lunar surface.

Seven penetration tests were numerically simulated on loose granular ground under different gravity conditions, i.e. one-sixth, one-half, one, five, ten, 15 and 20 terrestrial gravities. The effect of gravity on the mechanisms is examined with aspect to the tip resistance, deformation pattern, displacement paths, stress fields, stress paths, strain and rotation paths, and velocity fields during the penetration process.

First, under both low and high gravities, the penetration leads to high gradients of the value and direction of stresses in addition to high gradients in the velocity field near the penetrometer. In addition, the soil near the penetrometer undergoes large rotations of the principal stresses. Second, high gravity leads to a larger rotation of principal stresses and more downward particle motions than low gravity. Third, the tip resistance increases with penetration depth and gravity. Both the maximum (steady) normalized cone tip resistance and the maximum normalized mean (deviatoric) stress can be uniquely expressed by a linear equation in terms of the reciprocal of gravity.

This study investigates the effect of different gravity conditions on penetration mechanisms by using DEM.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is growing steadily and Chinese multinationals (MNCs) are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. Thus, the number of papers focusing on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs has been increasing during the last years. The aim of this chapter is to carry out a review of the empirical papers dealing with Chinese MNCs published between 2002 and 2012 in high-impact international business and management journals.

This chapter reviews 43 empirical papers focusing on Chinese MNCs that were published in nine major scholarly journals between 2002 and 2012.

We report individual and institutional contributions, the theories and methods used, the research topics, and the main findings. We also discuss implications for future research.

Some previous literature reviews have dealt with research on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs. Nevertheless, none of the earlier reviews dealt specifically with empirical papers; neither did they provide an analysis of both individual and institutional contributions.

This paper aims to give a snapshot of planning, building and developing the information commons at a comprehensive research university library in China. It seeks to frame and confirm a new and effective strategy for the future development of university libraries illustrated by its actually positive outcomes.

The paper begins with an overview of information commons as a major international concern that represents a strategic direction of library development, followed by the changing academic landscape in China. It then explains the background and process of building the information commons at Sichuan University Jiang'an Library with its emphasis on its positive outcomes, illustrated by the latest factual data compared with other university libraries in Sichuan. It also discusses the future prospects of developing the information commons.

The paper reveals that information commons is undergoing its international journey from theory to practice and has proved its positive impact on improving the usage of physical and virtual space, resources and services of university libraries in the changing information environment.

Detailed recommendations regarding the construction and development of information commons in Chinese university libraries are provided.

This case study offers insight into practical and effective approaches to enhancing the usage of university libraries in China and emphasizes the importance of integrating the actual situation and background of the university, the region and the nation.

The purpose of this study is to present a newly proposed and developed sorting algorithm-based merging weighted fraction Monte Carlo (SAMWFMC) method for solving the population balance equation for the weighted fraction coagulation process in aerosol dynamics with high computational accuracy and efficiency.

In the new SAMWFMC method, the jump Markov process is constructed as the weighted fraction Monte Carlo (WFMC) method (Jiang and Chan, 2021) with a fraction function. Both adjustable and constant fraction functions are used to validate the computational accuracy and efficiency. A new merging scheme is also proposed to ensure a constant-number and constant-volume scheme.

The new SAMWFMC method is fully validated by comparing with existing analytical solutions for six benchmark test cases. The numerical results obtained from the SAMWFMC method with both adjustable and constant fraction functions show excellent agreement with the analytical solutions and low stochastic errors. Compared with the WFMC method (Jiang and Chan, 2021), the SAMWFMC method can significantly reduce the stochastic error in the total particle number concentration without increasing the stochastic errors in high-order moments of the particle size distribution at only slightly higher computational cost.

The WFMC method (Jiang and Chan, 2021) has a stringent restriction on the fraction functions, making few fraction functions applicable to the WFMC method except for several specifically selected adjustable fraction functions, while the stochastic error in the total particle number concentration is considerably large. The newly developed SAMWFMC method shows significant improvement and advantage in dealing with weighted fraction coagulation process in aerosol dynamics and provides an excellent potential to deal with various fraction functions with higher computational accuracy and efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the internationalisation prospects of Chinese domestic hotel firms.

This study examined the Jin Jiang Hotel Group, China's largest domestic hotel firm. The qualitative method of semi‐structured personal interviews was selected in the design of this exploratory study to address the research question: What are the factors guiding Jin Jiang's considerations for internationalisation? Personal interviews were conducted with the senior corporate headquarters' management in Shanghai.

The findings indicate that the firm is in a stage of pre‐internationalisation in its organisational development, and has adopted a cautious and passive approach on its path towards internationalisation. This paper identifies company abilities, government support, marketing and brand strategy, network and management standards, state‐owned enterprise (SOE) related problems, human resources and other external opportunities/challenges as factors that may affect the firm's internationalisation.

This paper develops a better understanding of the evolution of Chinese SOEs' internal capabilities as internationally competitive providers of hospitality management services. It also explores the nature of relevant relationships that will determine the activities, pace, and progress along such firms' internationalisation paths. The paper specifically provides understanding of a firm's prospects of internationalisation, internationalisation activities that the firm has already undertaken, factors that support or inhibit internationalisation, and future intentions and plans for internationalisation.

This paper analyses factors underlying a Chinese SOE domestic hotel firm's approach to internationalisation. While most internationalisation studies are conducted after the firm has already internationalised, this study examines the pre‐internationalisation stage.

This chapter discusses how the real options theory can be useful for understanding the adoption of human resources management (HRM) practices. The authors review how the real options theory has provided insights into the processes through which firms manage uncertainties involved in the adoption of HRM practices. The authors offer propositions for future HRM research from the real options perspective. The authors contend that analyzing HRM practice adoptions through the lens of real options theory can enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which firms choose which HRM practices to adopt and how they adjust the timing, scale, and methods of investment in these practices. Specifically, the authors suggest that differences in information relevant to valuation of HRM options are the source of distinct choices of HRM options across firms. Finally, the authors propose advancing knowledge on HRM practice adoptions by using a portfolio of options approach, as well as considering factors like competitors, path dependence, and switching options.

Entrepreneurship is ubiquitous, but it is not unequivocally a human force for social and economic good. Critical perspectives of the entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial success (and failure) are evolving in the scholarly literature. Dark side theory has emerged as a language for critiquing the dominant narratives of entrepreneurship portrayed in scholarship, education, planning, policy, and other forms of practice. This chapter draws from dark side entrepreneurship theory, Baumolian entrepreneurship, and exemplars of counterculture to craft language for an emerging theory of misfit entrepreneurship, which consists of misfit entrepreneurs and alternative enterprises. Alternative enterprises and misfit entrepreneurs are conceptualized, and literary examples (i.e., Robin Hood and Song Jiang) and modern-day examples (i.e., Hacker groups) are supplied. The unique actions and impacts of misfit entrepreneurs and alternative enterprises are offered for discussion. This new theory of misfit entrepreneurship leaves readers with exploratory questions that enhance critical perspectives and modern understandings of entrepreneurship today.