Search results

This study aims to build on social comparison theory to develop a theoretical model of leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship to workplace ostracism through perceived organizational status by coworkers and envy. This study further proposes that warmth and competence may potentially moderate these two indirect effects.

This study tested the hypotheses in a battery manufacturing company located in South China by a survey of 216 employees organized in 55 work teams, using different sources. Additionally, the authors conduct two online vignette experiments to test this study’s mediation, proving the causality.

The authors found that high-level LMX leads to both envy and perceived organizational status by coworkers, which results in a mixed blessing on workplace ostracism toward the employee with high-level LMX. The focal employee’s warmth and competence moderate these indirect relationships.

The authors use LMX to explore antecedents of workplace ostracism and explain how and when these focal employees suffer workplace ostracism from their coworkers. The authors extend the research on LMX by examining the interpersonal risk of being a focal employee. The authors discover two critical boundary conditions – warmth and competence.

This study suggests that it is important to balance the level of the differential LMX; appropriately endorsing other members is a good way to avoid eliciting envy and opposition. Meanwhile, person-oriented citizenship behaviors such as demonstrations of concern or help may shortly build up an employee’s warm impression on their coworkers.

By discovering the bright and dark sides of LMX, this paper has the potential to advance theories on LMX and workplace ostracism. Therefore, the authors believe the current research will have an important impact on relevant research in the future.

The paper aims to contribute to the current research on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from a historical point of view. The paper investigates why the history of the Silk Roads is important to the BRI, what is in the guiding thought underpinning China's Silk Roads narrative and how this narrative is presented transnationally, through an insightful analysis of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) view of the Silk Roads history, as well as its perception of the connections between the Silk Roads history and the BRI.

The paper sits in the interface between history, heritage and state power. The argument is framed in concepts of historical constructionism and soft power. It is based on the discourse analysis of China's official narrative of Silk Roads and a case study of the planning for the World Heritage nomination of the Maritime Silk Routes (MSR) (China section). The case study is conducted through a qualitative analysis of academic publications, media reports and programs, official speeches and documents that are available to the public in hardcopy or on the Internet.

The paper reveals the relationship between the state-endorsed Silk Roads narrative and the BRI. The paper argues that the state-backed Silk Roads narrative as well as the planning for the World Heritage nomination of the MSR (China section) is guided by the Chinese Communist Party's perception of the BRI. In this respect, the Silk Roads-associated history, heritage and memory are shaped and deployed to serve as a convenient platform for the promotion of the BRI. The Party leaders' perception of the BRI is in large part about the revival of China's past glory, its national rejuvenation and the demonstration of China's soft power.

The paper contributes to the existing literature on the BRI through its enquiries into how the CPC reconcile nationalist ambitions with notions of peace, harmony and cosmopolitanism and how CPC's view of the Silk Roads history shapes its vision of the BRI. The paper examines the role of the state in the construction and articulation of the Silk Roads-associated history, heritage and memory. It investigates how China's official interpretation of the Silk Road heritage serves China's BRI.

Through three case studies, the authors aim to examine how Confucian humanistic philosophy can be applied to leadership practices and show how it is possible to practice humanistic leadership in the Chinese context.

The authors use case studies of three exemplary humanistic leaders and the companies they lead to describe their leadership practices and influence on others and their companies.

The authors identify three common elements that connect their observations to an emerging scholarly conceptualization of humanistic leadership and develop a framework of Confucian humanistic leadership consisting of five attributes. The cases the authors studied suggest that the five attributes should be understood as being mutually reinforcing and acting in concert, rather than each acting independently of the others. The authors found that there is inherent consistency and connection between the core values of Confucianism and humanistic leadership.

The research contributes to the leadership literature, specifically the emerging literature on humanistic leadership, by introducing a framework for Confucian humanistic leadership. While much of the extant literature on humanistic leadership has been conceptual, the study shows how it is possible to practice humanistic leadership in the Chinese context by drawing on the foundation provided by Confucian humanistic philosophy. The findings also contribute to humanistic leadership research by providing important insights into specific capabilities that can help put the principles of humanistic leadership into practice, but that have not been considered to date.

In 2017, the Chinese Super League (CSL), the first professional football division in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), became the highest-spending league in the international players’ transfer market, with a total spending of €377m. Moreover, the government of the PRC is backing the CSL with an ambitious football plan. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the governance of the CSL by questioning the organisational viability of the league.

In addition to the relevant international literature, this study is based on 14 recent scholarly articles published in Mandarin from 2013 to 2018 to reflect the national academic debate. Moreover, website research on all CSL clubs has been conducted. The institutional analysis follows the integrative change model of Cunningham (2002) complemented by agency and bureaucracy theory.

The CSL still faces substantial governance problems caused by the divergence of goal setting, organisational inefficiencies and compliance issues. The organisational change is notably constrained by internal competitive value commitments and external power dependency.

The institutional findings on the CSL provide a starting point for empirical studies. The approach contributes to the theory of sport governance processes.

The material and insights are informative for decision makers to evaluate the competitiveness of the CSL.

This paper is the first international in-depth analysis of the governance of the CSL using the body of knowledge published in Mandarin.

This paper centers on the exploration of Chinese conflict management styles in the context of international joint ventures in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Based on interviews conducted with directing managers in U.S.‐Chinese joint ventures and seminars held in China on conflict management in such ventures, major characteristics of Chinese conflict management styles are discussed. Influenced by the traditional Chinese values, norms, and philosophies, Chinese managers in joint ventures tend to adopt contingent, long‐term, contextual, and holistic approaches to conflict resolution.

This paper aims to report on a study that used the practice theory lens to understand how Chinese ethnic culture influences restaurant workers' learning through engagement in everyday work practices.

A multiple case study approach was used. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and site observations. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify how workers learnt the sayings, doings and relatings in their workplaces.

The findings show that the ethnic culture of the participants influences and enriches their learning in practice settings such as small Chinese restaurants.

The understandings presented here need to be verified through more research in different regions and nations. In addition, cross-cultural studies on other ethnic restaurants may contribute to deeper understandings of the influences of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The research contributes to understanding the influence of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The understandings gained from the findings of this study form a useful basis for curriculum development and instructional design of training programmes for practice-based as well as work-integrated-learning components of vocational curriculum. Furthermore, awareness of the strengths of the ethnic culture is of interest to owner/managers of small Chinese restaurants to afford supportive learning environments for workers.

This study aims to examine an important mechanism in the policy-led institutional transitions in China, namely, Te Shi Te Ban (Special Treatments for Special Matters) – an institutional device that facilitates policy implementation. The discussions are contextualized based on the latest chapter of China’s institutional transition, known as the reform initiative of Fang Guan Fu (i.e. the FGF reform: delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services), which is a policy regime introduced in 2018 to improve the state-market relationship for better socioeconomic development.

Based on the theoretical lens of proto-institutions and institutional work and using real-life examples from mass media, this perspective paper examines the effects of the Special Treatments in the institutional transition under the FGF Reform.

The Special Treatments are the proto-institutions purposively adopted by the regulators in China to innovate, supervise and renovate the rules and norms during policy implementation. They produce both incremental and radical institutional effects which allow for a more efficient and effective policy-led institutional transition.

This study contributes to institutional theory in the Chinese management context. Foremost, this study introduces the concept of proto-institutional work and shows how proto-institutions can serve as a mechanism to support and manage the process of institutional transition. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study the FGF Reform – the latest reform initiative in China and theorize an under-researched but important mechanism in its institutional environment – the Special Treatments for Special Matters.

The purpose of this paper is to form propositions about the relationship between top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and peer effects in investment decision-making and explore the mediating role of social learning processes.

To investigate the correlations between TMT heterogeneity and investment peer effects, we considered the TMT heterogeneity category, team process and contextual factors. With a sample of 8,467 firm-year observations from Chinese listed companies, we used the mean linear model and instrumental variable method to empirically examine their relationships. To identify the mediating role of social learning processes, we introduced a social learning model to find out the contextual factors influencing corporate social learning demands from three aspects and subsequently used comparative statics analysis to explore the variations in the main effect under these contextual factors.

For task-oriented heterogeneity (e.g. functional background, education and tenure heterogeneity), the opposite effects of information elaboration and social categorization processes make it a nonlinear multiplex correlation with investment peer effects. For relation-oriented heterogeneity (e.g. age and gender heterogeneity), the sole effect of social categorization processes leads to a negative linear correlation. Further, we identify the mediating role of social learning processes. In summary, we established a connection from the TMT heterogeneity, to information elaboration theory or social categorization theory, to social learning processes and ultimately to investment peer effects.

The results of this study provide a comprehensive perspective to predict the decision-making outcomes of team heterogeneity and contribute to heterogeneity research and practice.

This study aims to investigate the role of interfirm communication on the complementary effect between corporate political action (CPA) and research and development (R&D) investments under transaction costs.

A quasi-experiment study design was used, combining business game simulation and a public goods experiment with communication as a controlled variable. A fixed-effect regression analysis was performed on panel data collected from 72 students.

The findings indicate that collective CPA is positively and significantly associated with R&D investments, particularly when interfirm communication is present. Conversely, for non-communicating firms, the effect is limited to the relationship between individual CPA and R&D investment.

Despite advancing the research on political ties and innovation, the study acknowledges limitations related to framing effects and institutional variability.

The complementary effects indicate that institutional arrangements (i.e. business associations) may foster interfirm communication and cooperation in CPA efforts, mitigating opportunistic behaviours and legitimising CPA strategy towards innovation.

This study contributes to understanding how firms’ political and R&D decisions can positively impact innovation, despite the challenges of ex post transaction costs.

The positive effect of communication on political action and cooperation on firms’ innovation, even in weak institutional environments, is highlighted. An innovative methodological approach combining business games and economic experiments was used to examine participants’ decisions under transaction costs.