Decision-Making Styles of the Next Generation of Chinese Business Leaders

This study seeks to explore the relationships between decision-making styles, academic performance, and gender of educated Chinese millennials. As the millennial generation of college graduates in China comes of age, they will move into leadership roles in public and commercial organizations. They will have influence over considerable financial assets as well as economic and public policy which translates into global impact. There is a gap in the existing literature on the topic. This study utilized online self-report questionnaires to gather data, and the general decision-making style test to assess respondents' decision-making models culminating in correlation analysis and t-test. Based on the findings of related research, the authors hypothesized that there would be a difference in the decision-making styles based on gender and that there would be a significant difference in academic performance based on the decision-making styles. The findings may be of interest to a variety of those interested in decision-making styles, Chinese millennials, and future leaders of China.

How the Development of FinTech Can Bolster Financial Inclusion Under an Era of Disruptive Innovation?

FinTech provides more inclusive financial services for individual users and companies. China, with the highest penetration rate of online payment around the world, enables individual users to enjoy in-depth inclusive lending services. This chapter will portray and assess FinTech's adoption, challenges, and its potentials to China. Based on previous literature, the characteristics of FinTech in China and the roles of government in promoting FinTech to Chinese business will be discussed. This chapter will also select cases from Hangzhou and the Greater Bay Area in order to analyze the opportunities and challenges for Chinese companies integrating FinTech into its business operations.

The Relationship Between CEO Duality and Business Firms’ Performance: The Moderating Role of Firm Size and Corporate Social Responsibility

This study focuses on exploring the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) duality and firm performance. We focus on how the size and corporate social responsibility (CSR) of firms moderate this relationship. In terms of size, business organizations are of two types: small and large firms. This study uses datasets of listed Chinese business firms included in the China Stock Market and Accounting Research database. It employs a generalized method of moment’s technique to explore the connection between CEO duality and the performance of Chinese business firms through double mediation effects. Our empirical analysis showed that CEO duality has a significant negative relationship with firm performance. We also explored the moderating effects of firm size (small and large) and CSR practices on the relationship between CEO duality and improved performance of Chinese firms. Large firms and CSR practices showed significant and positive moderating effects on the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance. Conversely, with CEO duality, small firms showed a negative moderating influence on firm performance. This inclusive model provides valuable insights into how the dual role of the CEO of a firm affected the performance of Chinese firms through the moderating role of CSR practices and firm size for better business performance. The study offers empirical and theoretical contributions to the corporate governance literature. This research framework might help researchers in designing robust strategies to evaluate the effects on firm performance. Researchers may gain helpful insights using this methodology.

Reframing Chinese Business History

Business history is expanding to include a greater plurality of contexts, with the study of Chinese business representing a key area of growth. However, despite efforts to bring China into the fold, much of Chinese business history remains stubbornly distal to the discipline. One reason is that business historians have not yet reconciled with the field's unique origins and intellectual tradition. This article develops a revisionist historiography of Chinese business history that retraces the field's development from its Cold War roots to the present day, showing how it has been shaped by the particular questions and concerns of “area studies.” It then goes on to explore five recent areas of novel inquiry, namely: the study of indigenous business institutions, business and semi-colonial context, business at the periphery of empire, business during socialist transition, and business under Chinese socialism. Through this mapping of past and present trajectories, the article aims to provide greater coherence to the burgeoning field and shows how, by taking Chinese business history seriously, we are afforded a unique opportunity to reimagine the future of business history as a whole.

Opportunism, bounded rationality and governance choices in exploration alliances: the moderating role of boundary spanners' guanxi

PurposeBy distinguishing opportunism-based and bounded rationality-based transaction costs, the study examines how firms use equity/relational governance and boundary spanners' guanxi to govern their exploration alliances in a transaction cost economizing way.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a survey methodology for data collection, and the sample consists of 150 exploration alliances formed by large Taiwanese information and electronic firms.FindingsFindings of this study show that exploration alliances incur considerable transaction costs and require high-level equity control and relational governance. The positive exploration of alliance-equity ownership relationship will be weakened by boundary spanners' guanxi when guanxi serves to harmonize conflicts and mitigate opportunism-based transaction costs, thereby reducing the need for using costly equity ownership to govern exploration alliances. In contrast, the positive exploration alliance-relational governance relationship will be amplified when guanxi becomes a source of legitimacy in the Chinese guanxi institution. This relation-augmenting effect will drive more relational governance because guanxi and relational governance together allow alliance managers to obtain sufficient legitimacy in the formation of a common dominant frame, thereby mitigating bounded rationality-based transaction costs.Originality/valueBy distinguishing various moderating effects of boundary spanners' guanxi and separating transaction costs into two forms, this study contributes to the existing literature as well as advances our understanding of alliance governance decisions in the Chinese business environment.

A PATOP Study of Philosophy and Business Management: Western vs. Chinese Business Structures in Taiwan

Introduction. Alignment between the philosophical value of the Western parent company and the structure of the local organization is essential to improve managing effectiveness and worker productivity. The alignment may need adjustment while considering whether a Western model is fitted into the Chinese workgroup. This study examines the philosophical value concerning business management within an organization and then explores which value is applicable to the modern Chinese structure in the context of Taiwan. Purpose and methods. The purpose is the holistic view of the Chinese model, as opposed to the separated approach of the West. It does not attempt to find the best philosophical framework of business management for local Chinese structure in Taiwan, as such a framework probably does not exist. Instead, it explores the specific phenomena considered during the process of emergence of business management framework when comparing philosophical value for both selected cases of Western and Chinese enterprises. The case study and PATOP model were used. Results. As a result, there has no single model that is absolutely appropriate to both business and people in one way or the other. Both Chinese and Western philosophical ways of doing business have merits and weaknesses, as illustrated. The implication of the results is the emerged PATOP model. The model indicates an ideal work environment where the Western approach is applicable to the Chinese structure in Taiwan. Conclusions. It concludes that the philosophical approach in doing business within the Chinese structure is erected in a way of “Middle of the Road” according to the PATOP emerged from the study. However, it should be noted that there will be drift as this emerged PATOP model used in the Chinese structure with western approach, indicating another issue “what an acceptable time for drift would be”?

Big Business and Cadre Management in China

Leading cadres in China are subject to rotation. An interesting form of rotation takes place between big business and the political world. That means one fifth of China’s governors and vice governors have a business background as heads of one of China’s large State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). How this takes place and which qualifications the involved business leaders possess are shrouded in mystery. Based on prosopographical studies of Chinese business leaders who have participated in the Chinese Executive Leadership Program (CELP), this article attempts to open the black box. The study examines the career pathways of CELP participants in Party, government and business positions. The study shows that 84 of the 261 CELP SOE participants (2005-2018) were subsequently promoted, and 20 of these promotions were from SOEs to leading Party and government positions. In some cases, former business leaders became Party secretaries in important provinces or ministers in key ministries. The article also argues that Chinese business leaders have managed to keep their administrative ranking in the Chinese nomenklatura system. In fact, Chinese business leaders are quasi officials (zhun guan) and form an important recruitment base for leadership renewal. As such, the article suggests that the rotation of cadres within the ‘Iron Triangle’ of Party–government–business constitutes the main unifying and stabilising factor in the Chinese political system.

Financial statement analysis: a review and current issues

PurposeThe literature on financial statement analysis attempts to improve fundamental analysis and to identify market inefficiencies with respect to financial statement information.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the author reviews the extant research on financial statement analysis.FindingsThe author then provides some preliminary evidence using Chinese data and offer suggestions for future research, with a focus on utilising unique features of the Chinese business environment as motivation.Originality/valueThe author notes that there has been no work that the author could locate specifically on Chinese FSA research. The unique business environment in China, relative to the US where the vast majority of this work has been conducted, should motivate any studies, especially given the author documents the robust finding in terms of the mean reversion in profitability.

Origins and Growth of Big Businesses in China

Chapter 3 elaborates on the origins of large businesses, particularly business groups, which have been leading the economic catch-up in China. The majority of firms listed on the stock markets in China are business groups, which are comparable to their counterparts in Japan (keiretsu) and in Korea (chaebols). However, the chief differences between large business groups in China and those in Korea and Japan are that the former are less diversified and are owned by the state, not by particular families (as in Korea) or commercial banks (as in Japan). Chinese business groups typically maintain a vertical structure, with the core company at the first tier and closely related companies at the second tier. Their performance in the 2000s also had strengths (high growth) and weaknesses (lower profitability) similar to those in neighboring countries, such as chaebols in the 1990s in Korea.

Research on Effects of Covid-19 in Chinese Business Negotiation

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the whole world unexpectedly, the connection between people was cut, and people had to adopt a new method to interact. This paper focuses on techniques used to conquer obstacles due to the pandemic and how Chinese businessmen preserved their culture at the same time. Combining the traditional way of negotiation with the new methods is also a topic worth negotiating. The whole world can see how Chinese businessmen rapidly adapt to the new environment. Since this is an unprecedented crisis and topic to discuss, the theme of this paper is not found in much research. Hopefully, the findings in the paper will guide negotiators throughout the world. A pause button has been pushed on the global economy; China was also estimated to suffer a plunge in the economy. However, this paper offers an alternative guess that China is overgrowing after COVID-19 is mainly under control. There is little research done on this abstract topic of negotiation after the pandemic. Thus, this paper primarily cites articles from before the pandemic as an introduction to the Chinese negotiation style and uses qualitative first-hand from the survey. Representatives in the survey have abundant experience in negotiation and conducting business in China. The survey results suggest positive expectations from businessmen in China, and the younger the group surveyed, the more likely they are to adapt to the new ways to negotiate. The findings in this paper can be a lighthouse for future study in acceptance and application of the use of novel methods developed during the pandemic.