Global Supply Chains as Drivers of Innovation in China

China’s manufacturing and innovation capabilities are directly related. Availability of complementary resources in rapid prototyping, test production, and components and the ability to deploy innovations at scale increasingly lead high-technology firms, including startups, to consider China as a developmental base across sectors from big data to cloud computing, smart grid, renewable energy, and alternative energy vehicles. Entry into global value chains (GVCs) has led to vast transfers of knowledge, creating human resource capabilities that continuously facilitate the upgrading of Chinese firms. China’s most advanced industries were all those characterized by active participation in GVCs. China’s entry into GVCs has differed significantly from the experiences of other emerging economies, arguably affording China greater innovation benefits. This is directly related to China’s institutional environment of “structured uncertainty.” Structured uncertainty shaped the pattern and impact of entry into GVCs, dictating which regions entered GVCs, when, and how, with long-term knowledge transfer effects.

The Exception as the Rule: Negligent Hiring Liability, Structured Uncertainty, and the Rise of Criminal Background Checks in the United States

The threat of negligent hiring lawsuits is thought to play an important role in the widespread use of criminal background checks among US employers. This article examines the construction of negligent hiring within the trade literature of the human resources (HR) field using a qualitative content analysis. While courts tend to view criminal record checks as unnecessary for occupations that do not carry foreseeable risks, the article finds that the HR field has broadly endorsed criminal record checks as the default practice for screening job candidates. The article argues that this divergence stems from the structured uncertainty of compliance under the common law tort of negligent hiring, which shapes organizational behavior in ways that defy the substantive clarity of relevant case law.