Chinese Management Studies

Fu, Lihua; Liu, Zhiying

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-10-2017-0312

This study aims to investigate antecedent conditions that lead to the development of distributed leadership (DL). The authors examine how the emergence of DL is affected by empowerment and internal context, which consists of shared purpose, social support and voice. The moderating effects of training are also investigated.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, this empirical analysis of the relationship between the variables was based on the results of a questionnaire survey on 62 teams in high-tech enterprises of mainland China.FindingsResults indicate that empowerment and internal context in the team significantly predict the extent of DL and that training has positive moderating effects on the relationships.Practical implicationsThe results imply that firms must carefully analyze specific team conditions to ensure shared purpose, social support and voice in each team. This study also suggests the importance of empowerment. Moreover, enterprises can use training, a human resource tool, to enhance the positive effects of internal context and empowerment on DL.Originality/valueBy building on upper echelons theory and integrating insights from contingency theory, this study extends prior research by examining the direct effects of both empowerment managerial system and internal context on DL and the moderating effect of training.

Wu, Hang; Liu, Yang

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-09-2017-0254

Internationalization has emerged as a vital catch-up strategy for firms in emerging markets. Although external knowledge search has been widely acknowledged as an important way within the internationalization process, there appear to be opposing views as to whether local or international knowledge search contributes more for firms’ internationalization. This paper aims to integrate organizational ambidexterity and external knowledge search theory to define the concept of external knowledge search ambidexterity and empirically test the impact of the balance dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity and combined dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity on internationalization and the moderating effect of organizational slack and environmental munificence.Design/methodology/approachSurvey.FindingsBased on survey data of 219 Chinese manufacturing firms, the authors find that both relative balance and combined dimensions of external knowledge search ambidexterity are positively associated with internationalization. Organizational slack and environmental munificence both negatively moderate the relationship between balance dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity and internationalization, both positively moderate the relationship between combined dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity and internationalization.Practical implicationsIt is essential for managers to take different external knowledge sources into consideration, so as to both maximize revenues and profits from advanced technological knowledge and foreign marketing knowledge in foreign markets and geographic proximity advantages in local market, while minimizing the risks of lacking of adaptive capacity for lacking of knowledge about international markets and cost of coordination and communication because of long geographical distance and cultural difference.Originality/valueThe findings help us better understand the knowledge seeking activities of emerging economy multinationals by proposing that the balance and combination of local and international knowledge search both can promote internationalization, especially on the background of China. The results also enrich the organizational ambidexterity research and extend it to external knowledge search field.

Zhou, Huiping; Yao, Yanhong; Chen, Huanhuan

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-05-2017-0137

This paper aims to explore the direct effects of open innovation (OI) on firms’ innovative performance, and to examine the moderating effects of knowledge attributes, including knowledge distance, knowledge embeddedness and partner opportunism on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data of 247 samples from China were used to test the proposed model through hierarchical regression analysis.FindingsThe findings indicate that the dimensions of OI are positively related to innovative performance. The results also reveal that knowledge distance positively moderates the relationship between inbound OI and innovative performance, whereas knowledge embeddedness negatively affects that relationship. Knowledge embeddedness negatively affects the relationship between inbound OI and innovative performance, whereas knowledge distance positively moderates that relationship. Thus, a new finding is proposed that knowledge attributes could align effectively with specific OI type to achieve superior innovation outcomes. In addition, the empirical results suggest that partner opportunism plays a negative moderating role on the relationship between outbound OI and innovative performance.Originality/valueThe proposed view that a firm’s innovation outputs will be superior when its knowledge attributes effectively align with OI enriches studies of the OI context and expands the literature of both the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view. Furthermore, this study provides insights into how OI benefits can be influenced by external contexts from the perspective of partners’ opportunistic behaviour.

Xu, Qin; Zhao, Yixuan; Xi, Meng; Zhao, Shuming

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-03-2018-0448

The topic of employees’ taking charge behaviors has garnered increasing interest in both practical and academic fields. Leaders play a critical role in influencing followers’ taking charge behaviors, yet few studies have explored the predicting role of benevolent leadership. Drawing from proactive motivation literature, this paper aims to investigate a moderated mediation model that examines work engagement as the mediator and role-breadth self-efficacy as the moderator in the relationship between benevolent leadership and taking charge.Design/methodology/approachMatched data were collected from 297 followers and their group leaders in three subsidiaries of a large telecommunication company in China. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results revealed that benevolent leadership was positively related to followers’ work engagement and consequently their taking charge behaviors. Moreover, such moderated mediation relationship was stronger among followers who had low rather than high levels of role-breadth self-efficacy.Research limitations/implicationsThe primary contribution of this study is building a contingent model for the effect of benevolent leadership on follower taking charge and thereby extending the nomological networks of both benevolent leadership and taking charge literatures. Another contribution is that this research provides a new perspective to understand how leadership leads to followers’ taking charge behaviors.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate how and when benevolent leadership predicts follower taking charge.

Li, Zijie; Gao, Qiuling; Shen, Kai; Zhang, Junyue

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-01-2018-0383

This paper aims to examine different hypotheses concerning the effects of executive incentive on the degree of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) ambidexterity. Specifically, this study provides new insights on how executive equity incentive and executive control right incentive may affect overseas ambidextrous strategy of Chinese enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThis study used panel data of Chinese manufacturing listed companies in 2006-2015 to explore the relationships between related factors. Hypotheses are tested by using regression analysis.FindingsThis study found that executive equity incentive is positively related to the degree of FDI ambidexterity. It also found that the level at which control right incentives of executive are made has a curvilinear relationship with degree of FDI ambidexterity. Higher level of control right incentive of executive will be associated with higher degree of FDI ambidexterity; however, beyond some level, higher control right incentive of executive will be associated with lower degree of FDI ambidexterity.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has implications to future research and companies’ everyday practice on ambidextrous FDI strategy.Originality/valueBased on the principal-agent framework and incentive theory, this paper offers an interesting insight of achieving balance of ambidextrous strategy for Chinese multinational enterprises by involving the different roles of executive equity incentive and executive control right incentive they played.

Sun, Zhe

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-12-2017-0338

The purpose of this paper is to unpack the black box of post-merger and acquisition (M&A) integration of reverse M&A by Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs).Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts multiple cases of Chinese reverse M&A. Data are collected using the approaches of in-depth interviews, storytelling and narratives.FindingsThis research identifies various antecedents underlying Chinese post-M&A integration, such as asymmetries in resources, capabilities, vision and status between Chinese MNEs and acquired firms. The post-M&A integration process of Chinese reverse M&A consists of a top-down effortless integration initiated by Chinese MNEs with both benefits and problems, and a bottom-up reverse integration conducted by acquired firms.Originality/valueBy linking the pre-M&A phase and the post-M&A phase, this research builds a new model of post-M&A integration of Chinese reverse M&A from an indigenous Wu Wei paradigm. The new model counterpoises extant literature, shifting from the task and efficiency-focussed view to the people and harmony-focussed view.

Tang, Yanzhao; Zhan, Xuemei; Chen, Ken

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-12-2017-0344

This paper aims to examine the effect of differential leadership on organizational corruption by developing a measure of organizational corruption and proposing a moderated mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating role of moral disengagement underpinning the relationship between differential leadership and organizational corruption, and the moderating role of organizational justice in influencing the mediation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 210 responses from online participants with full time work experience and 57 MBA students answered the survey offline.FindingsResults showed that differential leadership was positively associated with organizational corruption. Furthermore, moral disengagement fully mediated the relationship between differential leadership and organizational corruption. Besides, distributive justice negatively but procedural justice positively moderated the indirect effect of moral disengagement.Research limitations/implicationsTesting the moderated mediation model helps to advance the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the effect of differential leadership on organizational corrupt behavior.Originality/valueThis empirical study provides preliminary evidence of the mediating role of moral disengagement in the positive relationship between differential leadership and organizational corruption. The mediated moderation also extends the finding by adding organizational justice as the moderator to explain how the effect of differential leadership on organizational corruption. Finally, this study provides initial evidence for organizational corruption measure.

Lee, Chi-Cheng; Kao, Rui-Hsin; Lin, Chia-Jung

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-04-2017-0092

This paper aims to develop the structure of employer brand and discuss whether employees and employers have the same view on the elements of employer brand.Design/methodology/approachThe employer brand of Taiwan, which includes 5 facets and 20 eight terms, was obtained. Management, welfare, interest and environment are the common facets of employer brand in China and Western countries. In addition, family and atmosphere is an important factor that merges both Western and Eastern job applicants. Its contents emphasize family life, which is only found in applicants from Taiwan and China.FindingsThe results showed that enterprises utilize functional factors in order to connect emotions closely and satisfy psychological sustenance, which have true attraction to young Taiwanese applicants and the current workforce of employees.Originality/valueIn general, after 20 years of establishment and empirical research, the achievements are rich and many practical opinions are provided. However, most of the existing literatures come from the researches of Western scholars, and they may be affected by the Western social value. This study has explored the Oriental and Western literatures. In the study field of Taiwan, it is found that employer brand will definitely show different style features due to the cultural difference. Therefore, when an enterprise applies the relevant connotation of the employer brand, it is necessary considering the cultural difference. This shows the importance of cross-cultural study of employer brand recently. At the same time, this also highlights the contribution of this study on theory and practice.

Wang, Li; Jiang, Marshall Shibing

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-07-2018-0589

The venture capital syndication brings in various resources for the portfolio firms, which positively affects those firms’ performance, while conflicts within syndicates also have negative impact on the portfolio firms’ performance. This study aims to explore the two opposite effects of the venture capital syndication on the portfolio firms’ operations. Drawing on Ma et al.’s (2013) power source match perspective, the authors examine the effect of (mis)match of power source between ownership and status on the portfolio firms’ performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses panel data from two professional databases containing information about the venture capital-backed firms in China. The fixed effect model is applied to analyze the data.FindingsThis study found that power source match in the venture capital syndicates works positively on the portfolio firms’ performance. This positive relationship is weakened when there is ownership-dominated power source mismatch present.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that when new ventures search for venture capital, it is better to allocate greater ownership to the venture capital providers with high-status power, so that ownership power and status power can have a proper match to increase the coordination among venture capital providers, thereby helping portfolio firms perform better.Originality/valueThis study looks into the performance of a portfolio firm when there is power a (mis)match in a venture capital syndication, extending the current literature in this area where only the performance of the venture syndications is examined.

Wei, Ya-long; Long, Dan; Li, Yao-kuang; Cheng, Xu-sheng

2018 Chinese Management Studies

doi: 10.1108/cms-10-2017-0315

The purpose of this paper is to build a research model to examine the effects of business planning on the new venture emergence, as well as to examine the moderating effects of innovativeness of products.Design/methodology/approachFour hypotheses are put forward and examined by hierarchical binary logistic regression. The data of this paper are based on the first two waves of data from Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics project.FindingsResults show that engaging in business planning has a positive effect on the new venture emergence, and the timing of business planning does not affect the new venture emergence significantly. This study also finds that the innovativeness of products has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the timing of business planning and the new venture emergence.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations. The innovativeness of products is measured by a single indicator, which may not completely reflect the meaning of the attribute. Moreover, this study explores new ventures only in the nascent stage.Practical implicationsThe study is useful for entrepreneurs to realize the importance of business planning. First, engaging in business planning in early start-up stage is a very valuable activity, because business planning can help new ventures reduce the loss caused by trial and error learning. Second, engaging in business planning is more likely to ensure high innovative products quickly be accepted by the market. Because in the process of new venture emergence, the legitimacy signal to stakeholders can be transmitted and new products can be promoted to get support and recognition from stakeholder through the business plan.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on the early stage of new venture life cycle and the contextual factors to explore the influence of business planning on the new venture emergence under the logic of legitimacy. This paper could enrich business planning research from the perspective of legitimacy theory by inspiring scholars to focus on the differences between new ventures and mature enterprises and to offer proposals of legitimation strategies suitable for new ventures. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the understanding of the contextual factors of business planning. And it discusses the impact of the attribute in business planning on the new venture emergence, which helps scholars to get a deep thought about the value of business planning in entrepreneurial process.