Innovation with Chinese characteristics: theory and practice
Abstract
Purpose
This is a special issue of Chinese Management Studies and this study aims to engage with debates on innovation in China and to provide new insights for innovation research in the context of China, seeking to develop a greater understanding of the concept of “innovation with Chinese characteristics”.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reviews the Chinese innovation management literature in general and the selected papers in this special issue in particular and proposes two new directions for future research.
Findings
The nine papers that constitute this special issue present research on important aspects of innovation in China, ranging from the effectiveness of government subsidisation for innovation, the impact of fiscal decentralisation on innovation, the role of management behaviour in promoting (or discouraging) innovation and the effects of differing business models on innovation. These papers shed valuable new light on the theory and practice of innovation in China. The papers are discussed in the context of four primary arguments about innovation management in China identified from the broader literature in the field. These relate to the pattern of China’s innovation performance over time, the reasons for its effectiveness, the role of alliances and influences of indigenous factors. It is also shown that management of the internationalisation of innovation and of efficient internal innovation are two important directions for future research on Chinese innovation in an era of de-globalisation.
Originality/value
The studies presented here provide valuable contributions to theory building in innovation research, as well as some important ideas for directions of future research on innovation in China in the new era of de-globalisation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Publisher’s note: Due to a production error the article,Li, Z., Li, J., Chen, J. and Vinig, T. (2020), “Innovation with Chinese characteristics: theory and practice”, Chinese Management Studies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-01-2020-0001, was typeset and published twice in error. The authors wish to maintain this version of the article. The duplicate can be found at: Li, Z., Li, J., Chen, J. and Vinig, T. (2020), “Guest editorial”, Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 325-333. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-06-2020-796.
We would like to thank all the authors and reviewers who contributed to this special issue and we are grateful for the support of Professor Cherrie Jiuhua Zhu, Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Management Studies. This paper would like to acknowledge the financial support by the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 16JJD790017), the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 16AZD008), and the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Citation
Li, Z., Li, J., Chen, J. and Vinig, T. (2020), "Innovation with Chinese characteristics: theory and practice", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-01-2020-0001
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited