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This article aims to present the second part of an interview with Dr Xiao-Ping Chen. The focus is on her experience in, and insight on, Chinese management research.

This paper is based on a recent interview with Dr Xiao-Ping Chen.

Dr Xiao-Ping Chen shared her research experience and insight in the following aspects: identifying topics in Chinese management research, collaborating with Chinese domestic scholars, and approaching a research question or idea to make research fruitful with evolving research agenda on Chinese guanxi. She also shared her insights on exploring new research topics vs following or extending others' ideas, and how the gap between research and practice might be bridged.

Dr Chen's research experience and insights provide an exemplary case for junior scholars to deal with the challenges in conducting and publishing Chinese management research, particularly in how to take an “insider's view” in identifying and engaging in interesting and valuable research.

The interview profiles a picture of a scholar in Chinese management research.

This study aims to investigate the influences of task-technology fit on university students’ attitudes towards ubiquitous library-supported learning when they use a mobile library app, Line@Library.

In this study, structural equation modelling to examine 158 valid questionnaires are used. The study aims to examine the effects of task-technology fit (TTF) on university students’ attitudes towards mobile learning (AML) when using Line@Library.

The results show that task-technology fit is an important role that influences the students’ attitudes towards mobile learning. The factor “technology characteristics” is considered when the students attempted to use the mobile app to solve problems or complete tasks. This study also found that the students responded with positive perceptions of the task-technology fit and had positive perceptions of its ease of use. Furthermore, usefulness, ease of use and affection of AML were found to be the most influential predictors of mobile library adoption intention.

From the perspective of learners, this study investigates the relationships of the combination of social media and a mobile library between TTF and AML. This study further found that not only ease of use, usefulness and affection but also task-technology fit can be a predictor that influences students’ attitudes towards mobile learning.

The aim is to test the influence of leader-member exchange relational separation (LMXRS) on individual creativity by building up a cross-level moderated mediation model. Besides exploring the mediating role of emotional support in linking LMXRS with individual creativity, this study also examines the moderating role of group-level team-leader exchange (TMX) in affecting the mediation.

Longitudinal data for 321 employees on 68 groups in over ten enterprises from China was employed to examine this model.

Results showed that LMXRS affected individual creativity negatively. Further, LMXRS had an indirect effect on individual creativity via emotional support. Finally, moderated path analysis revealed TMX median attenuated LMXRS direct influence on emotional support and indirect effect on individual creativity.

The empirical research investigates the mediating influence of emotional support on the association between LMXRS and individual creativity. The multilevel moderated mediation model also expands the current findings by examining that group-level TMX quality can moderate the indirect influence of LMXRS on individual creativity through emotional support.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the development of an innovative mobile laser scanning (MLS) method for 3D indoor mapping. The generally accepted and used procedure for this type of mapping is usually performed using static terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) which is high-cost and time-consuming. Compared with conventional TLS, the developed method proposes a new idea with advantages of low-cost, high mobility and time saving on the implementation of a 3D indoor mapping.

This method integrates a low-cost 2D laser scanner with two indoor positioning techniques – ultra-wide band (UWB) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU), to implement a 3D MLS for reality captures from an experimental indoor environment through developed programming algorithms. In addition, a reference experiment by using conventional TLS was also conducted under the same conditions for scan result comparison to validate the feasibility of the developed method.

The findings include: preset UWB system integrated with a low-cost IMU can provide a reliable positioning method for indoor environment; scan results from a portable 2D laser scanner integrated with a motion trajectory from the IMU/UWB positioning approach is able to generate a 3D point cloud based in an indoor environment; and the limitations on hardware, accuracy, automation and the positioning approach are also summarized in this study.

As the main advantage of the developed method is low-cost, it may limit the automation of the method due to the consideration of the cost control. Robotic carriers and higher-performance 2D laser scanners can be applied to realize panoramic and higher-quality scan results for improvements of the method.

Moreover, during the practical application, the UWB system can be disturbed by variances of the indoor environment, which can affect the positioning accuracy in practice. More advanced algorithms are also needed to optimize the automatic data processing for reducing errors caused by manual operations.

The development of this MLS method provides a novel idea that integrates data from heterogeneous systems or sensors to realize a practical aim of indoor mapping, and meanwhile promote the current laser scanning technology to a lower-cost, more flexible, more portable and less time-consuming trend.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of team-member exchange (TMX) differentiation on team creativity by developing a moderated mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating role of team proactivity in linking TMX differentiation with team creativity and the moderating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) median in influencing the mediation.

A time-lagged field survey data from 331 employees and 68 team leaders in more than ten high-technology firms from Northern China was used to test the model.

Results indicated that the negative relationship between TMX differentiation and team creativity was mediated by team proactivity. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that team proactivity mediated the relationship between TMX differentiation and team creativity for only those teams with a low-LMX median.

The empirical study provides preliminary evidence of the mediating role of team proactivity in the negative relationship between TMX differentiation and team creativity. The moderated mediation model also extends the existing finding by showing that LMX quality can moderate the indirect impact of TMX differentiation on team creativity (via team proactivity).

With many years’ economic transformation from “Made in China” to “Created in China,” the State Council has set May 10th as annual “China’s Brand Day” from 2017. This action indicates the implementation of brand strategy and the new national policy of promoting China’s brands. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of marketing background of top management team (TMT) on trademark and brand output.

Using the trademark application data of Chinese-listed companies, this paper constructs a multiple linear regression model and uses the OLS method. This research also uses two-stage regression to examine the effect of endogeneity on the results.

Our results show that the higher the proportion of executives with marketing background in TMT, the more the number of trademark applications. Furthermore, we document that the positive impact of TMT marketing background on the number of trademark applications is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, companies with more patent output and companies whose CEO has marketing background, indicating that when TMT can play a bigger role, companies have better innovation ability and team collaboration is more efficient, the promoting role of TMT marketing background on the number of corporate trademark applications will be stronger.

This research focuses on the world’s largest emerging economy – China, which is different from the existing literature that is mainly based on western developed countries. With China’s economy stepping into a new normal and consumption upgrading, it is important and worthy of a deep discussion about which factors affect the company’s trademark and brand management.

Scholarly research provides few insights into how integrating the western values of individualism and low power distance with the eastern values of collectivism and high power distance may influence cross-cultural conflict management. Following the framework of the theory of cooperation and competition, the purpose of this paper is to directly examine the impacts of organization-level collectivism and individualism, as well as high and low power distance, to determine the interactive effects of these four factors on cross-cultural conflict management.

This is a 2×2 experiment study. Data were collected from a US laboratory experiment with 80 participants.

American managers working in a company embracing western low power distance and eastern collectivism values were able to manage conflict cooperatively with their Chinese workers. Moreover, American managers working in a company valuing collectivism developed more trust with Chinese workers, and those in a company culture with high power distance were more interested in their workers’ viewpoints and more able to reach integrated solutions.

This study is an interdisciplinary research applying the social psychology field’s theory of cooperation and competition to the research on employee-manager, cross-cultural conflict management (which are industrial relations and organizational behavior topics, respectively), with an eye to the role of cultural adaptation. Furthermore, this study included an experiment to directly investigate the interactions between American managers and Chinese workers discussing work distribution conflict in four different organizational cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the reputation of underwriters and sponsoring representatives on initial public offering (IPO) underwriting fees, and further investigates the role of ownership and political connection.

The methodology includes three models. Model 1 empirically investigates the effect of underwriter’s reputation on underwriting fee. Model 2 studies the effect of sponsoring representative’s reputation on underwriting fee. Model 3 further examines the effect of underwriter’s reputation and sponsoring representative reputation on the underwriting fee controlling for the impact of ultimate controlling ownership and political connection.

The study documents that underwriters’ and sponsoring representatives’ reputation can result in reputational premiums. In the IPO of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the reputation of underwriters and sponsoring representatives does not significantly affect the underwriting fees. In the IPO of non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs), there is a significantly positive correlation between underwriters’ and sponsoring representatives’ reputation and underwriting fees. Further research results show that, on the one hand, the effect of underwriters’ and sponsoring representatives’ reputation on underwriting fees is not significant in the IPO of NSOEs with political connection. On the other hand, underwriting fees are positively associated with underwriters’ and sponsoring representatives’ reputation in the IPO of NSOEs without political connection.

The sponsoring representative’s fee is not disclosed separately, which makes it difficult to distinguish the incremental effect from underwriter’s services and reputation.

NSOEs relative to SOEs are more likely to pay higher underwriting fees for hiring underwriter and sponsoring representative with better reputation during the process of IPO.

The reputation of underwriter and sponsoring representative does not matter to SOEs but does matter to NSOEs. However, NSOEs’ political connection affects underwriter fees.

This paper provides new evidence of sponsoring representatives’ reputation and political connection on the underwriting fees in the IPO in Chinese SOEs and NSOEs.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on “Global implication of the indigenous epistemological system from the East: How to Apply yin-yang balancing to paradox management” by Li (2016). As a pioneer in developing indigenous Chinese management theories, Li has been focused on extracting essential principles of the Chinese yin-yang philosophy and applying them to organization and management phenomena within and outside China (Li, 1998, 2012, 2014a, b). In this paper (Li, 2016), Li sharpens his thinking on the unique attributes of the Chinese yin-yang balancing perspective so as to both distinguish it from and connect it to Western Aristotelian and Hegelian philosophies in regard to contradictions and paradoxes that are increasingly more prevalent in contemporary organizations. The author found Li’s paper thought provoking and highly relevant to cross-cultural management research. The author reflects on the yin and yang of the yin-yang perspective itself and discusses how it can be extended for theorizing about cross-cultural or inter-cultural management research.

Applying yin-yang dialectics on the East-West cultural differences, this commentary contends that the strengths and weaknesses of the cultural mindsets of the East and the West are relative and potentially complementary to each other, and seeks to balance and integrate Eastern and Western perspectives for theorizing and tackling cultural differences and conflicts in a globalized world.

On the basis of yin-yang dialectics on cultural differences, a communitarianism model is proposed for cross-cultural researchers to balance and integrate individualism and collectivism, a well-established East-West cultural difference.

The theoretical model of communitarianism builds upon but transcends either Eastern or Western cultural differences toward a viable global value system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and internationalization of Chinese firms, whether the above relationship could be varied for firms with different kinds of ownership, and the channels through which financial development affects internationalization.

This paper uses a sample of 2,053 firms for the period 2001 to 2013, and applies the methods of ordered logit, logit, and OLS regressions to examine the role of financial development on firms’ internationalization.

The results show that financial development accelerates the level of international process of Chinese firms, and this effect is stronger for the non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) than for SOEs. The authors also document that financial development increases the investment scale of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). In addition, the evidence on the channels through which financial development affects internationalization indicates that financial development accelerates the level of international process in high-technology industries and industries that are more dependent on external financing, and promotes the technology-seeking OFDI, and these effects are more prominent for NSOEs than for SOEs.

First, this study examines Chinese firms’ internationalization from the perspective of financial development and focuses on the relationship between financial development and internationalization, and varies this relationship over firms with different kinds of ownership. Second, this study adds to the existing literature by identifying two channels through which financial development has an impact on internationalization, namely, external finance and high-tech intensiveness, and identifies the impact of financial development on technology-seeking OFDI.