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One of the leading themes emerging out of recent management and organization research on China is the work on the micro–macro link – specifically, the connection between micro, interpersonal connections, ties, and networks on the one hand, and macro, interorganizational relationships, firm strategies, and performance on the other hand. This chapter provides an overview of the literature on the micro–macro link during China's institutional transitions. Based on a systematic search of the literature, we review 22 papers in nine leading journals that have empirically investigated the micro–macro link, with a focus on the antecedents, contingencies, and outcomes of managerial ties and interlocking directorates. We also propose how the network structure of managerial ties will evolve from cohesion to structural holes in different phases of China's institutional transitions. We conclude with a brief overview of the influence of China studies on research in other contexts and with a call for future research deepening our understanding of the crucial micro–macro link during institutional transitions.

We analyze corporate governance mechanisms in Canadian and US firms. We show that despite similarities in governance practices in both countries, there are differences in the efficacy of these mechanisms. In particular, the performance of Canadian firms is less sensitive to ownership structure than that of US firms. Differences are also found in the performance implications of incentive pay. Our study suggests that country-specific governance trends persist among Canadian firms cross-listed in the United States. These findings may explain why Canadian firms which are cross-listed in the United States continue to trade at a discount compared to their US counterparts.

Our study examines CEO compensation for firms that announce layoffs during the 1993–2001 period. We find that overall there is a large increase in CEO equity-based compensation in the year prior to and the year of the downsizing. Our sample of downsizing firms has small improvements in operating performance following the announcement. However, these performance improvements manifest themselves in the low but not the high equity-based compensation firms. We find that the announcement period returns are higher for downsizing firms that are larger, hire a new CEO in the year prior to the downsizing, have higher leverage, and better operating performance.

Jobs fundamentally influence and are influenced by individuals, organizations, and societies. However, jobs themselves are largely conceptualized in an atomized and disembodied way. They are understood as being designed, altered, and dissolved and bringing their consequences one at a time. I advance an alternative view of jobs as a system of ties that span jobs, organizations, and the environment beyond organizational boundaries. These ties create Gordian Knots that hold jobs in place and explain how they change. I illustrate the model with case study evidence and propose an agenda for research on jobs as organizational systems.

The social organization of work has become more entrepreneurial and less bureaucratic over the past 20 years. How is this development consistent with managerial control over the labor process? This paper develops a professional autonomy perspective to explain the acceptance of new management ideas in the United States, including the recent turn away from bureaucratic organizational forms. The focus on professional autonomy helps to create a theoretical link between past and current managerial practices, including the latest anti-bureaucratic phase that we label neoentrepreneurialism. We conclude by exploring future research implications of studying managerial practice from a professional autonomy perspective.

We take a state-stewardship view on corporate governance and executive compensation in economies with strong political involvement, where state-appointed managers act as responsible “stewards” rather than “agents” of the state.

We test this view on China and find that Chinese managers are remunerated not for maximizing equity value but for increasing the value of state-owned assets.

Managerial compensation depends on political connections and prestige, and on the firms’ contribution to political goals. These effects were attenuated since the market-oriented governance reform.

Economic reform without reforming the human resources policies at the executive level enables the autocratic state to exert political power on corporate decision making, so as to ensure that firms’ business activities fulfill the state’s political objectives.

As a powerful social elite, the state-steward managers in China have the same interests as the state (the government), namely extracting rents that should adhere to the nation (which stands for the society at large or the collective private citizens).

As China has been a communist country with a single ruling party for decades, the ideas of socialism still have a strong impact on how companies are run. The legitimacy of the elite’s privileged rights over private sectors is central to our question.

Chinese executive compensation stimulates not only the maximization of shareholder value but also the preservation of the state’s interests.

In the absence of well-developed, formal institutional frameworks, informal network-based strategies have been argued to be especially viable in emerging economies. However, some empirical research has challenged these earlier theoretical arguments. In light of new evidence, this chapter develops a contingency perspective differentiating firms' networks as strong ties and weak ties. It suggests that while strong-tie networks are typically found during the early phase of institutional transitions, weak-tie networks are more likely to be developed and leveraged during the late phase of transitions. The upshot is that as the performance benefits of strong ties decline during institutional transitions, emerging weak ties' impact on firm performance is likely to increase.

The aim of this chapter is to help library managers and administrators understand the core processes of project management and how adopting a project management mindset as an approach to library administration can help libraries more efficiently achieve the goals and objectives outlined in their strategic plans and to simultaneously grow library leaders, at all levels of the organization.

The chapter is a combination of general overview, literature review, and conceptual paper. It will begin by discussing the basics of project management and project management processes, the shell, that makes project management such a valuable management tool to help guide staff through work processes. Next will be sections focusing on core literature resources for further understanding the value of project management and the project management mindset, both from the library and non-library literature. Relevant library literature presented will highlight the portions of the literature that tie to the core project management process and its value as a managerial, strategic planning, and leadership building tool. This will be followed by a slightly more in-depth examination of project management processes, followed by a section detailing the practical benefits to libraries. The chapter will end by summarizing the benefits of utilizing project management as a managerial tool and ties into the overall concept of employing a Project Management Mindset as one’s approach to management or administration.

Practical implications to embracing a Project Management Mindset in libraries include improving efficiency, realizing goals and objectives tied to strategic plans, and building staff knowledge, skills, and leadership abilities. The ideas gleaned from this chapter can be applied in any library type: academic, public, special, or school.

Library literature related to project management is solid, but generally focuses on processes and tools, and often has an IT focus. This chapter fills a gap in literature geared specifically to managers and administrators and focuses less on specifics and more on the higher-level benefits organizations such as libraries can gain from project management as well as the benefits to the library profession as a whole by increasing employee skills, knowledge, and leadership.

We explore factors that influence the circulation of client–service firm relationships between firms in the same market for professional services. Circulation refers to the dissolution of a client–service firm market tie and the formation of a new tie involving the same client but a new professional service firm. Building on research in social embeddedness and the structure of markets, we argue that the circulation of client–service firm relationships is affected by three social signals: the mobility of exchange managers between professional service firms, the size and market strategy of professional service firms, and the similarity of new service firms to clients’ previous exchange partners. Using data on advertising agency–client market ties, we find that client ties are more likely to circulate to large agencies, agencies with many market ties, and to agencies that are similar to a client's previous advertising agency. The circulation of client ties is also more likely when new agencies hire exchange managers from a client's previous agency. This effect is stronger when exchange managers circulate to agencies of equal or higher status as their previous employer. We discuss the implications of our findings for social embeddedness research and for the study of professional service firms.

This study examines the effect of employees' perceptions of political connections on performance measurement systems (PMS) design choice and firm performance. In addition, this study explores the moderating effect of social networking, a very common and widely used factor by domestic and foreign multinational firms operating in China, and its joint effect with political connections or PMS design choice on firm performance. We collected survey responses from a sample of 110 managers from manufacturing firms in China. Our results reveal that highly politically connected managers use nonfinancial measures, leading to improved firm performance. Our results suggest that social networking interacts significantly with political connections, and nonfinancial and financial measures on firm performance. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.