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The study aims to investigate the production offshore outsourcing practices of SMEs in the New Zealand printing, publishing and packaging industries. It identifies the techniques SMEs use to organise and manage their offshore outsourcing activities. The authors then develop a managerial framework to assist SMEs in their future offshore outsourcing ambitions.

The study takes a qualitative approach; obtaining data from a sample of 22 New Zealand SMEs in the printing, publishing and packaging industries that are actively offshore outsourcing production tasks. Data was gathered in the form of semi‐structured interviews with SME managers who have carried out offshore outsourcing.

To mitigate offshore outsourcing costs, SMEs use the internet to locate suppliers and use short‐term reliable contracts that are managed remotely or by intermediaries. Customer involvement was highly important during the entire offshore outsourcing process. Most SMEs developed long‐term business relationships with reliable suppliers. These findings are integrated into the SME framework, which identifies ways SMEs can overcome resource constraints and minimise risks when offshore outsourcing.

This study is confined to a single country and reports on findings for several related industries, i.e. the printing, publishing and packaging industries in New Zealand. This limits its applicability to research in other settings and other industries. However, it identifies an area of research (offshore outsourcing activities in SMEs) that could be extended to other industries and countries by future research.

The SME framework presents an easily understood approach that has been verified by SME managers who have successfully offshore outsourced production tasks. The research proves that SMEs can offshore outsource within the constraints of limited physical and managerial resources.

The study showed that the decision‐making process to outsource is supported by the transaction costs approach. Firms have to balance out total cost considerations in making their decision to offshore (including contingency costs) to ensure that the savings from outsourcing are greater than the transaction costs. The resource‐based view of the firm is also used to suggest that offshore outsourcing means that firms may be able to improve their own competences by providing (through their suppliers) access to more sophisticated and higher‐quality processes.

The research contributes to the growing area of SME offshore outsourcing research, providing detailed empirical evidence of SME offshore outsourcing activities occurring in New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the performance of China's bankcard market during 1999‐2005 when China's local card association – China UnionPay (CUP) was established in 2002, which integrated many small closed payment systems into an open payment system.

Difference‐in‐difference (DID) estimator and fixed effects model are employed to assess the potential influences of the establishment of CUP on the performance of China's bankcard businesses. In implementing DID method, it is possible to view the banks (payment entities) that are members of the CUP as the “treatment group” and others outside the CUP as the “reference group”, and introduce the “CUP member” dummy variable. Simultaneously, the paper introduces the “incident year” dummy variable labeling 2002 and afterward since the CUP was founded. Therefore, effects of establishing the CUP on the performance of its members can be simply obtained by estimating the coefficient of the interaction term between the “CUP member” dummy variable and “incident year” dummy variable in the estimation equation. The data used in this paper come from the official CUP website and Chinese Financial Statistic Almanac (2000‐2006).

The empirical evidence shows that from the micro‐perspective of maximizing platform transaction volume, the “closed to open” organizational reform, i.e. introducing the CUP into the market decreased rather than increased the performance of CUP's members. The fundamental reason for this was imperfections in the market's internal management mechanism and multi‐party profit distribution mechanism, which led to dislocation and distortion in the positioning and function of the card association‐CUP.

Different with most other studies that are pure theoretical ones, this study represents one of the few studies that use empirical methods to investigate two‐side markets.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of relational mechanisms and market contracts on cross‐enterprise knowledge trading in supply chain and to examine the role of market contracts. Relational mechanism is categorized into indirect and direct relational mechanism in this paper. Cross‐enterprise knowledge trading is categorized into explicit and tacit knowledge trading. The indirect relational mechanism is mainly expressed by knowledge brokers, while the direct relational mechanism consists of shared goals and trust.

Multiple regression analysis was performed on questionnaire data from 256 Chinese manufacturing enterprises in supply chain in order to assess the relationships between relational mechanisms, market contracts and cross‐enterprise knowledge trading.

The results show that knowledge brokers and market contracts have significant and positive effects on explicit knowledge trading, but the effects on tacit knowledge trading are not significant. Shared goals and trust have significant and positive effects not only on explicit knowledge trading but also on tacit knowledge trading, while trust has a stronger positive effect on tacit knowledge trading than explicit knowledge trading. Finally, the moderating effects of market contracts are proven in the relationships between relational mechanisms and knowledge trading, excluding the relationship between knowledge brokers and tacit knowledge trading.

Previous studies about the cross‐enterprise knowledge trading in supply chain focused on theoretical research which did not match with reality, especially in China, where the relational mechanism in trading activities is strong. Based on relational exchange theory and transaction cost theory, a conceptual model for the effects of relational mechanisms and market contracts on cross‐enterprise knowledge trading in supply chain is proposed in this paper, and then empirically tested using the data collected from 256 Chinese manufacturing enterprises in supply chain with multiple regression models. The findings provide a theoretical basis for knowledge trading participants selecting an appropriate governance mechanism to promote knowledge trading, and these also guide the knowledge trading among members of supply chain in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents (the medieval guild) of modern day industrial clustering. The paper challenges the notion that work of Alfred Marshall provides the intellectual underpinning of cluster thinking.

The source material uses archival research on medieval guilds and historical texts. In tracing the development of forms of co‐operative association this paper employs the technique of genealogical spanning. The prism of forms of co‐operative association is used to examine the rise and fall of the medieval guild.

Medieval guilds have been largely ignored by modern proponents of cluster theory and Italianate industrial districts. Guild activity in technological invention and innovation, in skills transfer and knowledge (both codified and tacit) had many of the same positive attributes that are found in neo‐Marshallian industrial districts. The long history of cooperative behaviour in geographically concentrated firms in industrial districts had its genesis in the medieval guild.

The paper suggests that collaboration (in craft guilds) and clusters (cooperation and relationships) have been a dominant paradigm since the Middle Ages; a viewpoint which is commonly ignored by the dominant US‐centric view of individualism, competition and arms lengths relationships in business. Cooperation and relationships have attracted significant scholarly attention and most recently the studies in the cluster literature have tended to favour the social and knowledge‐based approach. This phenomenon suggests that the future social, political and economic dynamics in Europe will remain firmly rooted in the creation of areas of regional specialization, as has been the case in the past.

This paper contributes to our understanding of the embeddedness of cooperation by comparing the characteristics of the medieval guild with the characteristics of modern day (Porterian clusters). Cooperation rather than competition is the dominant paradigm of industrial activity. The competitive divide between employers and employees was an aberration of the Industrial Revolution and promoted by political economists as a means of facilitating the mobility of labour by diffusion.

Following the Olympic Games of 2008 and the World Expo in 2010, many Westerners have increasingly begun to pay attention to China; a country which combines ancient history with modern economic achievements. As a consequence there has been renewed interest in the West in learning about Chinese language and culture. Confucius education schools have even begun to spring up round the world, with the intention of promoting interest in Chinese language and cultural influences. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a community‐based Chinese culture education institution, in a provincial city in New Zealand, to understand the issues and risks of operating a cross‐cultural education institution business in a foreign country which is physically distant from China and to identify barriers which need to be overcome in order to run such an institution more effectively.

This research used a single site case study research design. Qualitative in‐depth interviews were used to develop an understanding of the rich, complex and idiosyncratic nature of human phenomena. In total, ten interviews were conducted with the Principal, Board members, teachers, local students of Institute A, students' parents (both Chinese and New Zealand), and institutional “outsiders”.

It was found that Institute's management team preferred the traditional Chinese educational methods which conflicted with ways used in the local (New Zealand) teaching system. It also found that the current management style conflicts with the professional style of organization management. The management team had a chaotic management and operational style, while lacking basic knowledge of the principles of effective administration concepts.

Identifying the risks and issues associated with the operation of a community‐based cultural education institution outside China will assist managers to understand the potential for cross‐cultural clashes between their belief in the principles of traditional Chinese education systems and the fit with the local culture. The finding of this study, in identifying the specific issues in relation to operational and professional modes of management, should assist managers to put into place an administrative system which is sufficiently flexible to accommodate both perspectives.

Although formerly a bi‐cultural nation, New Zealand has increasingly become a multicultural society. Interest in Chinese language and culture has also been fuelled by New Zealand's shift in immigration policy from 1974 (to a skills based rather than an ethnicity policy). This study is a first attempt to evaluate the efficacy of a Chinese community‐based educational institution in New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is to find out how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is viewed in the Chinese situation. The paper views CSR as an endogenous motivation for corporate social behaviour. The intended contributions of this paper are twofold. On the one hand, the authors intend to collect first‐hand data to understand the current status of Chinese managers' cognitions of CSR. On the other hand the paper intends to analyse the differences which exist in managers' cognitions on CSR among different kinds of firms in a Chinese context.

A random survey was conducted among 157 businessmen using the force‐choice questionnaire, based on the four‐part construct proposed by Carroll. The confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to test the construct validity of Carroll's conceptual model with the data sample drawn from Chinese situation. Then correlation, six pairwise t‐tests and MANOVA test were conducted for the purpose of this study.

Chinese managers' cognition of CSR is found to be consistent with the four‐component construct. A relatively strong preference toward economic component has been examined. The results present a significant negative correlation between economic cognition and all three of its non‐economic counterparts. No significant cognitive differences have been verified between firms with different characteristics.

This paper initially examined the cognition of Chinese managers toward CSR. Chinese managers are viewed as having an important role in decision making on social issues. However, how to promote the managers' cognition of CSR is needed for future research which will also examine the internal driving mechanism of CSR.

There has not been a great deal of empirical research done in the field of social responsibility in China. This study is a starting point for those who seek to understand the economic and sociological aspects of mainland Chinese business.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivations for offshore outsourcing encountered by manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and their suppliers in China. The paper explores the motivations and challenges encountered by SMEs choosing to outsource their manufacturing activities and why their suppliers engage with them.

A qualitative case study method was utilized. The authors obtained perspectives of SME managers as well as the suppliers for each of the cases, conducting in‐depth interviews in order to obtain comprehensive information about their outsourcing activities. Then, cross‐case analysis was carried out using content analysis techniques to identify key themes for the motivations to undertake offshore outsourcing.

The results showed that the first rationale for offshore outsourcing relates to increasing efficiency and labor cost reduction while holding quality constant. The second rationale is to maintain flexibility in resource allocation providing both manufacturing SMEs and their suppliers with an opportunity to enter new markets. For both manufacturing firms and their suppliers building a relationship through networks and alliances was the key to the success (learning orientation) of the partnership.

The managerial implications of the findings are that first, from the perspective of client firms, the most important factor for success in manufacturing offshore outsourcing was maintaining good relationships with suppliers. The benefits of having close relationships with suppliers for outsourcing firms helped them to secure the quality of their products. The second managerial implication is from the perspective of the supplier firms. Supplier firms which were also aware of the transaction cost implications of their delivery while improving their own international image by supplying international clients. The evidence supplied suggests that supplier firms can benefit from using networks to assist them to gain international exposure.

While there are numerous studies on offshore outsourcing by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and large enterprises, there are relatively fewer studies on manufacturing offshore outsourcing by SMEs. Using the three theoretical lenses of the transaction cost approach, the core competences and the alliances, networks and internationalization approach, the paper offers insights on the reasons for and outcomes of a group of SMEs decision to undertake offshoring‐manufacturing activities in China. Also, the paper examines the manufacturing offshore outsourcing issues from the perspective of the suppliers to these SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between international expansion and firm performance in an emerging market.

The paper firstly explores the relationship between internationalization and firm performance, then investigates the roles of diversification, and examines how diversification moderates the relationship between internationalization and firm performance. For this purpose, panel data on 318 Chinese listed manufacturing firms during the period 1999‐2008 were utilized. Three groups of samples of high, medium and low levels of diversified manufacturing firms were obtained. Statistical techniques of fixed‐effects panel data model yielded an interesting pattern of findings. On the basis of these results, the paper then discusses the implications for the international expansion of Chinese firms.

At high and low levels of internationalization, internationalization is negatively associated with firm performance, but at medium levels of internationalization, greater internationalization is accompanied by higher performance. Product diversification negatively moderates the relationship between internationalization and performance. As product diversification increases, the relationship between internationalization and performance changes from a horizontal S‐curve in firms with low levels of diversification to a U‐curve in moderately diversified firms and eventually to an equilibrium level in highly diversified firms. The initial stage of the horizontal S‐curve of internationalization and performance declines markedly in Chinese manufacturing firms as a whole, therefore it is by no means easy for Chinese firms to undertake internationalization.

These findings do suggest that managers need to take a long‐term view of internationalization and make a commitment to internationalization.

This is the first paper of its kind to empirically validate the relationship between internationalization, firm performance and diversification in China. It is intended to make a contribution to theoretical research on international business in an emerging market.