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In currently facing dynamic environments, the tools of strategic management appear to be more and more important in improving the quality of decision‐making. Among the great Chinese wisdoms, Sun Tzu's, The Art of War, is probably the oldest military book in Chinese with principles which Sun Tzu advocated, still very valuable in business operations today. Thus, this study tends to evaluate the relationships among Sun Tzu's principles of situation appraisal, strategy implementation, and strategic control through an empirical study. Furthermore, how the levels of adoption on Sun Tzu's principles of situation appraisal, strategy implementation, and strategic control impact on a firm acquiring its key success factors is also verified. The results show that the adoption levels of Sun Tzu's principles on situation appraisal, strategy implementation, and strategic control are highly interrelated. The adoption levels are positively related to the firm acquiring its key success factors, as well.

The Art of War, by the ancient Chinese military theorist Sun Tzu, is the most famous work on military operation in ancient China and the books have been repeatedly translated, investigated and discussed. Today, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War remains a compulsory text in major military schools around the world and its influences on twentieth century military thinking is undisputed. Also in recent times, the use of military strategies in the business and management contexts is increasing. This paper proposes a set of criteria based on Sun Tzu’s philosophy for evaluation of business management strategies against the world class business excellence models. The total quality management models of the European Quality Award and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award are used to compare with Sun Tzu’s business management strategy model developed under the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology. The results of the QFD methodology can be used as performance indicators showing organisations’ improvement priorities for self‐assessment.

An appropriate choice of strategies helps firms to survive and develop in a turbulent economic environment. The problem is that there are many strategies that can be adopted, but it is not clear which ones would boost profitability. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how architectural, engineering and construction (A/E/C) firms headquartered in mainland China (Chinese A/E/C firms) can achieve profitability in China; specifically, to uncover the critical strategies and practices adopted by Chinese A/E/C firms to achieve profitability using Porter's generic competitive strategies, Sun Tzu's Art of War, and the networking approach.

The data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire. The data collection methods were mail survey and face‐to‐face interviews. The population comprised all A/E/C firms headquartered in China. Samples were randomly drawn from the China Construction Industry Association's database. Stratified sampling was adopted to select only firms that operated in Shanghai or Beijing.

The finding is that profitable Chinese A/E/C firms are more likely to adopt practices that differentiate them from competitors instead of pursuing a low‐cost strategy or focus strategy. In addition, they adopt practices that make them adaptable and flexible. Also, practices that involve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and obtaining resources from firms in the network are adopted by profitable firms.

The data gathered might not be easily generalized to Chinese A/E/C firms operating in other parts of China because interviews were conducted with Chinese A/E/C firms operating in Beijing and Shanghai which are members of China's Construction Industry Association.

The paper is to inform practitioners of the practices and strategies that lead to profitability. Foreign firms that are planning to partner with Chinese A/E/C firms may also use the findings to assess whether their prospective Chinese partners are adopting some of these practices, so that they would be profitable and not face financial difficulties in the course of the partnership.

The paper shows that profitability could be achieved by certain critical practices, which are underpinned by Porter's generic competitive strategies, Sun Tzu's Art of War based on military tactics, and Granovetter's network approach based on social network theory.

The recent growth of interests in applying the Chinese art of warfare to complement the Western style of management process suggested that an integrated business model that combined the Western scientific management and ancient Chinese wisdom could be an effective tool for gaining strategic advantages, especially for companies that want to share the newly opened markets in mainland China. Among all, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has been widely adopted and applied in various business areas. However, there are few presentations with strategic models. Moreover, works on his successor, Sun Pin, are limited particularly to the area of applying his art of warfare in gaining strategic advantages and transforming business crisis into opportunities. While various business and quality management models at national level have been established by various countries to emphasise their differences in economic development and culture, models of similar type that make use of the ancient Chinese wisdom are not available either in Hong Kong or in China. As China has become a member of the WTO, a national model that framed both the Chinese management philosophy and Western management wisdom would certainly help in driving local and international enterprises for business competitiveness. This paper is therefore a first attempt to investigate the applicability of Sun Pin’s The Art of Warfare for business management strategies by amalgamating the Western wisdom and the Chinese art of warfare.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the knowledge gap in designing MBA strategy between China and the West by examining the content, context and process of MBA delivery. This paper challenges the assumptions and pedagogical approach underpinning the current design and delivery of MBA programmes that were originally moulded with Western management history and development in the era of globalization. There is consensus that MBA was used to train business managers; however, nowadays, people are inclined to state that MBA is used to develop global business leaders or full-fledged global competitors. How can we develop global business leaders without a global vision when designing MBA strategy?

Based on extensive literature review and critical analyses through the strategic management approach, this paper examines the status quo of current MBA programmes in the West and in China. This paper presents a conceptual framework that draws on the current MBA literature and on-going debates around management education and development in the West and in China.

The designing strategy of MBA has been originally strongly influenced by Western ideology and ethos. Therefore, the difficulties of management knowledge transfer are often explained through culture acclimatization and emphasize has been on cultural divergence rather than convergence. With synthesis between Western and Eastern management identified, we argue that the appropriateness and effectiveness of the traditional philosophy of MBA designing strategy based on Western management history has been challenged in the 21st century. The perception has fuelled criticism of business schools in the post-recession. They have come under fire for allegedly failing in their obligations to educate socially responsible business leaders (Barker, 2010). This leads to rethinking of the philosophy and vision underpinning the MBA designing strategy. A new philosophical approach – integration of Western management with Eastern philosophy has been under scrutiny, which is necessary in business education to enable future business leaders to become full-fledged competitors in the global market.

The output of this discussion helps to establish a conceptual framework which will provide strategic insight in enabling business/management school and MBA providers to address the current deficiency in MBA teaching and learning strategy and develop more appropriate arrangement when considering the design and development of a successful MBA programme in the 21st century.

Defines national culture, summarizing and comparing various models of national culture, including single and multiple dimension models, historical‐social models in high and low context and monochronic and polychronic cultures. Discusses their relevance to the study and practice of local and international management, and tabulates the main features of each model.

Examines Chinese attitudes towards the introduction and implementation of an international corporate culture into their working environment. Refers to Sun Tzu’s military classic The Art of War and suggests his philosophy can be applied to business in China, and that the Western world should begin understanding this philosophy and the oriental mindset. Presents results of a study of Chinese employees at a Beijing, China hotel to determine attitudinal and behavioural patterns, and finds that the concept of corporate culture currently meets with strong resistance from many Chinese people who believe foreign ideals and concepts are not to be trusted.

The Internet is full of resources on China and Chinese studies. However, many new users are often overwhelmed by the vast amount of information on the Web. This paper is to offer a starting point for inexperienced users interested in finding information over the Internet on Chinese culture, art, language, literature, history, philosophy and current affairs, etc. It focuses on the World Wide Web resources only, and choices of entry are selective rather than exhaustive.