Business Commons^™

Employer Branding In The Healthcare Sector: The Role Of Instrumental And Symbolic Image Attributes Among Potential Applicants And Doctors, Jiaxin Luo, Aristides I. Ferreira, Filip Lievens, Beatriz R. Trigo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study draws from the instrumental-symbolic framework to analyze the employer image of public hospitals among final-year students and employed doctors. We examine the relative importance of perceived instrumental and symbolic employer image attributes in public hospitals in China among two groups of individuals (211 final-year students and 200 currently employed doctors). Both instrumental and symbolic attributes are significantly related to hospitals' attractiveness as an employer. Symbolic trait inferences explain incremental variance in employer attraction beyond instrumental attributes. Although both attributes explain similar portions of the variance in the two groups, the attributes that emerge as significantly related to hospitals' …

Where The Rainbow Ends: The Hidden Humanitarian Crisis For Members Of The Lgbtqia+ Community In International Business, John R. Krendel

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Before pursuing an international career, members of the LGBTQIA+ community must be aware of the hardship that may be exacerbated by living and working abroad. This study addresses the trends in laws, including employment and anti-discrimination laws, that provide and restrict certain rights of members of the LGBTQIA+ community in eight countries. These nations, both progressive and discriminatory, include the United States, England, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Kazakhstan. Eight LGBTQIA+ business professionals spoke on their experiences living and working in each of these countries and provided advice to members of the community wishing to pursue an international …

Trust Building Within And Across Cultures: A Study Of Guinea, Xiushun Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the development of African economy and the increasing Chinese MNCs operating in Africa, there is a need to have a better understanding of the trust relationships between Chinese expatriates and African HCNs in the organizational environment. We adopt both qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand the trust relationships between Chinese supervisors, Guinea supervisors and Guinea subordinates in a Chinese MNC’s subsidiary in Guinea, compare the difference within culture and across culture, and examine how the interpersonal trust and the trust in the organization affect employees’ job performance. In study 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Chinese supervisors, 20 …

Culture And Cyber Security: How Cultural Tightness-Looseness Moderates The Effects Of Threat And Coping Appraisals On Mobile Cyber Hygiene, Kok Wei Hoe

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With increasing adoption of smartphone for mobile-commerce and increasing incidents of cyber breaches, it is timely to investigate how the weakest link in this security chain, human, can be strengthened. To date, there has been a gap in research examining the impact of culture on protection motivation. Most extant research focus on technological, organizational and behavioral factors affecting protection motivation. In this study, I develop a model integrating Theory of Cultural Tightness-Looseness and Protective Motivation Theory to investigate how cultural norms, define as shared expectations and rules that guide behavior of people within social groups, affect a person’s intentions to …

Getting Undergraduates Ready For China’S Belt And Road Initiative (Bri) Through An Overseas Experiential Learning Project, China And The World: Ancient And Modern Silk Road, Andrew Chin, Thomas Menkhoff, Hans-Dieter Evers, Hoong Hui Daniel Gn, Kevin Koh, Chester Wey Lee, Patrick Loh, Linda Low, Sebastian Tan, Teng Seng Teo, Natalie Yap

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we explain how an experiential learning course and study tour to Gansu Province (People’s Republic of China) enabled undergraduates at the Singapore Management University (SMU) to acquire 21st-century competencies and higher-order thinking skills by analyzing and evaluating specific aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China–Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative — New International Land–Sea Trade Corridor (CCI-ILSTC) with emphasis on developing viable Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies aimed at selling Gansu produce in four Southeast Asian markets. We share how the course was designed to support the attainment of key learning goals and discuss how we turned pedagogical …

A Community Of Practice For Chinese Ngos, Reza Hasmath, Jennifer Yj Hsu

Reza Hasmath

A community of practice represents an important resource for the sharing of sector-specific knowledge. It is a mechanism for Chinese NGOs to learn from each other, and collaborate. Drawing upon original data elicited from over 100 NGOs, this article examines the organizational capacity for Chinese NGOs to cultivate a mature community of practice. We find that there are inherent headwinds that Chinese NGOs will have to navigate to accomplish this goal. On the one hand, the majority of NGOs in our sample do not see themselves as part of a community of experts, which presents a huge challenge for the …

Discussion On The Differences Between U.S And Chinese Management Styles, Bazil Cunningham

Global Tides

In an increasingly globalized world, conducting business with leaders from various parts of the world is inevitable. An understanding of the managerial styles of leaders is imperative to the long-term success and influence of an international corporation. This paper will introduce the managerial styles of executives from U.S and Chinese based companies and point out the variations in style that exist. Information received from interviews with Chinese and U.S managers will assist in determining the differences between each style. The synthesis of qualitative research analysis and scholarly data will aid in forming the argument as to whether both styles can …

Mapping Cultural Tightness And Its Links To Innovation, Urbanization, And Happiness Across 31 Provinces In China, Roy Y. J. Chua, Kenneth Huang, Mengzi Jin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We conduct a 3-y study involving 11,662 respondents to map cultural tightness—the degree to which a society is characterized by rules and norms and the extent to which people are punished or sanctioned when they deviate from these rules and norms—across 31 provinces in China. Consistent with prior research, we find that culturally tight provinces are associated with increased governmental control, constraints in daily life, religious practices, and exposure to threats. Departing from previous findings that tighter states are more rural, conservative, less creative, and less happy, cultural tightness in China is associated with urbanization, economic growth, better health, greater …

The Mixed Blessing Of Leader Sense Of Humor: Examining Costs And Benefits, Kai Chi Yam, Michael S. Christian, Wu Wei, Zhenyu Liao, Jared Nai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Workplace humor is ubiquitous, yet scholars know little about how it affects employees' behaviors in organizations. We draw on an emerging psychological theory of humor—benign violation theory—to suggest that a leader's sense of humor often conveys counter-normative social information in organizations. We integrate this theory with social information processing theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of a leader's sense of humor on follower behavior. We suggest that although a leader's sense of humor is positively associated with leader member exchange and ultimately work engagement, it can also signal to followers the acceptability of norm violation at work. These perceptions …

The Indigenization Of Crisis Response Strategies In The Context Of China, Augustine Pang, Yang Hu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Crisis communication, which has been dominated by a practical perspective, has become a nexus where theory meets application. Despite mounting interest in theoretical studies, crisis communication lacks cultural contextualization. Asian communication researchers have advocated for the need to indigenize communication, drawing relevance to cultural influences. In this study, the authors explored indigenous corporate crisis response strategies in the context of China through nine cases. Three Chinese indigenous strategies were identified through qualitative content analysis of corporate crisis responses. These strategies are “barnacle,” “third-party endorsement,” and “setting up new topics.” The differences with Western frameworks were also discussed.

Rent Appropriation Of Knowledge-Based Assets And Firm Performance When Institutions Are Weak: A Study Of Chinese Publicly Listed Firms, Cuili Qian, Heli Wang, Xuesong Geng, Yangxin Yu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A firm's strategic investments in knowledge-based assets through research and development (R&D) can generate economic rents for the firm, and thus are expected to affect positively a firm's financial performance. However, weak protection of minority shareholders, weak property rights, and ineffective law enforcement can allow those rents to be appropriated disproportionately by a firm's powerful insiders such as large owners and top managers. Recent data on Chinese publicly listed firms during 2007-2012 were used to demonstrate that the expected positive relationship between knowledge assets and performance is weaker in transition economies when a firm's ownership is highly concentrated and its …

Tapping The Power Of Local Knowledge: A Local-Global Interactive Perspective, Shenxue Li, Mark Easterby-Smith, Majorie A. Lyles, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Existing theories of international business and strategy do not fully explain how local knowledge disadvantage faced by foreign investors can be mitigated. We conducted an in-depth qualitative study into four MNCs to investigate the micro-processes of how they generated value from their dispersed sources of local knowledge in China. The results suggest an interactive model: that MNCs employed management processes encompassing three strategically interconnected efforts—global knowledge penetration, local-global knowledge blending, and local-global knowledge integration. The model highlights the interplay between global and local knowledge and challenges extant research that solely focuses on the transfer of either home-based or local knowledge.

The Importance Of Cross-Cultural Management In International Business: China And The United States, Natalie (Tilly) Barnett

Scripps Senior Theses

Attention to cross-cultural management in today’s globalized workplace and marketplace is paramount to professional success. In this exploration I examine the nuances of Chinese business practices and organizational culture as well as their likely points of divergence from American traditions. The variance between organizational culture across national borders is often significant and, as demonstrated by the cases herein, can prove to be either an opportunity to succeed beyond expectation or fail to the same extent.

Servant Leadership And Related Issues In Chinese Hotel Industry, Yiqing Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Because of the economy growth and the Open Door Policy, Chinese hotel industry was under a huge expansion. Since more and more western customers are visiting and Chinese customers are having more hotel experience abroad, the service Chinese hotels used to provide dose not meet the standard anymore. So the managers and leaders need to find an appropriate approach to encourage their employees to improve the service to their customers. This research went through over 40 articles about Chinese hotel industry and Chinese culture and found out that servant leadership style should be the best approach to engage the employees.

What Determines Mnc Subsidiary Performance? Evidence From China, Xiaowen Tian, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

The paper challenges the view that MNC dictates a subsidiary’s business strategy and operations in accordance with the integration-responsiveness (IR) framework. The paper integrates the IR framework with contingency theory to argue that a subsidiary needs discretion to craft its own effective business strategy in light of the environmental exigencies facing the subsidiary in the host country. It may do so at variance with the MNC’s strategy. Evidence from China supports that subsidiary managers should take strategic initiatives in response to specific host country environment.

The Retention Of Chinese Managers: The Chinese Puzzle Box, Xiaowen Tian, Michael Harvey, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

Extract:

Chinese Puzzle Box: a box that can only be opened through some obscure or complicated series of manipulations. Some puzzle boxes may require only a simple squeeze in the right spot, whereas others may require the subtle movement of several small parts, to open the box.

Once entering an emerging market like China, foreign multinational enterprises (hereafter MNEs) are confronted with fierce competition almost in every key functional area, including marketing, production and supply chains, finance, human resources and information technology. Yet there is one area where many Western managers do not anticipate facing keen competition and that …

Collaboration In Delivering The Adventist Health Message In China: A Single Case Study, James Wu

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

"the Adventist health message has been shared in many different ways by various institutions of the church. However, rarely is there collaboration across multiple organizations. This article describes how hospitals, universities and church entities worked together to reach the community with healthy lifestyle options. Basically the collaboration worked through four foundational activities: sharing of resources, training of health workers, operating lifestyle centers, and using the existing union governance structure. the collaboration provided outreach services in the following ways: lifestyle programs, wellness expo, health and gospel evangelism, mass media, and cooperation with NGOs."

What Determines M&A Legal And Financial Advisors' Competitiveness In An International Financial Centre: Using China's Going Out Policy As A Natural Experiment, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

How can legal and financial advisors compete in the global market for M&A mandates? In this presentation, we review the arguments made in our paper.

Effects Of Cultural Ethnicity, Firm Size, And Firm Age On Senior Executives’ Trust In Their Overseas Business Partners: Evidence From China, Crystal X. Jiang, Roy Y. J. Chua, Masaaki Kotabe, Janet Y. Murray

Roy Chua

We investigate trust relationships between senior business executives and their overseas partners. Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm, social categorization theory, and the distinction between cognition- and affect-based trust, we argue that executives trust their overseas partners differently, depending on the partners’ cultural ethnicity. In a field survey of 108 Chinese senior executives, we found that these executives have higher affect-based trust in overseas partners of the same cultural ethnicity as themselves; cognition-based trust is associated with affect-based trust differently when overseas partners are of the same or different cultural ethnicity. We also examine the role of relative firm size and …

The Local Corporatist State And Ngo Relations In China, Jennifer Yj Hsu, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

Analysis - Toward A New American Military., Adam Lowther, Jan Kallberg

Jan Kallberg

In releasing the United States Department of Defense’s (DoD) Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense and Defense Budget Priorities and Choices in January 2012, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta offered a rationale for the administration’s reductions in defense spending. By stating that the shift in strategic direction is an effort to “put our fiscal house in order” and a response to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which requires DoD to reduce spending by $487 billion between fiscal years 2012 and 2021, the United States’ NATO partners in Europe were given considerable reason for …

Building Effective Business Relationships In China, Roy Y. J. Chua

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

China’s ways of doing business are becoming more Westernized. But non-Chinese executives still must work hard at building trust in relationships with their Chinese business partners.

Is Organisational Commitment Culturally Bound?, Helen Chen, John Murray

Irish Business Journal

The paper investigates whether organisational commitment is culturally bound. Literature was reviewed on the impact of Hofstede’s four dimensions of culture on organisational commitment. Three hypotheses were put forward in relation to the cultural impact on the three components of organisational commitment: affective, normative and continuance commitment. Data was collected from two branches of an American multinational corporation with operations in China and Ireland. The two cultures were chosen as they demonstrate differences as well as similarities on Hofstede’s dimensions, which provided an opportunity to explore the cultural impact. The results supported two of the hypotheses that Chinese employees have …

Understanding Conflict Avoiding Behavior In China : The Role Of Goal Interdependence And Behavioral Intentions, Lin Wang

Theses & Dissertations

It is a commonly held belief that people from collectivistic, large power distance or high-context cultures, such as China, tend to be less confrontational, which could be counter-productive in organizations. Contrary to this traditional view, this study posits that conflict avoidance can be constructive depending on the specific actions protagonists take. It adopts Deutsch’s (1973) theory of cooperation and competition to understand conflict avoiding behavior between employees and their supervisors, indicating that people’s perceptions of goal interdependence significantly influence their behavioral intentions that in turn predict their overt actions to avoid conflict. Specifically, it proposes that goal interdependence greatly affects …

Examining The Chinese Approach To Crisis Management: Cover-Ups, Saving Face, And Taking The “Upper Level Line”, Lan Ye, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In 2008, the Sanlu Group, a former giant in the Chinese dairy industry and a quintessential Chinese organization, was confronted with the melamine-contaminated milk crisis. Its products were blamed for causing at least six babies' deaths and damaging the kidneys of about 294,000 babies. Sanlu was criticized for its crisis handling, which resulted in its collapse several months later. Using the contingency theory of strategic conflict management and Coombs' typology of crisis communication strategies, this study explored Sanlu's crisis management as a mirror to understanding the Chinese approach to crisis management. Findings showed that influenced by political, social, and cultural …

Effects Of Cultural Ethnicity, Firm Size, And Firm Age On Senior Executives’ Trust In Their Overseas Business Partners: Evidence From China, Crystal X. Jiang, Roy Y. J. Chua, Masaaki Kotabe, Janet Y. Murray

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate trust relationships between senior business executives and their overseas partners. Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm, social categorization theory, and the distinction between cognition- and affect-based trust, we argue that executives trust their overseas partners differently, depending on the partners’ cultural ethnicity. In a field survey of 108 Chinese senior executives, we found that these executives have higher affect-based trust in overseas partners of the same cultural ethnicity as themselves; cognition-based trust is associated with affect-based trust differently when overseas partners are of the same or different cultural ethnicity. We also examine the role of relative firm size and …

A Forward-Looking Commentary: China's Agricultural Development, Priya A. Roy

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper describes China's agricultural development before the reform period from institutional, economic, and ideological perspectives; the reform period; the 11th 5-year plan; and the current situation. The paper gives two case examples of the Soviet Union and India. Finally, the paper ends with a discussion of what this means for China.

Antecedents Of Supervisor Trust In Collectivist Cultures: Evidence From Turkey And China, S. Arzu Wasti, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The premise of much research on dyadic trust building within organizations has been framed around the relationship as it emerges in the work context. Such models, including the seminal Mayer et al. (1995) model of dyadic trust, have been applied to contexts outside North America without a careful understanding of the distribution of social practices and everyday situations in such contexts. This chapter examines culture-specific workways as a starting point for understanding subordinates’ trust in their supervisors in collectivist cultures. Workways refer to the pattern of workplace beliefs, mental models and practices about what is true, good and efficient within …

A Comparative Study Of Organisational Commitment Of Bank Employees In Ireland And China, Helen Chen

Conference papers

Organizational commitment is a complicated concept. However it is primarily regarded as an attitudinal construct dealing with the perceived utility of continued participation in the employing organization (Hrebriniak & Alutto, 1972). In a similar vein, it has also been described, according to Buchanan, (1974), as a partisan, affective attachment to the goals and values of an organization, to one’s role in relation to goals and values of an organization, and to the organization for its own sake; or according to Porter et al. (1974), as a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, a willingness to …

Organizational Justice And Fairness In China: An Inductive Analysis Of The Meaning And Dimensions, Chun (Grace) Guo, Jane K. Giacobbe-Miller

WCBT Faculty Publications

Taking an inductive approach, we examined the meaning and dimensionality of the organizational justice construct in the People's Republic of China. By triangulating qualitative data from in-depth interviews and structured open-ended surveys, we found that organizational justice and organizational fairness were perceived as distinct constructs in a Chinese context.