People

The Chinese Communist Party began decoupling its policies and practices from Maoist communist ideology more than four decades ago. Yet, why does Maoism continue to have an impact on the behavior of Party members? In this study, we argue that, although the influence of Maoist ideology has become weaker among younger Party members and Party members with higher educational attainment, such ideological decay is countered by a process of secondhand ideological imprinting. Based on data from 1,298 non-state-owned Chinese listed firms for 2000–2017, we find that firms with Party-member board chairs file fewer patent applications and are more likely to commit patent infringement. These effects are weaker if a board chair is younger or has higher educational attainment. Importantly, the moderating effect of young age is reduced as the presence of older Party-member corporate directors in a region becomes more prominent. However, the moderating effect of education appears to be unaffected by the presence of older Party-member directors. These findings generate fresh insights on the dynamics of ideological decay and persistence.

Although the significance of relational ties with supply chain partners to firms' operations management has been frequently studied, it is unclear how political ties, which represent another form of relational ties that is especially important in emerging economies, relate to operational efficiency. Drawing on the political embeddedness perspective, we propose a negative association between political ties and operational efficiency and examine how this association is moderated by environmental and firm-level factors. Using panel data of listed private firms in China, we show that political ties are negatively correlated with operational efficiency. In addition, this negative relationship is stronger when firms operate in regions with less developed factor markets and in highly competitive industries. However, the negative relationship is weaker for firms with high levels of foreign shareholding and customer concentration. These findings caution against the downsides of political ties for operations management and highlight strategies for reducing their negative effect.

Building on the behavioral theory of the firm and institutional view, we examine how performance feedback (i.e., a focal firm’s performance relative to its industry peers) affects export intensity and how institution-related factors moderate this relationship. Using a sample of Chinese private manufacturing firms, we find that positive performance feedback lowers export intensity while the relationship between negative performance feedback and export intensity is insignificant. Moreover, outperforming firms are likely to decrease their export intensity even more when they are located in regions of better institutional development or have political connections. Underperforming firms with political connections tend to increase their export intensity. These findings enrich our understanding of the export behavior of emerging market firms.

Thirty one academics of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have been named by Clarivate in its list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2021” as the most influential in the world. Their works have been highly cited by fellow academics and are hence making a significant impact in ongoing research in their respective fields of study. The number of world’s top researchers at HKU has more than doubled that of 2020’s, and remains to be the highest among universities in Hong Kong. It is also the first time that HKU is listed among the top 50 universities globally. Highly Cited Researchers are selected for their exceptional research performance, determined by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science.

Congratulations! Our Chair of Strategy and International Business, Chung Hon-Dak Professor in Strategy and International Business Kevin Zheng Zhou is named by Clarivate in its list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2021” as the most influential in the world.

Trust is key to relationship marketing. Although trust is bilateral, studies on the dispersion of trust among exchange parties remain limited, leaving the antecedents and outcomes of trust asymmetry largely underexplored. To fill the gaps, this study empirically examines the effects of different types of trust asymmetry on exchange performance and then investigates the institutional origins of trust asymmetry in international interfirm exchanges. Drawing on a survey of 134 international buyer–supplier relationships in China, the study finds that both calculative trust asymmetry and relational trust asymmetry have negative influences on exchange performance. The study also finds that formal institutional distance constrains calculative trust asymmetry and informal institutional distance increases relational trust asymmetry. Moreover, prior interactions and expectations of continuity significantly moderate the effects of formal and informal institutional distance. This study advances trust studies in cross-border settings.

Despite the importance of customer participation in new product development in business-to-business markets, its specific challenges and potential downsides are under-examined. Drawing on the boundary theory perspective, this study integrates conflict into the customer participation literature and proposes that whereas customer participation as the information provider (CPI) mitigates customer-developer conflict, customer participation as the codeveloper (CPC) increases it. Furthermore, the nature of new products moderates such effects. Market newness attenuates the role of CPI in mitigating conflict and reduces the positive effect of CPC on conflict; by contrast, technology newness increases the influence of CPC on conflict. The empirical results from a sample of 181 high-tech firms in China largely support these propositions, which offer important implications for customer participation research and practices.

Combining the theses of “problemistic search” and “slack search,” past research in the behavioral theory of the firm suggests that both low- and high-performing firms may engage in the same type of risk-taking activity. We counter this view with a consistent, motivation-based logic in the theory: low-performing firms are fixated on finding short-term solutions to immediate problems, so they have an increased probability of exhibiting deviant risk-taking behavior such as bribery, whereas high-performing firms are concerned about sustaining their competitive advantage in the long run and will more likely engage in aspirational risk taking such as research and development (R&D). Using a sample of 9,633 firm-year observations covering 2,224 listed companies in China, we find that, as a firm’s performance falls further below its aspiration level, it has larger abnormal entertainment spending, an implicit measure of bribery expenditure, but not higher R&D intensity. However, as a firm’s performance rises further above its aspiration level, it has greater R&D intensity, but not more bribery expenses. Legal development and industry competition moderate the relationship between performance feedback and risk-taking behavior.