Frontiers of Business Research in China
Cover Story   2013, Volume 7 Issue 3
   Online First

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, Volume 7 Issue 3

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The Effect of Leader Positive Affectivity on Team Member Turnover Intention and Team Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Lynda Jiwen Song, Edward Qing Lu, Kelly Z. Peng, Chi-Sum Wong, Weiku Wu
Front Bus Res Chin. 2013, 7 (3): 311-332.  
https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0014-8

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This paper develops two models to investigate the effect of team leader positive affectivity (PA) on team member turnover intention and team organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), at the individual and team levels, respectively. A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted involving a survey of 58 team leaders and 174 team members in a large Chinese telecom company across a three-month period. We found that team members’ organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) at Time 1 mediates the relationship between team leader PA at Time 1 and team member turnover intention at Time 2, whereas team aggregated OBSE at Time 1 mediates the relationship between leader PA at Time 1 and team OCB at Time 2.

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CEO Turnover in Dual-Path Career: An Examination of Followers’ Power
Zhaojun Gao, Yuan Li, Guozhen Chang
Front Bus Res Chin. 2013, 7 (3): 333-355.  
https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0015-5

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This paper highlights the internecine struggle within the top management team in listed companies in China. Drawing on a power perspective, we longitudinally examine the antecedents of CEO dismissal followed by inside succession in dual-path CEO career. It examines the influence of followers’ power on the dismissal of incumbent CEO and demonstrates the liability of newness and outsiderness, which is strengthened by the power of followers. It also highlights conflicts of interest and competition within the top management team and the joint effects of followers’ power on both the liability of newness and outsiderness.

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Influence of CEO Demography on Entrepreneurial Orientation: The Moderating Role of Competitive Intensity
Jun Yang, Li-Qun Wei
Front Bus Res Chin. 2013, 7 (3): 356-381.  
https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0016-2

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Although entrepreneurial orientation has been identified as a key facilitator of a firm’s innovative behaviors, its antecedents, especially the determinant role of the business leader, have yet to be explored. Drawing on strategic leadership theory, which posits the role of CEO in determining a firm’s strategic direction, we examined the influence of CEO demography, specifically age, tenure, and education, on a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation. Based on a sample of 231 Chinese firms, we found firms with a CEO who was younger, higher educated, and with a shorter tenure on the job had a greater extent of entrepreneurial orientation. Moreover, the firm’s competitive environment moderated these relationships.

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Information Systems Development in a Low Methodology Maturity Environment: A Case Study from the Control Perspective
Xia Zhang, Gaoyong Li, Ji-Ye Mao
Front Bus Res Chin. 2013, 7 (3): 382-401.  
https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0017-9

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This paper presents an exploratory case study to examine information systems development (ISD) processes in a low methodology maturity environment, and to understand the role of control mechanisms in project success. The case involves the development of a large scale information system, which progressed without a fully-defined “master plan” or much reliance on formal methodologies, but was successfully launched nevertheless despite some delay. Data were analyzed from the lens of control theory. Results show that clan control emerged as a dominant form of informal control in a high complexity and low methodology maturity environment. Moreover, end-to-end user participation through collocation with the developers served as effective outcome control, which appeared to be a critical success factor. The reliance on behavior control was marginal, although the project manager’s effective leadership as a form of self-control also played a role in project success. This work contributes to ISD research in general and the development of a control perspective to user participation in ISD.

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State-of-the-Art Research on Technology Innovation Management in China
Claudio Petti
Front Bus Res Chin. 2013, 7 (3): 402-432.  
https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0018-6

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The two latest Five-Year Plans of China call for an increasing focus of the whole country on technology-based innovation. Moreover, China’s ambition to become an innovation-oriented nation has attracted widespread international interest and academic studies in technology and innovation management. However by now, there is still not a rigorous amount of the research in this field as regards to China. This paper reports a comprehensive review of the research published between 2002 and 2011 in twelve top technology and innovation management international journals. Overall, a sample of 241 relevant articles in 780 issues is used as the basis for the study. The result is a map of the main research topics, their influence, and the availability of tested empirical data, which traces a state-of-the-art research on technology innovation management in China. Discussion on the map draws avenues for further research and insights for both researchers and policy makers on why, where and how to advance knowledge in the field, with a particular focus on implications for developing cooperation at the enterprise level.

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Family Business Succession in Hong Kong: The Case of Yung Kee
Fu-Lai Tony Yu, Diana S. Kwan
Front Bus Res Chin. 2013, 7 (3): 433-460.  
https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0019-3

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This case study examines the succession of Chinese family business in Hong Kong, drawing upon theories of the firm. More specifically, it utilizes capabilities theories, property rights economics and Neo-Confucianism to understand management disputes and infighting among the members in a Chinese family business in Hong Kong. This paper will argue that the founder of a Chinese business firm in Hong Kong is able to lead his or her offspring to create a dynamic enterprise via charismatic leadership and family rules embedded in traditional Chinese values. However, these two strategic assets disappear following the passing away of the founder as well as the emergence of new social values. When the founder passes on the enterprise to his or her offspring using more or less the equal inheritance system, the traditional Chinese value is unable to enforce the leader’s will to consolidate the strengths of the second generation family members to maintain the founder’s business. Furthermore, when the business is owned by all family members, property rights of the firm become unclear. Without effective enforcement of traditional Chinese values and with collective ownership rights, some family members will have the incentive to capture the economic rent that is shared by all members. In other words, some family members behave opportunistically or even cheat in order to capture economic gains in the public domain. High monitoring and enforcement costs in the form of court battle and endless disputes will occur. Rent dissipation occurs in the form of deterioration of the quality of the family business. This case study is based on Yung Kee, an internationally well-known roast goose restaurant in Hong Kong as an illustration.

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