Leadership Insights from Published Studies on Chinese Top Executives

Abstract

In Chap. 1, we suggested that the growth of the economy in China as a whole is a story of both top-down centrally managed capitalism (Lin 2009) and bottom-up grass-roots capitalism (Nee and Opper 2012). The former focused on the reform of state-owned enterprises and the attraction of foreign investment, while the latter allowed for the creation of a private economy without much policy guidance or support. Private individuals overcame extremely disadvantageous initial conditions and developed robust enterprises that became the major engine of growth for China. Nee and Opper (2012), through their five-year study of over 700 entrepreneurs in the Yangzi River Delta region, provided convincing evidence and a persuasive argument that this economic miracle is the result of the actions and ambitions of entrepreneurs. Since they could not rely on formal institutions, private entrepreneurs had to develop their own informal lending systems and networks of suppliers and distributors. They contributed a large proportion of the national GDP and provided employment as the state sector’s contributions to both declined steadily over the years. Formal institutional changes that legitimised the private firms’ existence and supported their further development came after their initial success. Private entrepreneurs, the ‘capitalists’ who were despised, scorned and viewed with suspicion in the early years of the reforms, are now legitimate members of Chinese society. Even though the sea is still turbulent and the entrepreneurs are still complaining about the difficult business environment and continued unfair treatment by the government relative to state-sector firms, their economic success is undeniable, earning social acceptance as well as raising expectations by both government and citizens of their role in contributing to a balanced economic and social development of China. Even though the future is uncertain, we can conclude from the solid results that thise resounding success can be credited to the ‘leadership’ or agency of the entrepreneurs and founders of these private enterprises. This conclusion is consistent with the ‘visible hand’ theory of the growth and development of industrial enterprises (Chandler 1978) in the West as well as the strategic choice theory of business and organisation management (Child 1972).

Appendix 2.1

Identifying Exemplary Entrepreneurs/Leaders and the Qualifications of the Interviewers.

Exemplary leaders are referred to as those who have not only achieved high performance and successful business outcomes with their enterprises, but also are highly active in Chinese society and who have been recognised for their social impact beyond the economic contribution of their enterprises. We therefore used several criteria in selecting interviewees. The first criterion is that the company must have demonstrated a strong financial performance and be well respected by peers and the general public. Second, the founder/CEO has demonstrated strong leadership, strong social responsibility, and is often considered to be a role model for other business leaders. Based on these criteria, we developed a list of qualified leaders and succeeded in gaining an agreement to be interviewed from 13 entrepreneurs/leaders. All of them are founders of their enterprises. We interviewed the 13 leaders between 2011 and 2014.

Not only did the selection of interviewees need to be filtered judiciously, but also the qualifications of those who participated in the interview process as interlocutors and interviewers was highly demanding. Stening and Zhang (2007) note that a researcher’s cultural background may potentially bias the study; therefore, the participation of local researchers is desirable (Tsui et al. 2007) to fully capture insights and follow the flow of communication and knowledge exchange. Given the knowledge intensity of each interviewee in his area of expertise, interviewers engaged in a thorough preparation with careful thought given to the development of specific company questions, and familiarity with the background of both the company and the leader/interviewee. To manage the interview process tactfully and fully explore the leaders’ insights in a short interview time, only experienced and well-prepared researchers were engaged in conducting the interviews. In this way, culturally sensitive researchers could contribute to the conversation with their local knowledge, both cultural and contextual, to enhance the knowledge exploration process in the interviews. Eight management scholars familiar with the Chinese background as well as fluency in the Chinese language conducted these interviews. They include Professors Xiao-Ping Chen (University of Washington), Pingping Fu (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Qing Qu (Tsinghua University), Jiwen Song (Renmin University of China), Anne Tsui (Arizona State University), Katherine Xin (China European International Business School), Jianjun Zhang (Peking University), and Weiying Zhang (Peking University).

1.1 Appendix 2.2

The Interview Protocol and Interview Process.

The purposes of the interview can be broadly divided into three areas. First, similar to the Zhang et al. (2008) study, we wanted to learn about the interviewees’ management philosophy and the significant life experiences that had shaped that philosophy. Beyond this, we wanted to find out about any significant events they had encountered during the process of building the business. Third, we wanted to learn about the best leadership and management practices that led their companies to success, and the most important advice they would give to future entrepreneurs.

We prepared an interview guide, including an introduction to the purpose of the interview, a statement of confidentiality, and a list of questions to be discussed. We used six standard questions with all the interviewees. These are:

• 1. How would you describe your management philosophy, management perspective, and management style?

• 2. What were the significant life experiences that shaped your management philosophy, perspective and style?

• 3. What were the main challenges you encountered during your role change from founder to CEO to Chairman of the company?

• 4. When do you handle problems by yourself? When do you let others make decisions?

• 5. During the many years of running this company, you must have encountered many situations that involve conflict between maintaining interpersonal harmony and making a rational choice for the business. How did you make the decisions you chose, and why?

• 6. What is the most important piece of advice you would give to future entrepreneurs and CEOs?

For each company, we added a few additional questions specific to the leader and the company. These questions were intended to capture the company’s or the leader’s unique historical background, unique management practices, and other extraordinary elements. Sample questions include:

• (To Jack Ma) You are one of the founders who emphasises the building of a corporate culture. In your mind, what is an ideal culture for Alibaba? How did you initiate and maintain such culture? Please provide a few examples.

• (To Weihua Ma) The slogan of China Merchants Bank is ‘Change with your need’, emphasising your care for customers. In today’s internet era, what is most needed by customers? What can banks do to build a loyal customer group?

• (To Dongsheng Chen) You once said, ‘The first imitator is the innovator in China.’ When you started Taikang Life, which were the companies you imitated? After more than a decade of development, compared to these companies, how would you evaluate the similarity between Taikang Life and these model companies?

• (To Shi Wang) You have said that Vanke values ‘simplicity instead of complexity; transparency instead of opaqueness; standardisation instead of particularism; and responsibility instead of abuse of power.’ Please describe how these values are implemented in the daily management practices of your company.

We sent the questions to the interviewees about a week ahead of the scheduled interview. The interviews were carried out in a variety of settings: some were in the interviewee’s office, some were in hotel conference rooms, and in two cases it was via a telephone. A confidentiality statement was supplied at the beginning of the interviews to encourage candid and open discussion. We also sought permission to audiotape the interviews, and no interviewee declined. All interviews were conducted in the local language, Chinese, and each interview took around two hours or more. We followed a semi-structured format during the interview process but without strictly following the order to allow for flexibility, to enhance the connection with the interviewees, and to ensure fluid communication during the process. We made sure that all the questions had been discussed before the interview ended. As can be seen from the interview texts in Chaps. 3 to 15, the specific questions asked in each interview varied somewhat. This was as a result of the open-ended and dynamic nature of each case.

Further, to avoid self-serving bias, and in particular to ensure that what the respondents said during their interviews was translated into actual practice within their firms, we also triangulated their statements in several ways. We asked the interviewees to provide critical events or specific examples on the statements. We collected second-hand company information and stories, and verified with the interviewees the events that had occurred. Finally, after the interviews, we checked public information sources if we had any doubts about the authenticity of information provided by the interviewees. Since these are all well-known companies, there is a good deal of public information available about them.

We transcribed the audiotaped interviews and sent copies of the final versions of the interview transcripts to the interviewees for review. We obtained additional company or CEOs’ biographical information as well as photographs at this point, and contacted the interviewees if any further clarification was needed. We sought the interviewees’ approval of the final versions of the transcripts to ensure the accuracy of the transcription and any necessary revision of their statements. We shared these interviews with members of the International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR), a scholarly association dedicated to the advancement of Chinese management research among global scholars. The final report of these interviews was published in both English and Chinese in Chinese Management Insights (CMI), an online bilingual magazine of the IACMR. The interviews presented in Chaps. 3 to 15 of this book are further edited versions of the CMI reports, with additional information on the backgrounds of both companies and leaders.