JPM on China
Johann Peter Murmann Writings on China
My Publications
Murmann, Johann Peter The Management Transformation of Huawei: Concluding Thoughts from a Comparative Perspective Book Chapter In: Wu, Xiaobo; Murmann, Johann Peter; Huang, Can; Guo, Bin (Ed.): The Management Transformation of Huawei: From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership, Chapter 10, pp. 381–410, Cambridge University Press, 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Dynamic Capabilities, Evolutionary Theory, Huawei, Private Enterprise, SOEs Murmann, Johann Peter Reflections on Choosing the Appropriate Level of Abstraction in Social Science Research Journal Article In: Management and Organization Review, 10 (3), pp. 381–389, 2014. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Private Enterprise, SOEs, Unit of Analysis Jiang, Hong; Murmann, Johann Peter In: Industrial and Corporate Change, 21 (4), pp. 933-970, 2011, ISSN: 0960-6491. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: COEs, Corporate Forms, Dye Industry, Evolutionary Theory, Private Enterprise, Regional Advantage, SOEs2020
@inbook{murmann_wu_murmann_huang_guo_2020b,
title = {The Management Transformation of Huawei: Concluding Thoughts from a Comparative Perspective},
author = {Johann Peter Murmann },
editor = {Xiaobo Wu and Johann Peter Murmann and Can Huang and Bin Guo},
doi = {10.1017/9781108550987.011},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {The Management Transformation of Huawei: From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership},
pages = {381–410},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
chapter = {10},
abstract = {This chapter offers concluding thoughts on the entire Huawei study – the totality chapters and commentaries. It offers comparative perspective by placing the firm in the larger context of corporations in China and to some extent in other countries. The comparison with many other firms throughout the entire book reveals that Huawei is among a select number of firms that are able grow at very high rates by continuously transforming themselves. Consistently investing at least 10 percent of sales starting on R&D at least since 1998 was an important ingredient of this growth. But the importation of western best practice routines and the steering of this process by the Huawei founder and the top management team underlie this ability to grow. Huawei stands out among many Chinese companies that internationalize by relying solely on organic growth rather than on growth through acquisitions. Huawei is also different from state-owned companies (SOEs) that dominate a number of sectors in the Chinese economy in that Huawei motivated a large fraction of employees by giving them shares in a profit-sharing plan so that hard working employees could make a substantial amount of money. Building all chapters, we provide advance management theory by articulating in detail the meta-routines that underpin Huawei’s dynamic capabilities. Finally, we discuss the challenges to future growth of the firm, including geopolitical cross-currents the firm currently finds itself in.},
keywords = {Dynamic Capabilities, Evolutionary Theory, Huawei, Private Enterprise, SOEs},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
2014
@article{murmann_2014,
title = {Reflections on Choosing the Appropriate Level of Abstraction in Social Science Research},
author = {Johann Peter Murmann},
url = {http://professor-murmann.net/publications/Murmann-2014-Management_and_Organization_Review.pdf},
doi = {10.1017/S1740877600004319},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
urldate = {2014-01-01},
journal = {Management and Organization Review},
volume = {10},
number = {3},
pages = {381–389},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
abstract = {Although researchers often do it subconsciously, every explanation involves choosing a level of abstraction at which the argument proceeds. The dominant North American style of research in Organization Theory, Strategy, and International Business encourages researchers to frame their explanations at the highest level of abstraction where country-level contextual factors are suppressed or ignored. Yet to provide powerful explanations for recent developments in China, researchers are drawn to a greater level of context specificity. This tension is evident in the Child and Marinova (2014) paper. One way to reduce the tension is to identify general causal mechanisms that combine in different ways to produce different results depending on context. This research strategy is more effective than seeking invariant, general patterns of development across all times and places.},
keywords = {Private Enterprise, SOEs, Unit of Analysis},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2011
@article{10.1093/icc/dtr070,
title = {Regional institutions, ownership transformation, and migration of industrial leadership in China: the case of the Chinese synthetic dye industry, 1978–2008},
author = {Hong Jiang and Johann Peter Murmann},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtr070},
doi = {10.1093/icc/dtr070},
issn = {0960-6491},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-01-01},
urldate = {2011-01-01},
journal = {Industrial and Corporate Change},
volume = {21},
number = {4},
pages = {933-970},
abstract = {Scholars have emphasized the gradual ownership transformation of enterprises as a key driver of the Chinese economy's unprecedented growth. However, little work has been done on the issue of whether this transformation process takes place evenly across the various regions in China. This article describes the important role of regional institutions in shaping the ownership-based competitiveness of local enterprises and the migration of industries across regions. In the case of the Chinese synthetic dye industry, the passing of leadership from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to collectively owned enterprises (COEs) and then to private enterprises (PEs) was accompanied by a concurrent leadership migration from one region to another. The article contends that this simultaneous occurrence was not accidental. Four institutional constraints—the degree of central supervision, the local labor arrangements, the local social welfare provision, and the degree of ambiguity in property rights—retarded the rise of new ownership forms in the previously dominant regions. This gave other regions the opening to take over leadership positions by providing a more favorable institutional context for new ownership forms. These findings are likely to apply to all of the Chinese manufacturing industries that existed prior to 1978 and that subsequently did not experience significant technological changes and were not highly protected by the government.},
keywords = {COEs, Corporate Forms, Dye Industry, Evolutionary Theory, Private Enterprise, Regional Advantage, SOEs},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}