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The purpose of this paper is to use the framework of rule-based and relation-based governance to examine the evolution of governance environment in the East Asian region including China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Both qualitative and quantitative evidences are presented to demonstrate the paths these East Asian countries take in their transitions from relation-based governance to rule-based governance. Based on the framework, this analysis sheds light on the debate on whether East Asian economies will eventually move away from relation-based governance to rule-based societies.

The authors find that relation-based governance has helped East Asian countries achieve rapid economic growth in the early stages of their development. However, as the scale and scope of East Asian economies expand, continuing to rely on it may hinder their further development and therefore these countries should adopt a rule-based governance system in order to be efficient and competitive in the world market. While South Korea and Taiwan have made substantial progress in this transition, China has just embarked on the process.

This paper is among the first to systematically review the theories and evidence of the transition and the challenges East Asian countries face during the process.

A main challenge in studying China is that different views clash. A more serious challenge is that studies that are critical of or dissent from the Chinese government policies are labeled “anti-China” by the Chinese authorities, affecting the free academic exchange of ideas on China. This article discusses this issue and proposes a long-term solution.

This is a perspective study and uses the qualitative approach to develop the authors’ arguments.

The authors argue that the contention in China-related studies is derived primarily from the different perspectives that scholars use. This study identifies two main perspectives: the China-centric view and the rest of the world’s view. The combination of the clash of perspectives and the interference of the Chinese state hinders the development of our knowledge regarding China. Using Rawls’ theory of justice and the veil of ignorance, the authors propose to build common ground for the China study community based on academic freedom, equality and the rule of law. This study further shows that building the common ground is feasible.

The authors’ proposed common ground will help create a free environment for meaningful exchange between different perspectives and reduce the risks in China studies.

The authors’ angle to examine the contentiousness and riskiness of China studies is new. It is the first time that different perspectives on China studies are delineated and compared, the costs of the contentiousness and riskiness are assessed, and the long-term consequences of different paths are examined.

This study examines a new type of corruption that has not previously been studied but that significantly affects the world. Traditionally, corruption has referred to individuals or organizations that bribe state officials. The author examines a phenomenon in which the briber is actually the government of a country that bribes the rest of the world in order to gain influence and propose a framework to explain it.

A multi-case qualitative method is used to compile and analyze evidences and develop my arguments. Specifically, the author compiles information on and analyzes the Confucius Institutes, the training of future foreign leaders, influencing the influencers, the Thousand Talents Plan, the Belt and Road Initiative and foreign aid.

The findings reveal the existence of state-sponsored bribery of the world.

State-sponsored bribery is a threat to the world. Recognizing it is the first step to curb it. Reducing the bribery by China's state will benefit the world and China.

State-sponsored bribery is originally defined and documented. A framework about the motivations and capabilities of state-sponsored bribery is proposed, the effects of and responses to such a bribery are reviewed, and policies to curb it are suggested.

Amid the rising concerns about the unbalanced globalization, there has been a renewed interest in examining the pattern of international trade and investment, especially between emerging and mature economies. In this study, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role of different institutional and market-related determinants in shaping the pattern and mode of foreign investments in emerging and developed markets.

The empirical investigation is based on a balanced panel sample of 45 countries (28 developed countries and 17 emerging economies) over an 11-year period from 2002 to 2012. A series of multivariable regressions are conducted to evaluate both the trend and the mode of foreign investment with rigorous robustness checks.

Overall, the authors find that market openness and capital market development are the main determinants of a country’s ability to attract foreign investment in developed countries, while the governance environment is the key consideration in emerging markets. Regarding the mode of foreign investment, the authors find that, in developed markets, foreign investors tend to choose direct investment in the countries with more open markets. In emerging markets, however, the choice between direct and indirect (portfolio) investments is mainly driven by arbitrage activities, where investors opt for portfolio investment when the stock market is undervalued.

First, the findings may aid foreign investors in their strategic choice between emerging vs mature markets based on the governance environment, market openness, capital market development and arbitrage opportunities. Second, the findings may be used to aid governments in prioritizing institutional improvement in market openness, stock market development and policies aimed at balancing different investment channels.

The study may enhance the social understanding on the current debate on the winners and losers of globalization. A main complaint from mature economies is that the emerging economies took their jobs away and, therefore, they should adopt protectionism (which implies closing their own markets) in order to preserve jobs. The study shows that such a reaction may not be in the best interests of the mature economies since they will be able to attract more foreign investment (which implies creating or at least keeping more jobs) if they make their markets more open.

Existing studies on foreign investment have primarily focused on direct investment. The study examines both the direct and indirect investments and the way in which they affect the foreign investment markets in emerging and mature economies. From the institutional perspective, the authors show how the governance environment and market factors affect foreign investors’ strategic choice between direct and indirect investment, contingent upon the stage of a country’s economic and institutional development.

Answering the call to study important issues in the real world (Buckley et al., 2017; Delios, 2017; Phan, 2019), and motivated by the trade war between the US and China, the authors look beyond it to examine the more fundamental issues behind it. From a political economy perspective, the authors examine the interplay of government, society and firms in China to identify new phenomena that may impact business with, and research on, China.

A multi-case qualitative method is used to present and analyze evidence and develop our arguments. Specifically, we use scholarly sources, anecdotal evidence, reports, statistics and government documents and policies to support our arguments.

After four decades of economic reform, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls every aspect of the society. Living, working and doing business are not a right but a privilege granted by the party. To a great degree, state-owned firms are business units/subsidiaries, and private/foreign firms are franchisees of the party, with the party leader being the CEO of China, Inc. The interplay between China and other countries is essentially a competition between a huge corporation and other states.

At the firm level, our study suggests that for MNCs dealing with Chinese firms, they need to know that Chinese firms are units of China, Inc. Practitioners should take into account the long-term strategic goals of the CCP as well as business considerations when dealing with Chinese partners or competitors.

At the country level, our study shows that other countries dealing with China must be aware that they are dealing with a huge corporation.

That the CCP runs China as a corporation is a new perspective that will help the international community reexamine global competition.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if a firm's exchange complexity profile (that is, the linkages between the firm and its environment) influences investor behavior at the negotiation table where a firm valuation is derived.

The authors utilize Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Specifically, the authors utilize fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), a QCA variant that allows the researcher to assign graduated membership in sets.

When the authors dichotomize their positions as either higher stakes that favor the seller (high capital, low equity, high valuation) or lower stakes that favor the buyer (low capital, high equity, low valuation), and when the authors focus primarily on the equity outcome, the authors find that investors adopt a reductionist stance that adheres to a transaction cost economics logic under conditions of lower stakes and higher complexity as well as higher stakes and lower complexity conditions. The authors interpret this to mean that equity serves as a counter-balancing lever for a firm's exchange complexity configuration.

On a theoretical level, the authors showcase the exchange complexity framework and differentiate its position within the extant frameworks that address a firm's competitive advantage. More generally, the authors note that this framework brings the discipline of micro-economics and the field of strategic management closer together, providing scholars with a new tool enabling research across industries for the portfolio level of analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the theoretical linkage between culture and economic growth and empirically test the relationship by measuring culture and how it affects labor productivity.

This study uses a cross-section study of developing countries and regresses economic productivity growth on a set of control variables and cultural factors.

It is found that three cultural factors, economic attitudes, political attitudes, and attitudes towards the family, affect economic productivity growth.

Many economists ignore culture as a factor in economic growth, either because they discount the value of culture or because they have no simple way to quantify culture, resulting in the role of culture being under-researched. The study is the first to extensively examine the role of culture in productivity growth using large-scale data sources. The authors show that culture plays an important role in productivity gains across countries, contributing to the study of the effects of culture on economic development, and that culture can be empirically measured and linked to an activity that directly affects the economic growth – labor productivity.

The success and reliability of business transactions and research in emerging markets depend on the quality of financial information. Due to the institutional and historical backgrounds, financial information provided by firms in emerging markets has often been questioned for their accuracy. This study aims to examine the reliability of financial information through various descriptive and statistical analyses in major emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRICs).

The authors use firm-level data from the BRIC countries and apply statistical models to identify patterns of profit misreporting by firms in these countries.

The results show significant and systemic signs of misreporting of financial information in these countries, particularly in China and Russia, which are further examined to understand the possible reasons behind their more severe misreporting.

The study then concludes with practical and specific recommendations for investors, managers, and policy makers on how to detect and avoid potential risks due to inaccurate financial information and improve the overall quality of decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to use parking behavior as a direct measure of delayed gratification, a cultural trait recognized by scholars as contributing to people's economic success. Backing into a parking space requires more time and effort, but it will enable the driver to exit more easily, safely, and quickly in the future. The author argue that people who park their cars back-in embody a culture of delayed gratification, and societies with a higher back-in parking rate tend to have better economic performance.

The author tested the hypothesis using parking and economic data from the BRIC countries, Taiwan, and the USA.

Results show that there is a strong positive relationship between back-in parking and labor productivity gains. The author also found that back-in parking positively correlates with economic growth, savings rate, and educational attainment.

This is the first study that uses parking behavior to predict economic performance. The feasibility of collecting parking behavior data across countries provides a new and viable way to overcome the limitation of relying on attitudinal or experimental data to measure the culture and behaviors of delayed gratification. The author therefore call for a collective effort to establish a “Global Parking Index.” Such an index will help us better understand parking behavior and how it may relate to socioeconomic performance such as learning, saving, and investing.

How should a multinational corporation (MNC) from a mature democracy deal with the human rights issues in a country with a poor human rights standard? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors develop a mathematical model to depict MNC's behavior in response to human rights violations in the host country.

The authors show that, first, in a country with a high level of human rights abuses, a firm will have to lower its human rights standards to survive; but, second, a collective effort by all firms is essential to improve the human rights conditions in the host environment; and third, a firm's human rights practices may have a multiplicative effect that can significantly affect the momentum of human rights development in a host country.

This study is one of the first attempts to provide a theoretical framework on the issue of MNCs and human rights in host countries.