Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study investigates the effects of both culture and product category on the use of advertising appeals on the Internet ― a new and global advertising medium. A comparative study was conducted on analyzing the contents of 230 web automobile advertisements from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States of America (USA) in terms of the use of utilitarian appeals and symbolic appeals. Results indicate that utilitarian appeals are dominant in both the advertisements from the PRC and USA. However, symbolic appeals are used significantly more in the advertisements from the PRC while utilitarian appeals are employed more frequently in the advertisements from the USA. Examination of the results reveals that culture (culture of consumption) and product category (level of product involvement, product nature and product type) serve as two important factors explaining the cross-national similarities and differences on the use of value appeals in Internet advertisements.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: With China’s move from a planned economy to a market economy in the last two decades, a profound transformation in Chinese labor politics has occurred. Many studies have concluded that the character of labor control in contemporary China is “despotic”, based mainly on field research in small and medium-scale, labor-intensive, low-tech, and exported-oriented firms in southeastern coastal China. It is important, however, to look into large-scale, technology-intensive firms of different ownership types and geographic locations, to get a comprehensive view on China’s labor politics today.

Based on the empirical data of four major automobile enterprises collected by the author in China in the summer of 2004, this paper explores current labor politics in the Chinese automobile industry under the influence of globalization and market reform. It argues that the widely adopted labor force dualism in the Chinese automobile industry leads to a “hybrid” factory regime that combines “hegemonic” and “despotic” elements. “Hegemonic” relations have been established between management and formal workers, while “despotic” labor control characterizes the conditions of work for temporary workers who are mainly rural migrant workers. The paper further explores the roles of trade unions and party factory committees in mediating and containing conflicts between workers and managers; and the interventionist roles of the Chinese central and local governments in the automobile industry and its impacts on the labor politics. Finally, the trends and dynamics of labor politics in China’s automobile industry within the global context of capital mobility and relocation are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Prior literature asserts that scope, crowding, and focused identity have pivotal effects on organizational mortality and position change. We argue that the mechanism through which the relationships between these features (i.e., scope, crowding, and focused identity) and mortality/position change unfold is innovation. To clarify the relationships between these three features and position change, we examine how these features affect the rate of innovation and how such innovations affect the rate of position change. Furthermore, we determine whether the effects of the three features depend on the type of innovation (i.e., incremental versus radical innovation). Then, we examine how innovations at both the focal firm level and the population level affect a firm’s rate of position change. Our analyses are conducted in the context of longitudinal innovation dynamics of American automobile manufacturers from 1886-1981. On the basis of our findings, we draw some general implications regarding innovation and organizational change.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Although many theories predict strong effects of organizational position on a variety of outcomes, studies that examine the propensity of firms to collectively change positions on the market are rare. We borrow ideas from theories that examine the precursors of organizational change but find that these predictions are often contradictory. Studies of inertia vs. exploration and of imitation vs. strategic differentiation and resource competition offer conflicting predictions. We reconcile the opposing arguments and develop a theory of collective change in strategic position by integrating ideas from established learning, institutional, ecological, and management theories. The core of our theory blends structural and cognitive processes and posits that the properties of the firms’ external context interact with managerial perceptions of the resource space in which their firms operate. Interpretations of resource availability, competitive forces and collective identities clash as managers try to interpret their firm’s position through the behavior of their peers, as if reflecting in a looking glass. Empirical analyses of changes in strategic position among U.S. automanufacturers support our theory and lay out a framework for further integration among cognitive and structural perspectives.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Over the 1990s, two broad trends ? globalization and regulatory reform ? would suggest that there is emerging a convergence toward the ?regulatory state? as the favored form of governance for key industries. A number of China scholars, in fact, expect the rise of regulatory state in the People?s Republic of China (PRC) as the dominant mode of economic governance, despite the lack of back up of legalization and of ?independence? from the central government.Through the case study of China?s automobile industry, this paper attempts to argue that much globalization literature, which assumes a convergence of regulatory policy encouraged by the WTO regime and international institutions, is flawed. Rather, the Chinese government shows the aspects of interventionist state in the auto sector. This is much closer to the traditional developmental state in East Asia. This paper will analyze state-owned enterprise-led growth, lack of regulatory body, and the dreams of big business as main indicators to see the interventionist state in China?s strategic industry.