Empirical study of the subjective meanings of culture between American and Chinese

Subjective culture is a group's characteristic way of perceiving its social environment. This study analyzes cultural meanings through free verbal association derived from the Associative Group Analysis technique. More than one hundred important and relevant stimulus words were identified. Respondents were asked to list all the ideas associated with each stimulus word. The purpose is to find out the differences and similarities in the subjective meaning of selected words among American, Hong Kong and PRC Chinese. The research results provide empirical data on the understanding of culture-specific meanings of words. It is cultural experience that produces the unique distribution of association in a particular word. The spontaneously emerging response clusters offer deep insights into what is salient and what is dominant in the group's subjective meanings of selected themes.The authors are from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.     

Small Firm Marketing: A Comparison of Eastern and Western Marketing Practices

This article reports on the analysis of 110 published, undisguised stories about Chinese owner-managers in Hong Kong and determines whether Chinese small firms exhibit the same marketing activities and behavior as their Western counterparts. Content analysis suggests that Chinese small firms are production oriented, whereas small American firms are customer oriented. Chinese small firms are also found to have limited marketing expenditure while their owner-managers have limited marketing expertise. The findings also suggest that Chinese small firms do little strategic marketing planning. One possible reason for this may be that Chinese owner-managers apply innovative tactics and change their marketing planning techniques to suit the characteristics of their firms and their particular circumstances. Thus, it is not unusual to find that Chinese small firm marketing can be described as entrepreneurial and their marketing planning activities as unstructured.     

Organisation development practices in Hong Kong: Current state and future challenges

This paper examines the current state of OD practices in Hong Kong. The results of two recent studies among major firms and among the managers of large firms are reported. It is found that Hong Kong firms put more emphasis on the human processual type of interventions, followed by strategic planning. Some firms are practising state-of-the-art OD activities, though the majority are still using traditional OD interventions. The current state of OD practice is then reviewed and implications for the future are discussed.The author is from the Department of Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The author would like to acknowledge the financial support of UPGC Direct Grant of the Chinese University of Hong Kong for this project.     

Up-grading and performance: the role of design, technology and business strategy in Hong Kong's electronics industry

This study tests the hypothesis that companies who move away from the traditional Hong Kong business model by adopting ‘up-grading’ strategies enjoy superior performance. A set of 14 variables is used to capture the dimensions of strategy, encompassing the business, technology and design domains. The results of both comparative and configurational approaches show that there are indeed performance benefits to be had. The broader implication is that Hong Kong manufacturing firms are beginning to escape the ‘iron fetters’ of a business model originally imposed on them by both material and ideational constraints, and to reap performance benefits as a result.Howard Davies is an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Business at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. David Ko completed his DBA thesis under Prof. Davies's supervision.     

Adjustment of Western Business Expatriates in Hong Kong Versus the Chinese Mainland

Business expatriates assigned to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, mostly from Western Europe and North America, responded to a survey assessing the extent of sociocultural and psychological adjustment. As expected, results showed that the expatriates were better socioculturally adjusted to Hong Kong than the Chinese mainland, whereas no difference was found for psychological adjustment between the two samples. Examining the adjustment of different nationalities it was found that French business expatriates were less well socioculturally adjusted both in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland than their British and U.S. counterparts. Practical implications of these findings for business expatriates as well as for their firms are discussed and future avenues for extending research of this nature is explored.     

Subcultures in Greater China: A Comparison of Managerial Values in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

Managerial values in the three regions that form Greater China — Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China (PRC) — were compared. It is posited that in addition to Confucian philosophy, political and economic systems also have significant effects on the values of Chinese managers. Results show that despite the economic integration in Greater China, managerial values have yet to be unified. Managers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC are convergent in collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. On the other hand, managers in the PRC demonstrated higher power distance and less concern about deadlines and plans than in managers Hong Kong and Taiwan. Materialism is also greater in the PRC and Hong Kong than in Taiwan.     

A multivariate statistical analysis of the characteristics of problem firms in Hong Kong

This paper presents a two-group discriminant analysis of the characteristics of problem firms in Hong Kong. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe the common financial characteristics which distinguish problem firms from nonproblem firms.Benjamin Y.K. Tai is a Professor at the Department of Accountancy, California State University, Fresno. Lawrence S.T. Tai is a Lecturer at the Department of Accounting & Finance, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.     

International Diversification, Industrial Diversification and Firm Performance of Hong Kong MNCs

Although multinational corporations (MNCs) are not new to business research, Asian MNCs and their performance have yet to be widely studied. This study investigates the relationship between international diversification, industrial diversification and firm performance of MNCs from Hong Kong. In contrast to previous findings, the results show that Hong Kong MNCs are more internationally diversified, but not performed better, than domestic firms. Also, among Hong Kong MNCs, international diversification has a positive impact on profitability and sales growth, but not on the profitability. Industrial diversification also enhances profitability stability but reduces profitability significantly. Neither the hypothesized inverted U-shaped relationship between international diversification and performance nor the interaction effect from both international and industrial diversification strategies on performance can be validated. Implications are discussed with reference to the local context.     

Causality of interest rate,exchange rate and stock prices at stock market open and close in Hong Kong

By an ARIMA approach and verified by the Granger causality tests, the causality of daily interest rate, exchange rate and stock prices in Hong Kong were explored for the period 1986 to 1991. Depending on the subperiods being considered, sporadic unidirectional causality from closing stock prices to interest rate, and weak bi-directional causality between stock prices and the exchange rate were found. The overall evidence, however, appears to show that the Hong Kong market efficiently incorporated much of the interest rate and exchange rate information in its price changes both at daily market close and open.The author would like to acknowledge helpful comments from two anonymous referees, helpful suggestions by Dr Daniel Cheung and research assistance from Theresa Tam. This project is supported by a research grant from the Institute of Social Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.     

境外上市与企业投资效率

截至2021年11月,我国单独境外上市企业占到境外上市企业总数的88.32%,但单独境外上市的研究明显与该数据不匹配,研究数量缺乏。为扩充该方面研究,本文以2012~2020年单独在美国和中国香港上市的中资企业为研究对象,对境外上市与投资效率关系进行检验。实证结果发现,单独境外上市与境内上市企业相比投资效率更低,区分企业上市地点后发现,规模大、信息透明度低、存在代理成本的赴港上市企业比境内上市企业投资效率低,规模小、代理成本高、信息透明度低的赴美上市企业比境内上市企业投资效率低。通过机制分析发现,信息透明度、境外上市和非效率投资三者存在"遮掩效应",境外上市企业未能受到有效的信息约束。     

Disney’s successful adaptation in Hong Kong: A glocalization perspective

This paper applies the principles of glocalization theory to Disney’s successful adaptation in Hong Kong. Glocalization refers to the interface of the global and the local. After Hong Kong Disneyland’s lack of success within a year of its opening in 2005, Disney executives attempted to cater to the local Chinese context. From a glocalization perspective, four major changes were made: (1) reduction of prices; (2) adaptation to local visitors’ customs; (3) change of décors and settings; and (4) adaptation of labor practices. Ever since, Hong Kong Disneyland has proved successful: park attendance and revenues from growth have increased.     

Do the best new product development practices of US companies matter in Hong Kong?

Past research offers numerous “best practice” studies in New Product Development (NPD). One important characteristic of the earlier “best practice” studies is that they are primarily based on Western samples. Because management practices, cultures, and norms differ around the world it has been argued that the findings of the earlier studies will likely to be less applicable to firms managing NPD outside the West. This study fills this gap by surveying Hong Kong companies and comparing the NPD activities in Hong Kong with those in the US. The results revealed interesting similarities and differences between US and Hong Kong firms with regard to their NPD activities.     

Gender and Technology in Hong Kong: A Study of Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology

Attitudes play an important role in guiding and predicting future actions. In Hong Kong, where traditional attitudes regarding female and male roles often clash with more-modern influences, students' negative or positive attitudes toward technology have obvious implications for their participatory role in society. This paper reports on a study of Hong Kong Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology. Items in a survey distributed to nearly 3,500 junior secondary school students were used to gauge their attitudes toward several areas of technology. Questions related to parents' careers and domestic influences were also asked.The analysis revealed that significant differences existed between girls and boys in many of the items. For instance, the importance of taking technical subjects such as Design & Technology (D&T) was found to be significant in their attitudes about technology being an activity for both genders. Similarly, students' interest in technology, attitudes about technology in the school curriculum, and ideas about careers related to technology showed significant differences between girls and boys. Given the results of the study, changes in Hong Kong's secondary school D&T are proposed. Current strategies being developed in Hong Kong's D&T teacher preparation programs are also outlined.     

International business research output and rankings of Asia-Pacific universities: A 40-year time-series analysis

This study measures and ranks the performance of countries and academic institutions based on a 40-year analysis of publications appearing in 14 leading business and management journals. The focus is on the evolution of Asia-Pacific institutions in international business research output during this period. In addition, an examination is performed to identify factors associated with Asia-Pacific institutions that have achieved the highest rankings. This research shows that the Journal of International Business Studies and the Journal of World Business were central in spreading international business research, as well as in supporting research by authors from the Asia-Pacific region. Further, schools such as Harvard, Wharton, and University of South Carolina have maintained the highest ranks in research output throughout the 40-year period, but recent years have witnessed the emergence of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong, among others, in those top ranks.     

Upward and downward influence tactics in managerial networks: A comparative study of Hong Kong Chinese and Americans

This paper reports an empirical investigation of individual preferences in the use of managerial influence tactics by Hong Kong Chinese and Americans. Subjects in a cross-cultural scenario study were asked to evaluate alternative upward and downward influence tactics in terms of their preferred usage. The findings indicate a main effect for culture and for direction of influence attempt. In addition, direction of influence attempt interacts with subject gender and culture on a tactic-by-tactic basis to reveal differences in influence preferences. Implications of the findings and directions for future studies are discussed.This research was supported by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The special assistance of Mimi Kam and Ricky Lam in back-translation of the research instruments is appreciated, as are the contributions of Joseph Raelin of Boston College and Harold Welsch of Depaul University in data collection.     

China’s business network structure during institutional transitions

This study adopted a structural approach to examine the formation and characteristics of Chinese business networks via interlocking directorates during a stage in China’s institutional transitions. Analyses of the network structures of 949 listed companies revealed that: (1) Chinese business networks were smaller in scale and lower in density than their Western counterparts; (2) no nationwide network with a dominant center existed; (3) interlock occurred mainly in the form of smaller business groups which tended to be regionally fragmented; (4) ties were more prevalent among industrial peers than with financial institutions; and (5) government ownership was predominant. These findings therefore deepen our understanding about the pattern and extent of business interlock in China. Not only do these findings provide substantive implications to the notion and dimensionality of guanxi, but they also offer inspiration to managers and policy makers by illuminating key characteristics of network structure. Laying these foundations shall pave the way for future research in the structure of Chinese business networks.

香港经济的国际竞争力及对中国经济增长的贡献

文章对香港回归后国际竞争力的提升以及对中国经济增长的贡献进行了较为全面的研究。通过分析认为,香港已经成为具有国际竞争力的经济体,产业发展具有较强的国际竞争力,国际化大都市的产业结构已经形成,尤其是高端生产性服务业具有较强国际竞争力,已经形成了国际商贸中心、国际金融中心、国际航运航空物流中心、国际科技资讯中心的地位。香港对中国经济增长的贡献与作用十分突出,主要体现在,为内地提供优质生产性服务业,扩大内地国际贸易和利用外资,支持内地企业走出去,支持内地金融国际化,带动殊三角、泛殊三角地区经济发展与产业结构升级等方面。客观评价香港在中国经济中的地位与作用,对于新时期发挥香港的优势,促进香港的繁荣与稳定具有重要意义。     

The strategic and cultural legitimacy of HR professionalization in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, human resources (HR) practice has reached a point of professionalization not yet apparent in other parts of China creating opportunities for best practice diffusion across rapidly developing cities, provinces, and regions. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the strategic and cultural legitimacy of human resource management (HRM) in Hong Kong from the perspective of the occupation’s status as an emerging profession. Combining established theory on professions with documented insights from normative associational ideals, this paper derives four major sources of HR professionalization, which it entitles strategy, communication, administration, and discipline. Assuming that tasks performed by the most senior, qualified and experienced practitioners hold greatest empirical sway over the prospect of occupational association, this study finds that a combination of strategic and communication practices emerge as the two most likely routes to HR professionalization. Based on survey responses from a representative sample of 172 certified practitioners, the findings support the notion of HR as a strategic asset, raising important implications for the professional status of the occupation within an Asian management context.