Moving Toward a Global Understanding of Upward Influence Strategies: An Asian Perspective with Directions for Cross-Cultural Research

We begin with a review of the upward influence literature for the past twenty years. In particular, we examine the extent to which upward influence behavior is congruent with the value dimensions proposed in the established values research and the extent to which the U.S. based measures are applicable in the Asian context. A model of cross-cultural influence behavior is developed to synthesize the present state of our knowledge in cross-cultural upward influence, and to provide a framework for identifying issues requiring further investigation. We conclude by proposing a set of cross-cultural research questions identified in the model.     

The Internationalization Process of Singapore Government-Linked Companies: A Contextual View

Western management theories on internationalization do not fully explain the evolution of Asian MNCs. In East Asia, state policy has been an important intervening variable in the growth and development of the local MNCs. However, the patterns of firm growth differ from country to country and the strategic frames are embedded in the local political and cultural context. The internationalization strategies adopted by firms in East Asia are best understood if viewed from a contextual perspective.Singapore has been held as model of economic development for developing countries. This paper attempts to capture the dynamics of the internationalization process from a contextual perspective. It describes the evolution of two government-linked companies in Singapore and reviews their internationalization strategy. The cases are set within the framework of Singapore's political economy and its development policy. We identify the themes in the internationalization process of these firms and contrast their experiences with traditional theories.     

Asian management research needs more self-confidence

The challenges faced by Asian businesses merit scholarly investigation, both to help local business and to enrich the global scholarly discourse. Such research should be able to make major contributions, for instance by explaining context-specific variables and effects, and by drawing on traditional Asian thought in developing new theories. Yet, recent work, in part due to a lack of self-confidence to analyze the implications of indigenous contexts, seems to have made little progress on this agenda. I first discuss how Asian management research could potentially contribute to global management knowledge. On this basis, I outline institutional constraints that may suppress indigenous and innovative research and thus inhibit the potential impact of local work. I conclude that Asian scholars ought to be more careful in applying theories developed in other contexts, and they can be more self-confident in exploring locally relevant research issues, and in developing theories that explain Asian phenomena.     

Corruption and Organization in Asian Management Systems

From an organizational viewpoint, research on corruption is both a frontier and a challenging issue~in Asian management systems. Corruption is rampant in many Asian countries but organization theorists are surprisingly silent in addressing what impact corruption has on an organization and its operations. Contrary to the belief of some that corruption is necessary for business survival and growth in Asia, we argue that corruption is an evolutionary hazard, a strategic impediment, a competitive disadvantage, and an organizational deficiency. In this article we explain why an organizational perspective of corruption is an important research agenda in Asian management, outline how corruption differs from interpersonal business networking, and illustrate why corruption impedes organizational development.     

Independent directors in Asian firms: An integrative review and future directions

Asian firms started to adopt independent directors (InDs) to boards only in the late 1990s after the Asian financial crisis. Despite its relatively short history, Asian firms’ practice of appointing InDs has yielded interesting research findings that may shed new light on the corporate governance literature and management research. However, the literature on InDs in Asian firms has been presented in a piecemeal fashion, which calls for researchers to review and synthesize the disparate findings and identify paths for future research. In this review paper, we identify and systematically analyze 65 articles related to InDs in the Asian context that were published in 21 leading academic journals from 2001 to 2016. Based on this analysis, we developed a framework with four links to map out the Asian InDs-related literature. We also discuss the limitation of the existing research and suggest future research direction on InDs in Asia.     

Women’s empowerment and gender equity in agriculture: A different perspective from Southeast Asia

Women’s empowerment is considered a ‘prerequisite’ to achieving global food security. Gender systems, however, are diverse and complex. The nature and extent of gender inequity and the conditions necessary to empower women vary across countries, communities and regions. The study of different gender systems is thus fundamental to capture cross-cultural variations in gender specific needs and constraints to effectively address gender gaps. Although the status of women in agriculture has received extensive attention in the literature in recent decades, a research gap persists regarding the state of gender inequity in Southeast Asian agriculture. The current paper contributes to the geographical scope of the literature by presenting empirical evidence of gender inequity from four Southeast Asian countries: Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Using the framework recommended by the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), 37 focus group discussions were conducted with 290 women farmers in the above mentioned countries. The results reveal trends that contradict the conventional narratives of gender inequity in agriculture in certain domains of empowerment. In all four countries, women appear to have equal access to productive resources such as land and inputs, and greater control over household income than men. Important intra-regional heterogeneity is observed in terms of community-level empowerment. While women play an active role in agricultural groups in Thailand and in the Philippines, this is predominantly men’s territory in Indonesia and Myanmar. These findings imply that country-specific gender intervention frameworks are necessary to overcome gender gaps in agriculture.     

Foundation of leadership in Asia: Leader characteristics and leadership styles review and research agenda

Leader characteristics influence leadership styles, which cascade down through the management to the entire firm, affecting organizational and strategic outcomes. Asia’s unique socio-cultural contexts and philosophies breed indigenous leadership styles in the region, yet context-specific research on leader characteristics and leadership styles in Asia has been sparse. Our review answers the call to identify the distinct Asian context that has distinguished the leadership research in Asia from that of other regions. We identify power distance orientation and collectivist culture as the two of the most prominent contextual factors to consider in examining the role of leadership in Asia. Through this review, we aim to further our understanding of the current state of extant literature on leader characteristics and leadership styles and to suggest new avenues for scholars in Asia to advance existing theories of leadership research in the arena of organizational behavior and strategy.     

Incentives in the Asian Context: Theory and Preliminary Evidence

Incentive design for productivity gains has become important for Asian organizations in recent years. This paper introduces the theory of incentive design to an Asian audience while extending the agency theoretic approach to control. Hypotheses derived from this theory were tested in 61 retail stores in Singapore. The results show that employee skills, output measurability and task uncertainty impact incentive design. The results indicate that agency theory may be applicable across cultures. Implications for the Asian context, and its adaptation in terms of behavior, are discussed.     

Technological catch-up by east Asian firms: Trends,issues, and future research agenda

This paper reviews extant research on technological catch-up of East Asian firms, which has recently emerged as an important issue. We review 76 articles on technological catch-up in the East Asian context published in 17 journals over 23 years (1995–2017), covering the academic disciplines of strategic management, international business, entrepreneurship, technology and innovation management, and economics. Based on a systematic analysis of this literature, we develop an overarching framework to this topic. We then identify the major gaps in the literature and suggest areas for future research on technological catch-up of Asian firms.     

Leadership research in Asia: A brief assessment and suggestions for the future

The main purpose of this essay is to discuss fundamental issues regarding future research on leadership in Asia. In order to meaningfully introduce these issues, I begin with an overview of leadership research in Asia, briefly covering some of the similarities and differences between Asian and Western leadership approaches. Throughout the essay, I rely chiefly on China as an example. I stress that instead of developing theories and measures unique to specific countries, such as China, the focus should be on the identification of moderators that explain relationships between leadership and both its antecedents and outcomes. I further argue that for such an approach to be viable, future scale development efforts should include respondents from multiple cultural contexts so that relatively universal boundary conditions/domains can be identified. I further contend that assessing differences between countries, such as China compared to Western countries, will be most beneficial if cross-level research designs and analyses are employed.     

Self-appraisal,life goals,and national culture: An asian-western comparison

Positive leniency in self-appraisal was studied for its cross-cultural properties in three Asian and three Western countries. Nine hundred and eighty-three mid-level bank managers were surveyed by indigenous field workers to measure self-appraisal, life goals, and other demographic variables. Positive leniency was found in the three Western countries but not in the three Asian countries while controlling for size and type of organisation, managerial level and several demographics including sex, age, education and religious preference. Our measure of self-appraisal also served as a measure of organisational success. The relationship between success and work motivation was then examined for its cross-cultural properties. Organisational success and work motivation correlated across the six countries although the intensity of work motivation varied. The importance of work and of family were highly valued in all six countries as well.     

Toward a Geocentric Theory of Multinational Evolution: The Implications from the Asian MNEs as Latecomers

Despite their growing proliferation and importance, the multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the developing countries have not received adequate attention. Further, there is a growing concern with the validity of the extant MNE theories in the context of globalization and network. This paper seeks to address two questions: (1) how much can we apply the extant MNE theories (which are built on the evidence from the developed countries) to the MNEs from the developing countries as latecomers; and (2) how much can the evidence of the MNEs from the developing countries as latecomers offer to modify and enhance the extant MNE theories. The evidence of one longitudinal embedded case study shows that the extant MNE theories need modifications (so as to apply to the MNEs from the developing countries as latecomers) and enhancements (so as to better explain all MNEs). Also discussed are the significant implications for further theory building with regard to MNEs in the context of globalization and network.     

Leadership research in Asia: Taking the road less traveled?

Asia is a geographical region with a cultural emphasis on power distance, paternalism, collectivism, and social relations. Leadership in this area plays an important role in organizational processes and outcomes; however, whether this role is similar to that outlined in the mainstream leadership research and non-Asian settings is yet to be confirmed. In this Special Issue on ??Leadership in Asia,?? we selected six papers and identified four emerging themes. First, several mainstream leadership theories are applicable in Asia. On the other hand, we also identified processes and effects that are unique in Asia. Second, leadership in Asia affects organizational outcomes. Third, a strong emphasis on families and social ties among Asian corporations highlights intriguing leadership dynamics in this part of the world. Finally, new context-specific leadership constructs are identified and discussed. In light of these findings, we discuss the future directions of leadership research in Asia.     

Asian management research needs more self-confidence: Reflection on Hofstede (2007) and beyond

Hofstede’s cross-cultural paradigm has stimulated academic interest in value and behavioral variations across national borders and helped practitioners to capture national cultural stereotypes in concrete and measurable terms. Nevertheless, the Hofstede paradigm with its focus on cultural differences can hardly capture today’s new cross-cultural management environment characterized by change and paradox in borderless and wireless cultural learning, knowledge transfer, and synchronized information sharing. In the twenty-first century, management faces new challenges because people in the twenty-first century are increasingly no longer bipolarized and isolated creatures but of multicultural identities and multicultural minds. Asian management researchers need to learn from the West but at the same time need to have self-confidence and courage in using indigenous knowledge to make contributions to theory building with global relevance.     

Business networking and innovation of Asian enterprises in Western countries: The moderation of institutional distance

This study advances extant cross-nation and cross-cultural business-to-business (B2B) supply chain literature by exploring the contingent effect of institutional distance in the business networking-innovation relationship. Unlike previous studies largely based on Western firms operating in the developing economies, this study focuses on Asian firms operating in the Western developed market. By examining the experiences of one hundred and sixty Asian B2B firms operating in New Zealand, this study finds that formal institutional distance positively moderates the effect of business networking on innovation whereas informal institutional distance negatively moderates the effect of business networking on innovation. This study provides new theoretical conceptualizations and perspectives to cross-national and cross-cultural B2B supply chain research.     

Evidence of the practical utility of Wong’s emotional intelligence scale in Hong Kong and mainland China

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for psychological, educational, and management researchers and consultants in recent years. However, there is a lack of scientifically valid measures of this concept, especially for those that have practical utility in the Asian context. Recently, a 40-item forced-choice instrument was developed for Chinese respondents in Hong Kong. We collected data in three studies to further test the practical utility of this instrument in Hong Kong and mainland China. The results provided clear evidence for the instrument’s practical utility. More research that uses this measure in Asian countries is required.

The effects of national culture on the theory and practice of managing R&D professionals abroad

G. Hofstede's research on 'Culture's Consequences' (1980) greatly shaped the discussion of cross-cultural differences in management theory and practice during the 1980's. And yet, his 4-D Model's applicability to the management of R&D laboratories and their professionals worldwide remained in doubt due to the fact that his four dimensions of Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, and Masculinity were derived from responses of mid-level IBM employees with lower levels of formal education than those of typical R&D professionals. This paper reports on results of the first comprehensive follow-up study that (1) show Hofstede's four dimensions to be equally valid for highly educated respondents from 17 Western European countries, Turkey, and the USA, (2) describe significant similarities between the respondents' work goals and those of R&D professionals, and (3) suggest implications of cross-cultural differences along the dimensions for the theory and practice of managing R&D professionals abroad.     

Asian Management Research: Frontiers and Challenges

It is an appropriate time to examine the current achievements and the potential of Asian management research in shaping the body of management knowledge. The papers in this Special Issue examine the theoretical development and conceptualization of Asian management research and identify promising areas for future research. The papers summarize key research trends in several management areas and provide a critical analysis of what has been achieved, what is lacking, and what can be done in future studies. They argue, collectively, that it is fruitful to address some Asian phenomenon and generate theory for global-relevant issues. It is also meaningful to use Asian-developed constructs to study local and global issues. However, there are urgent needs for the development and validation of new constructs, designing measures and innovative methodology for conducting empirical studies, and linking the Asian-based issues and concepts to current scholarly conversations.     

Making Ethical Judgements: A Cross-Cultural Management Study

This article reports the results of a cross-cultural empirical study across seven countries which investigates the differences in the way managers structure their ethical judgements regarding the loyalty of a corporation to its employees, the loyalty of employees to the corporation, and the loyalty of employees towards their co-workers. Managers' ethical judgements from the East Asian tiger countries of Japan, Korea and Hong Kong are compared with those from the Anglo countries of the United States and Australia, and with those from the transitional countries of Asiatic Russia and Poland. An adapted version of the well documented Reidenbach-Robin instrument is used, and its cross-cultural application investigated. As hypothesized, cross-cultural differences were indicated for both the structure and content of managers' ethical judgements, which have important implications for the way organizations are effectively managed both nationally, regionally and internationally. Weaknesses in the a priori constructs of the research instrument were also indicated, and recommendations made for future development of methodology in this area.