“Organizational Ecology in China” by Professor Dean Xu
STRATEGY PHD WORSHOP
Speaker:
Professor Dean Xu
Department of Management
Monash University
Abstract:
This seminar focuses on the organizational ecology in the world’s second largest economy. Multiple organizational (ownership) forms exist in the ecological space of a country, including various kinds of foreign entrants and local firms. Extant research suggests that when a new organizational form emerges, it suffers from a liability of newness; existing forms either crowd out or transfer legitimacy to the new form. Similarly, when foreign firms enter a host country, they suffer from a liability of foreignness and are likely to be crowded out by local firms. Under such circumstances, some forms or populations of foreign firms can borrow legitimacy from others and enhance their survivability. However, significant gaps exist as to how foreign firms can overcome their liability of foreignness through intra‐ and inter‐population legitimation, and how local firms are impacted by the changing densities of foreign firms. In this seminar, I will discuss existing literature as well as two working papers aimed at filling these gaps, with China as the empirical context. Students are asked to familiarize themselves with the relevant literature listed below:
- Kuilman J, Li JT (2009) Grades of membership and legitimacy spillovers: foreign banks in Shanghai, 1847‐1935. Academy of Management Journal 51(2): 229‐245.
- Li JT, Yang JY, Yue DR (2007) Identity, community, and audience: how wholly owned foreign subsidiaries gain legitimacy in China. Academy of Management Journal 50(1): 175‐190.
- Xu D, Lu JW, Gu Q (2014) Organizational forms and multi‐population dynamics: Economic transition in China. Administrative Science Quarterly 59(3): 517‐547.
- Zhou C, Van Witteloostuijn A (2010) Institutional constraints and ecological processes: Evolution of foreign‐invested enterprises in the Chinese construction industry, 1993–2006. Journal of International Business Studies 41(3): 539–556.
