Speaker:

Dr. Kristóf Madarász
Associate Professor in Managerial Economics and Strategy
Department of Management
London School of Economics and Political Science

Speaker:

Prof. Zheng Michael Song
Professor
Department of Economics
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract:

Why does China have a thriving private sector? This paper argues that conglomeration serves as an informal institutional arrangement through which resources can be reallocated within conglomerate even in the absence of factor markets. Using firm registration data that covers all the 17 million firms in the economic universe of China, we document the following facts: (1) two hundred thousand state-owned firms are at the center of the universe in terms of the firm-to-firm ownership network, about two million private firms are connected to the state-owned firms and these connected firms account for two thirds of the registered capital in China; (2) hundreds of conglomerates are identified and the explosion of the universe was mainly driven by the expansion of incumbent conglomerates; (3) firm access to resources is highly correlated with its distance to the center of the conglomerate. We then develop a model of conglomerate formation, where connecting to a conglomerate helps to overcome financial constraints or entry barriers. The model generates the firm size and TFP distributions as well as conglomerate size distribution, which we use to compare with the data in structural estimation. The estimated model can also reproduce many dynamic patterns in the data, especially the booming private sector since 2000 and its connectedness with the state sector.

Speaker:

Dr. Ning Li
Associate Professor
Department of Management and Organizations
The University of Iowa

Abstract:

Over the past decade, social network research has been a powerful tool to understand important organizational phenomena spanning different research areas, such as leadership (Carter, DeChurch, Braun, & Contractor, 2015), teamwork (Li, Zhao, Walter, Zhang, & Yu, 2015), creativity and innovation (Perry-Smith & Shalley, 2003), career (Seibert, Kraimer, & Liden, 2001), power and influence (Ibarra & Andrews, 1993). A social network approach allows organizational scholars to capture the complex and dynamic interactions among individuals in the workplace and gain a finer grained understanding of the phenomenon of interest. Moving forward, with the fast development of information technology, modern technologies have transformed the way employees work in contemporary organizations. As a result, organizations are increasingly using digital collaboration platforms to encourage more efficient collaborations among employees. Therefore, social network analysis is also a powerful tool in understanding employee behaviors in the digital era. In this presentation, we will synthesize various applications of social network analysis in organizational research in the past and discuss promising future directions of social network research such as digital collaboration, network change, and big data.

Speaker:

Prof. Zeki Simsek
Professor
Gressette Chair of Business Strategy and Planning
Clemson University

Abstract:

Founder pre-entry experiences are widely recognized as a source of variance in innovation across new ventures, but extant theory gives short shrift to the evolving founding team context. In this paper, we theorize and test a model that examines the complex interplay between pre-entry experience and membership dynamics and establishes a direct impact of team fluidity on innovation, and its moderating influence on the relationship between pre-entry experience and innovation. Together, these influences and associated predictions help deepen our understanding and form the outlines of a richer theory of pre-entry experience effects on venture innovation. Using structural equation modeling, we test the model and associated hypotheses within a large cohort of 1,579 new ventures tracked for eight years. The results provide broad empirical support for the model across a wide range of specifications, but mixed support for specific hypotheses.

Research Seminar hosted by Institute for China and Global Development (ICGD)

Speaker:

Dr. Ju Shi
Associate Professor
School of Economics
Peking University

Abstract:

This paper explores the impact of financial incentives on the provision of medical care, based on a natural experiment in China’s health care reform. The government changed provider financial incentives by eliminating the price markup and regulating the type and procurement of prescription drugs in public hospitals. The analysis uses a unique sample of claims data and takes advantage of the variation in the timing of reform in township health care centers and county hospitals. The findings show that the reform decreased spending on drugs by 52 percent, and the decrease was jointly caused by reductions in drug prices and quantities. However, the reduction in spending on drugs was almost fully substituted by increased non-drug spending, resulting in insignificant change in total medical spending. These findings indicate that providers respond to financial incentives to maintain their income. The results are supported by compositional change in behaviors across different drugs: the reduction in usage was larger for drugs with a greater decline in price. Further investigation of measures of quality of care reinforces this finding: the length of hospital stays was extended, with no significant improvement in quality of care, as measured by the readmission rate, implying that the behavioral changes may just be responses to financial incentives.

Speaker:

Dr. Xi Zou
Associate Professor
Nanyang Business School
Nanyang Technological University

Abstract:

Professional networking is important. From “Never Eat Alone” to “Leaders Eat Last”, the value of networking is sung by management scholars and business gurus alike. However, only recently has research on networks begun to recognize the fact that many people experience significant motivational barriers when engaging in professional networking. In this talk, I present my recent work that seeks to further the scientific understanding of these motivational barriers by investigating how professionals feel and think about networking. In Studies 1 – 3, I examined how professionals feel about the potential rejection inherent in professional networking. Professionals with a higher level of rejection sensitivity developed a smaller number of higher rank contacts over time and reported greater networking avoidance. In Studies 4 – 6, I examined how professionals think about their networking ability. Professionals differed in their beliefs about whether networking ability is fixed or malleable, and those with more fixed beliefs were less engaged in networking. By identifying the motivational barriers that inhibit networking behavior, the present research sheds new light on the motivational psychology of networking.

Speaker:

Dr. Nan Jia
Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California

Abstract:

Can China’s authoritarian government “command” its way to an innovation-driven economy—that is, by mobilizing the entire bureaucracy and society to embrace innovation? We examine this question by focusing on the issuance of patents, a common indicator of innovation, in China from 1990-2015. Since 2006, when Beijing launched a national campaign to promote domestic innovation, the production of patents has exploded. But we find significant regional variation that is not simply explained by levels of economic wealth—the political incentives of local leaders also influence patents production. Specifically, we find that cities where local leaders face strong peer pressure to compete on the growth of GDP and fiscal revenue produce the largest amount of patents, yet this does not affect the quality of patents in their portfolio. In other words, we identify two clear limits to Beijing’s ability to command its way to innovation through political campaigns and targets. First, the national drive for domestic innovation spurs larger quantities of patents, but not necessarily of higher-quality, as local leaders are assessed by numerical targets that measure quantity rather than quality. Second, even when the national leadership strongly prioritizes innovation, the production of patents is still conditional both upon local political incentives and local economic resources.

Speaker:

Dr. Andrei Hagiu
Associate Professor of Information Systems
Questrom School of Business
Boston University

Abstract:

We explore conditions under which a multiproduct firm can profitably turn itself into a platform by “hosting rivals,” i.e. by inviting rivals to sell products or services on top of its core product. Hosting eliminates the additional shopping costs to consumers of buying a specialist rival’s competing version of the multiproduct firm’s non-core product. On the one hand, this makes it easier for the rival to compete on the non-core product. On the other hand, hosting turns the rival from a pure competitor into a complementor: the value added by its product now helps raise consumer demand for the multi-product firm’s core product. As a result, hosting can be both unilaterally profitable for the multi-product firm and jointly profitable for both firms.

Speaker:

Dr. Fabrice Lumineau
Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Krannert School of Management
Purdue University

Abstract:

This study proposes a revised typology of alliance governance mechanisms by integrating two salient theoretical perspectives that have been studied independently so far: one is sociologically oriented and focuses on the formal vs. informal structures, while the other is economics based and focuses on contractual vs. relational mechanisms. We use this revised typology as the lens to analyze empirical evidence from an in-depth longitudinal case study of an alliance in the veterinary drug industry. Examining the governance dynamics of a revelatory R&D alliance allowed us to corroborate the revised typology and to identify the trade-offs inherent in the various governance mechanisms. In addition, our analysis led us to theorize about the precise interplay between different types of governance mechanisms and their impacts on alliance outcomes over time. As such, we provide novel insights into the ongoing debates on the mutual relationships between governance mechanisms.

Speaker:

Dr. Weilei (Stone) Shi
Associate Professor
Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management, Baruch College
Zicklin School of Business, The City University of New York

Abstract:

We develop the concept of institutional fragility to investigate the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) behavior of firms from emerging economies.When different dimensions of institutions are not progressing at the same pace, internal friction and conflict arise during institutional development. Such fragility could push a firm to escape its home country as a strategic response. Using a sample of 578,360 Chinese firm-year observations over a 10-year period, we find that institutional fragility at the provincial level is associated with increased OFDI decision. This relationship is weaker when firms have high productivity or have been controlled by state with high ownership, stronger when firms have a high level of export network. Overall, our institutional fragility perspective extends and enriches the institution-based view and offers new insights into OFDI behavior.