This paper presents the findings of the first phase of a larger research project on inter-country differences of business failure in entrepreneurial firms. This initial phase involves an exploratory comparative study into the perceptions of 20 Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) founder-owners in Australia and Malaysia on what they felt were ineffective behaviours and competencies that were strongly associated with their experiences of difficulties or failures in their own ventures. Drawing on real life lessons from the founder-owners on their actions or inactions, the research contributes to the understanding of behavioural differences in the context of business failure between founder-owners in two relatively different cultural settings.

This study uses panel data to investigate the different roles of the Chinese government in influencing companies' decision making about corporate environmental reporting (CER) via a two-stage process. The results show that the Chinese government appears to mainly influence the decision whether to disclose or not, but has limited influence on how much firms disclose. The results also show that the traditional model of authoritarian capitalism (under which stateowned enterprises [SOEs] are the major governance arrangement) is transforming into a new model. In the new model of authoritarian capitalism, the Chinese government uses newer, more sophisticated tools to manage both state-owned and non-state-owned companies. In addition, these new governance arrangements appear to be more efficient than the traditional model. The findings of this study have implications for both the Chinese government and for Chinese companies, as well as making important contributions to the literature and knowledge of CER in China.

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PurposeIn a state capitalist country such as China, an important influence on company reporting is the government, which can influence company decision-making. The nature and impact of how the Chinese government uses its symbolic power to promote corporate environmental reporting (CER) have been under-studied, and therefore, this paper aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating the various strategies the Chinese government uses to influence CER and how political ideology plays a key role.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses discourse analysis to examine the annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports from seven Chinese companies between 2007 and 2011. And the data analysis presented is informed by Bourdieu's conceptualisation of symbolic power.FindingsThe Chinese government, through exercising the symbolic power, manages to build consensus, so that the Chinese government's political ideology becomes the habitus which is deeply embedded in the companies' perception of practices. In China, the government dominates the field and owns the economic capital. In order to accumulate symbolic capital, companies must adhere to political ideology, which helps them maintain and improve their social position and ultimately reward them with more economic capital. The findings show that the CER provided by Chinese companies is a symbolic product of this process.Originality/valueThe paper provides contributions around the themes of symbolic power wielded by the government that influence not only state-owned enterprises (SOEs) but also firms in the private sector. This paper also provides an important contribution to understanding, in the context of a strong ideologically based political system (such as China), how political ideology influences companies' decision-making in the field of CER.