The Chinese cultural logics of change offer a rich understanding of organizational change. We address three key aspects of the Chinese yin-yang view of change: context, process, and actions. A case study of Chengdu Bus Group CBG enables us to develop a conceptual model that examines organizational change in a Chinese indigenous context. The model reflects the key functions of shi (situational momentum, ), the action strategies of ying-shi (leveraging momentum, ) and zao-shi (building momentum, ), and the dialectics of nonaction ( ). Our findings will help researchers and practitioners better understand organizational change from a unique yin-yang perspective, and will also contribute general knowledge to process theories of organizational change.

This commentary discusses the four articles in this special MOR issue on indigenous management research in China. It begins by recognizing the importance of indigenous research not only for understanding the specific knowledge of local phenomena, but also for advancing general theoretical knowledge across cultural boundaries. Challenging to undertake, we propose a method of engaged scholarship for conducting indigenous research. The four articles in this special issue provide good examples of applying principles of engaged scholarship in their indigenous Chinese management studies.

This study examines corporate philanthropy in the context of corporate wrongdoing punishment in emerging markets. Building on institutional theory, we propose that in emerging markets, after being punished for fraudulent behavior by the government, which is collectively the largest institution, convicted firms tend to use corporate philanthropy as an institutional strategy to regain legitimacy. Using data of Chinese-listed firms that were punished for financial fraud in the ten years from 2004 to 2013, our findings show the subsequent growth of corporate philanthropy to be positively related to punishment severity. Furthermore, convicted firms’ media visibility, dominant state ownership, and national political appointment strengthen the effect of punishment severity on corporate philanthropy increase. Our institutional perspective offers new insights into why firms engage in corporate philanthropy after fraud punishment.

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In this article, we propose that types of CEO paternalistic leadership will affect the effectiveness of top management team (TMT) decisions, and that team conflict will play a mediating role in the relationship between CEO paternalistic leadership and decision effectiveness in the Chinese context. Data collected from 108 TMTs in China suggest that dimensions of paternalistic leadership significantly affect decision effectiveness: benevolent and moral leadership positively affect TMT decision effectiveness, but authoritarian leadership has negative effects on TMT decision effectiveness. In addition, cognitive and affective team conflicts partially mediate the links between paternalistic leadership types and decision effectiveness. The results suggest that CEO paternalistic leadership approaches and conflict modes significantly determine TMT decision effectiveness.