West Meets East: New Concepts and Theories

Abstract

Management scholarship has grown tremendously over the past 60 years. Most of our paradigms originated from North America in the 1950s to the 1980s, inspired by the empirical phenomena and cultural, philosophical, and research traditions of the time.Here following, we highlight the contextual differences between the East and the West in terms of institutions, philosophies, and cultural values and how they are manifest in contemporary management practices. Inspired by theory development in management studies over time, we offer insights into the conditions facilitating new theories, and how these might apply to emergent theories from the East. We discuss the contributions of the six papers included in this special research forum as exemplars of integrating Eastern concepts and contexts to enrich existing management theories. We highlight the difficulty with testing Eastern constructs as distinct from Western ones by discussing the properties of equivalence, salience, and infusion in constructs. We provide directions for future research and encourage an agentic view to creating new theories and paradigms.

The management of natural resources: an overview and research agenda

“…Cultural aspects likely play an important role, as Asian countries embarking on growth might have differing incentives to those of mature economies of the West and have differing institutional and societal priorities and views of the world (Barkema et al, 2015). Are forward-thinking boards and managers less likely to engage in strictly symbolic actions?…”

Becoming a great reviewer: Four actionable guidelines

“…Here, the extant literature should be used primarily as a guide, not as a blinder (Barkema, Chen, George, Luo & Tsui, 2015).…”

Age, work and pensions in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong: An institutional perspective

“…In responding to calls for research and theory development on Asian contexts as well as across East and West (see Barkema et al, 2015), we consider whether and how the global phenomenon of population ageing is leading to a convergence of approaches across the East and West. We further respond to calls for the in-depth study of specific business systems in order to advance business systems theory (Witt et al, 2018).…”