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A main challenge in studying China is that different views clash. A more serious challenge is that studies that are critical of or dissent from the Chinese government policies are labeled “anti-China” by the Chinese authorities, affecting the free academic exchange of ideas on China. This article discusses this issue and proposes a long-term solution.

This is a perspective study and uses the qualitative approach to develop the authors’ arguments.

The authors argue that the contention in China-related studies is derived primarily from the different perspectives that scholars use. This study identifies two main perspectives: the China-centric view and the rest of the world’s view. The combination of the clash of perspectives and the interference of the Chinese state hinders the development of our knowledge regarding China. Using Rawls’ theory of justice and the veil of ignorance, the authors propose to build common ground for the China study community based on academic freedom, equality and the rule of law. This study further shows that building the common ground is feasible.

The authors’ proposed common ground will help create a free environment for meaningful exchange between different perspectives and reduce the risks in China studies.

The authors’ angle to examine the contentiousness and riskiness of China studies is new. It is the first time that different perspectives on China studies are delineated and compared, the costs of the contentiousness and riskiness are assessed, and the long-term consequences of different paths are examined.

A core concept of work–home interface research is boundary permeability – the frequency with which elements from one domain cross, or permeate, the boundary of another domain. Yet, there remains ambiguity as to what these elements are and how these permeations impact important outcomes such as role satisfaction and role performance. The authors introduce a multidimensional perspective of work–home boundary permeability, identifying five forms of boundary permeation: task, psychological, role referencing, object, and people. Furthermore, based on the notion that employee control over boundary permeability behavior is the key to achieving role satisfaction and role performance, the authors examine how organizations’ HR practices, leadership, and norms impact employee control over boundary permeability in the work and home domains. The authors conclude with an agenda for future research.

For new ventures, access to entrepreneurship assistantship is the main source of growth and innovativeness. Accelerators, a growing provider of entrepreneurial resources, offer such assistantship. This study aims to identify several factors that might account for a startup’s acceptance of accelerator programs. Particularly, this paper examines the impact of a lead founder’s country of birth, gender and education on accelerator acceptance.

This study tests the framework with logit regression for a sample of 10,298 observations for startups in 166 countries over 2016–2018.

This study finds that entrepreneurs from developing countries are less likely to be accepted by accelerators than entrepreneurs from developed economies. Counterintuitively, this study also finds an advantage for female entrepreneurs in accelerator acceptance. Further, the results suggest a positive impact on education. Building on signaling theory, this paper argues and shows that accelerators do not evaluate applicants uniformly.

Our comparative study enhances business owners’ insight for application to entrepreneurial resources and has meaningful implications for women’s entrepreneurship. For policy-making purposes, this study offers more insight on economic development for entrepreneurs’ access to global resources.

Despite the extant literature demonstrating the benefits of accelerators, determinants of acceptance to these programs, particularly at the individual level, are underexplored. This is the first study that shows the rarely acknowledged link between a lead founder’s country of birth, gender and education level on accelerator acceptance. Here, this study extends entrepreneurship literature and shows some sources of variation in access to international accelerator programs.

Answering the call to study important issues in the real world (Buckley et al., 2017; Delios, 2017; Phan, 2019), and motivated by the trade war between the US and China, the authors look beyond it to examine the more fundamental issues behind it. From a political economy perspective, the authors examine the interplay of government, society and firms in China to identify new phenomena that may impact business with, and research on, China.

A multi-case qualitative method is used to present and analyze evidence and develop our arguments. Specifically, we use scholarly sources, anecdotal evidence, reports, statistics and government documents and policies to support our arguments.

After four decades of economic reform, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls every aspect of the society. Living, working and doing business are not a right but a privilege granted by the party. To a great degree, state-owned firms are business units/subsidiaries, and private/foreign firms are franchisees of the party, with the party leader being the CEO of China, Inc. The interplay between China and other countries is essentially a competition between a huge corporation and other states.

At the firm level, our study suggests that for MNCs dealing with Chinese firms, they need to know that Chinese firms are units of China, Inc. Practitioners should take into account the long-term strategic goals of the CCP as well as business considerations when dealing with Chinese partners or competitors.

At the country level, our study shows that other countries dealing with China must be aware that they are dealing with a huge corporation.

That the CCP runs China as a corporation is a new perspective that will help the international community reexamine global competition.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if a firm's exchange complexity profile (that is, the linkages between the firm and its environment) influences investor behavior at the negotiation table where a firm valuation is derived.

The authors utilize Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Specifically, the authors utilize fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), a QCA variant that allows the researcher to assign graduated membership in sets.

When the authors dichotomize their positions as either higher stakes that favor the seller (high capital, low equity, high valuation) or lower stakes that favor the buyer (low capital, high equity, low valuation), and when the authors focus primarily on the equity outcome, the authors find that investors adopt a reductionist stance that adheres to a transaction cost economics logic under conditions of lower stakes and higher complexity as well as higher stakes and lower complexity conditions. The authors interpret this to mean that equity serves as a counter-balancing lever for a firm's exchange complexity configuration.

On a theoretical level, the authors showcase the exchange complexity framework and differentiate its position within the extant frameworks that address a firm's competitive advantage. More generally, the authors note that this framework brings the discipline of micro-economics and the field of strategic management closer together, providing scholars with a new tool enabling research across industries for the portfolio level of analysis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the relevance of the intersections between work and personal life. Measures introduced to slow the spread of COVID-19 have included an increase of working from home and the temporary closure of schools and child-care facilities, leading to a lighter workload for some and a heavier workload for others. These consequences are likely to affect employees’ work–life balance (WLB), although the impact may differ across groups of employees depending on the nature of their work, family and personal demands and resources. This mixed-method study examined how Dutch government employees perceive their WLB during the pandemic and how differences in what employees are experiencing can be explained. In May/June 2020, an online survey (N = 827) and an interview study (N = 17) were conducted at a government organization whose employees were obliged to work from home partly or exclusively. Results indicate that demands changed when working entirely from home and resources became more important to maintain WLB satisfaction. Being able to manage boundaries across life domains and find a new routine also appeared to be crucial for WLB satisfaction.

While well-being and resilience in the workplace continue to be important areas of research, the role age plays in well-being and resilience at work and associated positive work outcomes is often ignored. In most studies age is simply treated as a control variable. In this chapter, we outline the importance of considering age in well-being and resilience research by focusing on how age may impact both of these variables and drawing on research from both the organizational psychology and developmental psychology literature. Theoretical models of these relationships are put forth, and future research directions are discussed.