In Search of Appropriate Methodology: From Outside The People's Republic of China Looking In

The adoption of agency business activity, product innovation, and performance in Chinese technology ventures

“…We also provided a full explanation of the usefulness of the project for the respondents' organizations, and offered an incentive (i.e., summary of the results) to foster a sense that the respondents would benefit from involvement in the study. Adler, Campbell, and Laurent (1989) noted that respondents in China are likely to answer questions based on the way they want their firms ideally to be, not the way they actually are. Thus, we asked the respondents to base their responses on the real situation in their firms.…”

“…Thus, we asked the respondents to base their responses on the real situation in their firms. Finally, prior research has raised concerns about social desirability aspects of responses in the Chinese context (Adler et al, 1989). This concern seems likely to be exacerbated by the on-site interview approach to administering the questionnaire because of the great importance attached to face in the Chinese context.…”

Challenges in international survey research: a review with illustrations and suggested solutions for best practice

“…For example, Adler et al (1989) failed to validly and reliably describe management behaviour in China as some of their measurement items contained the Western notion of 'truth' which has different connotations in Confucian philosophy. Thus, a construct can only be meaningfully measured across cultures if it is based on a universally applicable concept in these cultures, that is, is conceptually equivalent.…”

Collaborating with Management Academics in a New Economy: Benefits and Challenges

“…In contrast to CMAs' perspectives, OMAs' observations of the gains of working with their Chinese counterparts foregrounded access to local data and resources and gaining indigenous perspectives-benefits of collaboration having long been acknowledged especially in the discipline of management [14,17,24,43]. The need to develop global management knowledge requires research being carried out in contexts other than the Western center to develop new theories; at the same time, there is also a need to find out whether the existing theories developed based on research conducted in the center apply in other contexts and how to enrich and refine the current theories [24,32,44].…”

“…While local knowledge rooted in the periphery may suffer from "parochialism" in the eyes of gatekeepers and be barred from publication in a center-based journal [22], research that is not informed by the world outside the center has been dubbed a "parochial dinosaur" in the context of management research [45]. International collaboration helps OMAs to overcome U.S.-centrism [24] and provides opportunities for them to jointly develop with CMAs grounded theories and locally-workable research methods [43].…”