Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

8-2007

Abstract

The behaviour of Chinese business has been studied by a variety of strategic management scholars (see in particular Hafsi and Tian, 2005; Peng, 2006; Peng and Heat, 1996). Most of these studies rely on traditional data gathering, either in the form of interviews or published data banks. Very little attention has been given to history as a determinant of strategic behaviour. In this paper, we propose that the cognitive orientation of Chinese managers is dominated by their knowledge and understanding of Chinese history. We take the Three Kingdoms historic novel as a proxy to history to derive basic behavioral norms and values, and discuss their implications for business behaviour. The paper is divided into six parts: (1) the history of the Three Kingdoms, and its importance for China; (2) methodological considerations; (3) roles, values and norms of behaviour of the key characters; (4) the importance of advisors to the kings; (5) general norms of behaviour; (6) consequences of these arguments for research about China and business relations in China.

Keywords

history and business behaviour, business in China, leadership and history, culture, history and business behaviour

Discipline

Asian Studies | Strategic Management Policy

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Globalization challenge and management trasformation: Proceedings of ICM' 2007, the 6th International Conference on Management: August 3-5, 2007, Wuhan, China

First Page

1269

Last Page

1282

ISBN

9787030193728

Publisher

Science Press

City or Country

Beijing

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