WHAT MAKES CHINESE AND INDIAN FIRMS RESILIENT?

Ob Klimawandel, Flüchtlingskrise, Ressourcenmangel, Urbanisierung oder Stress am Arbeitsplatz – Resilienz wird als ein Konzept gehandelt, das erfolgversprechende Antworten für unterschiedliche Herausforderungen und Krisen in sich birgt. Mit einem Buchprojekt will ForChange an den Potenzialen dieses Ansatzes anknüpfen und gegenwärtige Konzeptualisierungen und Anwendungen von Resilienz aufzeigen. Das folgende Abstract, das hier zur Diskussion gestellt wird, kündigt einen Aufsatz an, der dazu beitragen will.

Sue Claire Berning, Dirk Holtbrügge (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Disruptive changes are one of the main characteristics of China’s and India’s tremendous development over the past three decades. Both countries are experiencing intense and far-reaching transformations that affect all levels of population in all aspects of life – politically, economically, socially, environmentally, and culturally. As both Asian countries opened up to foreign capital, technology and talent, their economic and business environment changed fundamentally. These changes are reflected in modifications of Chinese and Indian firms’ organization and behavior, and due to the increasing global economic interrelations also impact other firms and stakeholders around the world.

The remarkable rise of Chinese and Indian firms’ importance and influence on a global scale was paralleled by a rise of literature on Chinese and Indian firms. Numerous studies exist which emphasize that Chinese and Indian firms exhibit unique traits, like specific management cultures (Deshpande & Farley, 1999; Leung, 2012), non-traditional advantages (Elango & Pattniak, 2007), or peculiar investment behavior (Luo & Tung, 2007; Alon et al., 2011) which allow them to become successful. But studies investigating which capabilities are required by Chinese and Indian firms to cope efficiently with changes and thus facilitate resilience and success are largely missing. Further, most research focuses on country- or industry-level variables using aggregate data, and does hence not contain statements about firm-level developments.

Against this background, the aim of this paper is to examine the qualities and capacities which enable Chinese and Indian firms to respond to changes in a resilient way. In particular, it is analyzed under which conditions Chinese and Indian firms are capable of building competitive strengths. Thus, this study seeks to contribute to the understanding of antecedents, relationships and impacts of Asian firm-level characteristics related to resilience.

In order to address the research question “What makes Chinese and Indian firms resilient?”, a systematic literature review analysis will be conducted. Studies which were published in international peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2015 with focus on Chinese or Indian firms will be examined. Specifically, the resources, determinants, and performance implications of resilience, as well as the research methods and underlying theories will be analyzed. It is expected that distinct patterns, similarities and differences will be revealed which might be related to firm specifics and contextual conditions.

By including the analysis of theoretical perspectives, this papers also aims at contributing to the scholarly debate about the applicability of traditional management theories to Chinese and Indian and other emerging market firms (Goldstein & Pusterla, 2010; Contractor, 2013). In total, three different points of view evolved: One standpoint argues that emerging market firms possess truly unique characteristics, and hence the development of new theories is highly needed (Quer et al., 2012). Some scholars suggest that following an emic or combined emic-etic approach might be a promising way to do so (Buckley et al., 2014). The second perspective sees no need in generating new theories as the existing ones are applicable to Chinese and Indian and other emerging market firms as well (Kang & Jiang, 2012). The third stream calls for extensions and modifications of traditional theories in order to make them employable to these new global players (Morck et al., 2008; Peng, 2012). By using a context-specific approach, this paper will show whether Chinese and Indian firms hold entirely new and unique attributes, and if so, in how far they might offer learning opportunities for other firms, as well as other scholars and disciplines.

References

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Deshpande, R., & Farley, J.U. (1999). Corporate Culture and Market Orientation: Comparing Indian and Japanese Firms. Journal of International Marketing, 7(4), 111-127.

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