What Makes Theatrical Performances Successful in China's Tourism Industry?

This study aims to explore the factors affecting the success of a popular tourist product, namely, theatrical performance, within the context of China's tourism industry and develop a model based on previously successful productions. Using qualitative software, 22 Chinese-language articles on theatrical performances are analyzed to generate a list of success factors, classified as internal and external. The internal factors are storyline and performing, market positioning and marketing strategy, investment and financial support, operation and management, performing team, outdoor venue, indoor/outdoor stage supporting facilities, continuous improvement, and production team. The external factors are collaboration between cultural industries and local tourism, government support, privatization, and social and cultural effect. This study also provides suggestions for the future development of theatrical performances in China

Learning Lessons: Urban Water Supply Sector

Complementing a November 2009 guidance note that outlined risks to development effectiveness in the urban water supply sector, this brief provides relevant lessons from evaluations of Asian Development Bank programs over the last ten years. The findings warn against the sector's vulnerability to diverse institutional, organizational, operations, and project-level risks

Navigating global-local tensions in accountability/autonomy policies: Comparative case studies in 'Asian' universities

The twin policy domains of accountability and autonomy have featured in recent education reforms in many countries, signalling new relationships between governments and educational institutions. Despite different national and localised contexts, a number of common 'global' trends have been identified. However, simultaneously context-specific differences are also evident. For us, the concept of 'globalisation', when it implies policy homogenisation, is too blunt an instrument to critically analyse these major reforms. We would argue that there are still too few studies on globalisation processes grounded in detailed examinations of particular historical times and geographical spaces. Our research is located within the tensions between global commonalities and localised differences. This paper reports research on changing accountability and autonomy in higher education in three 'Asian' countries. Empirical data has been collected in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Singapore in an attempt to begin to redress a 'Western' hegemony in such research. Within each national context two different types of universities became case study sites for the analysis of both commonalities and differences in accountability and autonomy policies and practices. The current paper focuses in particular on the conceptual and methodological framings of the research and presents some preliminary findings

End-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling management: improving performance using an ISM approach

With booming of the automobile industry, China has become the country with increasing car ownership all over the world. However, the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling industry is at infancy, and there is little systematic review on ELV recycling management, as well as low adoption amongst domestic automobile industry. This study presents a literature review and an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach is employed to identify the drivers towards Chinese ELV recycling business from government, recycling organizations and consumer’s perspectives, so as to improve the sustainability of automobile supply chain by providing some strategic insights. The results derived from the ISM analysis manifest that regulations on auto-factory, disassembly technique, and value mining of recycling business are the essential ingredients. It is most effective and efficient to promote ELV recycling business by improving these attributes, also the driving and dependence power analysis are deemed to provide guidance on performance improvement of ELV recycling in the Chinese market

Does Infrastructure Investment Lead to Economic Growth or Economic Fragility? Evidence from China

The prevalent view in the economics literature is that a high level of infrastructure investment is a precursor to economic growth. China is especially held up as a model to emulate. Based on the largest dataset of its kind, this paper punctures the twin myths that, first, infrastructure creates economic value, and, second, China has a distinct advantage in its delivery. Far from being an engine of economic growth, the typical infrastructure investment fails to deliver a positive risk adjusted return. Moreover, China's track record in delivering infrastructure is no better than that of rich democracies. Where investments are debt-financed, overinvesting in unproductive projects results in the buildup of debt, monetary expansion, instability in financial markets, and economic fragility, exactly as we see in China today. We conclude that poorly managed infrastructure investments are a main explanation of surfacing economic and financial problems in China. We predict that, unless China shifts to a lower level of higher-quality infrastructure investments, the country is headed for an infrastructure-led national financial and economic crisis, which is likely also to be a crisis for the international economy. China's infrastructure investment model is not one to follow for other countries but one to avoid

The state of the art in e-business: A case study from the Chinese construction industry

In the 21st century, e-business is seen as the new frontier. Currently e-business has been widely used in other industry and to some extent in global construction market, particularly in developed countries, such as UK, EU and USA. Evidence of performance and success stories shows that the implementation of e-business is already delivering high improvement and innovation in construction project planning, design, delivery and management. However, the current performance of e-business in the emerging market, such as India and China is limited. China, as the world’s second largest economy after the United States, has the world fastest growing economy, averaging 10% growth of the past 30 years. The domestic construction industry is booming in both infrastructure and building construction sectors. It is predicted that nearly half of the world’s new building construction will be in China by 2015. In a similar way to other countries, there is a great potential for China to implement e-business in the construction industry in order to improve its productivity and competitiveness. This paper initially explains the concept of e-Business and its impacts in construction industry and reviews the development of Chinese construction industry over last two decades. A case study of one of the largest Chinese construction IT Companies is carried out to further analyse benefits, challenges and the market potential of e-business in China. This study provides a better and deeper understanding of the different characteristics of the implementation and capability of e-business in Chinese construction industry

Corporate social responsibility practices of pharmaceutical companies in China: a scale development & empirical study

JEL Classification: M14 - Corporate Culture; Social Responsibility; I11 - Analysis of Health Care MarketsCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a hot topic in literature ever since a couple of decades ago, and it roughly refers to the positive influence that a company’s operations have on its stakeholders. Amongst various industries, the pharmaceutical sector is one of the most debated in that these companies produce disease-curing and even life-saving products in a for-profit manner, thereby involving many CSR-related issues. Now China’s pharmaceutical industry has the second largest output in the world, but various problems have also emerged and led to negative consequences, many of which were caused by failure to abide by CSR norms. In order to assess the CSR practices of pharmaceutical companies in China, a reliable and credible measurement instrument has to be available. However, currently there is still no universally accepted definition of CSR, and existing theoretical models fail to fit either characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry or China’s cultural context. As a result, a new model has to be built that takes both factors into account. The study has two main purposes: one is to design an original and valid scale for measuring the CSR practices of pharmaceutical companies in China, and the other is to use this tool to evaluate their actual CSR performance. Based on a standard scale development process (in-depth interviews, open-ended questionnaire, discussions with experts, reliability and validity evaluation with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses), finally an eight-dimensional and 36-item measurement tool was validated. The eight initial dimensions (Shareholders, Managers, and Employees; Creditors & Suppliers, Patients & Doctors; Government, Environment, and Local Community) were then transformed into three second-order dimensions: CSR for Internal Parties, CSR for External Partners, and CSR for Public Entities. This conceptual model was later applied to reveal the circumstances within China’s pharmaceutical industry. Results show that CSR practices in the pharmaceutical industry in China coexist at very different levels: foreign-owned companies and joint ventures generally outperformed their state-owned and privately owned counterparts, and larger companies also had better CSR citizenship than smaller ones.A Responsabilidade Social das Empresas (RSE) tem sido um tópico recorrente na literatura nas duas últimas décadas e, de forma muito resumida, refere-se à influência positiva que a atividade empresarial pode ter nos seus diversos stakeholders. De entre os múltiplos setores de atividade, a indústria farmacêutica é uma das mais discutidas por produzir medicamentos que curam doenças e salvam vidas mas de forma lucrativa, e por isso, envolvendo muitos problemas relacionados com a RSE. Atualmente, a indústria farmacêutica na China é segunda em termos de produção mundial, mas apresenta problemas variados com consequências negativas, muitas delas resultantes do não cumprimento das normas de resonsabilidade social. Para que se possam avaliar as práticas de RSE na China, é necessário um instrumento de medida fiável e válido. No entanto, até ao momento não existe uma escala de medida da RSE universalmente aceite e os atuais modelos teóricos não incorporam as características da indústria farmacêutica e o contexto cultural específico da China. Daí a necessidade de desenvolvimento de um modelo teórico que possa incluir estas duas dimensões. Este estudo tem como principais objectivos desenhar e validar um instrumento de medida das práticas de RSE na indústria farmacêutica chinesa e, utilizando essa escala de medida, avaliar o atual desempenho das empresas chinesas deste setor em termos de práticas de responsabilidade social. Foi utilizada uma metodologia estandardizada para o desenvolvimento de uma escala de medida (entrevistas em profundidade, perguntas abertas, pré-teste ao questionário, validade e fiabilidade do questionário com análises fatoriais exploratória e confirmatória). Foi validada uma escala com 36 itens e oito dimensões (Acionistas, Gestores e Colaboradores; Credores & Fornecedores, Doentes & Médicos; Governo, Ambiente e Comunidade Local) que, de seguida, foram transformadas em três dimensões de segunda ordem: RSE para as partes internas, RSE para os parceiros externos e RSE para as entidades públicas. Este modelo conceptual foi depois aplicado para identificar as particularidades da indústria farmacêutica na China. Os resultados mostram que as práticas de RSE coexistem a níveis muito diferentes: em geral as empresas de capital estrangeiro ou joint ventures apresentam melhor performance que as empresas públicas ou privadas; as empresas maiores revelam mais práticas de RS que as mais pequena

China's creative industries : clusters and performances

A working paper submitted to the Annual Conference of the Chinese Economist Association held at Cambridge University from 1st to 2nd April 2008Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio