Books and literature
Books that interviewees mentioned had influenced them included
those on Chinese history and on Western history, culture, philosophy,
and management. The Chinese literature mentioned included the Four
Books (The great learning,The doctrine of the mean,The analects of
Confucius, andThe Mencius), the Five Classics (theBook of songs, the
Book of history, theBook of changes/I-ching, theBook of rites, and
theSpring and Autumn annals),The classics of Taoism, The classics of
opposition,The romance of the three kingdoms, Sunzi’sArt of war,
Zi zhi tong jian, Cai gen tan,and other books on Chinese philosophy.
The Western literature mentioned includedThe Protestant ethic and
the spirit of capitalism, A letter to Garcia, theBiography of Napoleon,
andJean-Christophe. Economics and management books and maga-
zines includedBuilt to last: successful habits of visionary companies,
In search of excellence: lessons from America’s best run companies,
and reports on Fortune 500 companies.
Books from the West were cited by twenty-five of the thirty-five
interviewees as a source of knowledge about management theories
and were influential in the development of the interviewed executives’
management philosophy. The interviewees believed that thoughts
reflected in Western literature, history, and philosophy books empha-
size efficiency and equality, and management theories developed in
the West are more scientific and analytical in their reasoning and
enabled executives to understand the importance of specialization
and standardization.
Among the Western books,Built to lastwas mentioned most. Most
of the interviewees believed that this book inspired them to develop
a ‘‘hundred-year-old shop.’’ InBuilt to last, Jim Collins and Jerry I.
Porras examined eighteen successful and enduring companies in com-
parisons with each company’s top competitor. The authors identified
key traits or habits that distinguished the visionary companies from
their rivals. The visions included preserving the core ideology, having
ambitious goals, using home-grown and internally promoted manage-
ment, having a cult-like culture, and never being complacent. Collins
and Porras believed that the most important success factor of these
visionary companies is that they had a core ideology that surpassed
purely economic reasoning by including people and company culture
values. It appears that the central message – that business longevity if
256 Zhi-xue Zhanget al.