Future research directions and implications
This research is our first step in examining the management philos-
ophy and practices of contemporary business leaders in China. The
research has implications for both academics and managers.
Future research directions
This study has several limitations. First, our interviewees were highly
educated and running successful companies in emerging or high-
growth industries, and all except one were male. These special sample
characteristics limit the generalizability of our findings. Future
research should increase the diversity of the executives, for example
in terms of gender and educational background. Second, since the
participating executives were all leading successful businesses in
China, we do not know if their philosophies were different from those
leading less successful companies. Future research should compare
management philosophies of successful and non-successful com-
panies. Third, although we took steps to reduce self-serving biases of
the interviewees by, for example, asking for specific examples of
practices to support philosophical ideas, we could not rule out the
possibility ofpost hocembellishment of ideas and behaviors. To help
overcome this problem, future research should seek input from peers
and subordinates of the executives to cross-validate the findings.
Despite the limitations, our study is a first important step toward
identifying the content, sources, and implications of contemporary
Chinese management philosophies. It opens further research avenues.
For example, systematic surveys could be conducted with large
samples to identify and validate these and other Chinese philosophical
notions from the perspective not only of managers but also of employ-
ees. A second interesting question is the extent to which these philos-
ophical notions are associated with each other. We speculate that
some notions such as harmony and the Golden Mean may be more
closely related than others and that there may be a hierarchy among
the notions in terms of instrumentality. In addition to further qualita-
tive studies, measurements of the philosophical notions could be
developed and quantitative research conducted to test these relation-
ships empirically. Third, the linkage between management philoso-
phies, practices, and organizational outcomes could be investigated.
Last but not least, cross-cultural research could be conducted on
Chinese traditions and Western theories 267