Forum on Case-Based and Qualitative Research in Business Administration in China (2018)

On Nov. 10, 2018, sponsored by the School of Economics and Management of Hainan Univeristy, Renmin Business School and the journal Management World jointly held the 2018 Forum on Case-Based and Qualitative Research in Business Administration in Haikou City. Centered on “business administration theories in the era of entrepreneurship and innovation”, the annual event was attended by more than 500 experts and academics from over 120 universities around the world including Renmin University of China, Hainan University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nankai University, Fudan University, Ivey Business School, and the University of Seoul among others.

The forum

Present at the forum were LI Zhijun, Editor-in-Chief of the Management World, SHANG Zengjian, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Management World, FU Guohua, Vice President of Hainan University, LI Shijie, Associate Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Hainan Univeristy, ZHANG Yuli, former dean of Nankai University Business School, YI Zhihong, former vice president of Renmin University of China, MAO Jiye, Dean of Renmin Business School, associate deans of Renmin Business School SONG Hua and YE Kangtao, Wang Shuye, Executive Editor of the school’s journal Frontiers of Business Research in China, and XU Jingyue, Deputy Director of the China Social Sciences Case Center at Renmin University of China.

On Nov. 10, LI Shijie, Associate Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Hainan Univeristy, announced the convening of the forum. And professors FU Guohua, LI Zhijun and YI Zhihong delivered welcome remarks.

LI Shijie

FU Guohua

LI Zhijun

YI Zhihong

A number of top-notch qualitative researchers were invited to deliver keynote speeches at the forum. SU Ning, professor at Ivey Business School and Cornel University and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the leading journal Information Systems Research (ISR), gave a keynote speech titled “Navigating Qualitative Research: From Philosophical Paradigms to the China Context”  and a report on “Crafting Qualitative Research: From Ideation to Publication” .

Su Ning

XIE Kehai, President and CEO of the Founder Group and adjunct professor at Renmin Business School, gave a presentation on “5M Leadership Model”. Based on his industry experience and observations of both practice and classical theories, he proposed the notion of “5M Leadership Model”, according to which leaders need to Manage Yourself (MY), Manage your Boss ( MB),  Manage your Members (MM), Manage your Colleagues (MC) and Manage your Partners (MP). These dimensions together form a closely-knit structure.

XIE Kehai

LI Jizhen, professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University gave a keynote speech on “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Small and Medium-Sized Tech Companies in China”, in which she emphasized the integration of both qualitative and quantitative research and the application of overseas studies in the Chinese contexts. 

LI Jizhen

XU Weiyuan, professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University gave a presentation on “Common Weakness in Research Papers”, citing such weakness as confusing or unappealing introduction, unclear or missing research motivation, mentioning China as an unique context, and mismatch between different traditions of qualitative research.

XU Weiyuan

On Nov. 11, LI Jizhen, professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, chaired a workshop on case-based research on Chinese management practice. ZHOU Jianghua, associate professor at Beijing Normal University, and ZHANG Kai, professor at Renmin University of China, shared their research findings and insights.

Workshop

Altogether 14 sub-forums and 7 roundtable sessions were held within the two days, making the forum a communication forum for academics and industry experts from home and abroad in an array of fields including strategic management, innovation and entrepreneurship, finance and accounting, industrial economy, information management and e-commerce, and marketing. 

 Sub-forum

Roundtable Discussion

Same as in previous years, the organizer held a workshop on research papers one day before the forum officially convened. Three parallel sessions were held where 9 experts reviewed and commented on 20 research papers after the authors each presented their papers.

Workshop

On Nov. 10, a session was held in which winners of last year’s “Best Paper Award” shared their experience in literature review, research methodologies, and application of theories in case studies.

Dialogue with winners of last year’s “Best Paper Award”

The forum received 229 papers, of which 110 were included in the proceedings with an acceptance rate of 48%. Authors of seven papers were granted the “Best Paper Award”, and two reviewers received the “Best Reviewer Award”.  MAO Jiye, professor and Dean of Renmin Business School, SHANG Zengjian, professor and Editor-in-Chief of the Management World, and SU Ning, professor from Ivey Business School, presented the awardees with trophies.

“Best Paper Award”

“Best Reviewer Award”

On Nov. 11, the organizer of the event announced that next year the forum will be co-hosted by Zhejiang Gongshang University School of Business Administration. On the same day, a sub-forum on management cases in China and South Korea was held with the support of the Korean Academic Society of Business Administration (KASBA). At the sub-forum, Prof. YongIune Kim from Sungkyunkwan University gave a brief overview of KASBA and the Korean government’s policies on entrepreneurship and innovation. Prof. Sungho Lee from the University of Seoul gave a speech titled “With a Right Mind and a Good Hand: the Case of Mission-Driven Strategy of 'BARUNSESANG (right world)'Orthopedics Hospital”. Prof. Sang-Joon Kim from Ewha Womans University and Prof. Jae-hong Park from CHUNG-ANS University shared with the audience their insights on joint research with H-JUMP platform as an example. And Prof. Min-sun Yeu and Dr. BAO Xin from Harbin Institute of Technology presented their research on SK Energy.

Sub-forum on management cases in China and South Korea

It was the fourth time the forum was held outside Beijing, which further enhanced its impact on case-based and qualitative research. As of Sept. 15, 2018, the forum received 229 papers, up by 23.1% as compared with 2017. And all the papers were research cases, an increase of 260% than the 62 research cases received by the forum in 2017. This marks that case-based and qualitative research has become more widely recognized nationwide as research methodology and theoretical paradigm. Papers were sent to 215 experts in relevant fields for double-blind review. A total of 110 papers were included in the conference proceedings with an acceptance rate of 48%, including 42 papers presented at sub-forums with an acceptance rate of 18.3%.