Brian H Andrew

Sustainable development of the Chinese economy and capital market

Over the past 30 years, the Chinese economy has maintained remarkable growth at an average of nearly 9% per annum. China has become increasingly integrated into the world economy and has become a major player in world commodity production and global capital markets. However, despite its impressive achievements, China faces many serious challenges, such as environmental pollution, shortage of energy, severe income inequality, an ageing population, inefficient capital markets, global and domestic imbalances, and poor corporate governance. These problems have caused the growth of the Chinese economy to slow down. Because of its significant impact on the world economy, the sustainable development of the Chinese economy and capital markets has become a critical concern for scholars, policy-makers and entrepreneurs worldwide. The Chinese Economics Society Australia (CESA) was established in 1987, with the purpose of promoting research and exchange activities related to the Chinese economy and business. During the 27 years since its establishment until 2015, the CESA has held regular annual conferences. The 27th CESA annual conference, hosted by the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, the University of Wollongong, gathered together about 65 scholars from the US, UK, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. This special issue brings together seven selected conference papers on the theme of the Sustainable Development of the Chinese Economy and Capital Market. These papers focus their research particularly on foreign direct investment (FDI), carbon dioxide emissions, political connections, financially distressed firms and income inequality. Each of the research papers has integrated comments and suggestions from discussants, conference participants and reviewers through a blind review process. FDI has been a powerful driver of the Chinese economy since China commenced its economic reform and the ‘open door’ policy in late 1978. The most apparent and driving force of FDI in China is the manufacturing industry, which has brought about a boom in the regional economy with increased sales and exports. Even though existing studies have examined the impact of the presence of FDI on the export behaviour of domestic firms, few of them have considered its impact on firm sales in the domestic market at the same time. Also, most existing studies that deal with FDI-related spillovers do not consider its regional dimension. Anwar and Sun (2016, in this issue) fill these two gaps by examining

Public sector commercial orientation and the social contract: A study of performance management in a non‐competitive environment

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to study the workings of commercial orientation, with a focus on performance management, in an environment that is characterised by limited competition between the public and the private sectors and a high level of government social responsibility.Design/methodology/approach – An interpretive case study approach is adopted for this study. It draws on primary data from interviews with key personnel in public sector organisations, and on secondary data from government publications such as annual reports and budget papers.Findings – This study shows that the market‐based performance management system has failed to achieve its intended objectives because it was introduced in a socio‐economic context that is hardly supportive of market management practices. The study shows that service delivery to the public has remained driven by social rather than economic imperatives. In the absence of other service providers, the Governments social responsibility towards its citizens has...