Zhenzhong Ma

Research paradigms of contemporary knowledge management studies: 1998‐2007

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the research paradigms of contemporary knowledge management studies in the past decade using citation and co‐citation analysis.Design/methodology/approach – Research in any academic area often clusters into informal networks that focus on common questions in common ways, and the accumulated knowledge often flows between members of these networks, revealed in patterns of citations. The research paradigms of a given field can be identified by analyzing corresponding knowledge flows and citation and co‐citation process. The methods used in the study include citation analysis, co‐citation analysis, and social network analysis.Findings – The paper draws an intellectual map of knowledge flows between knowledge management scholars. Key research themes and concepts as well as their relationships in the field of knowledge management are identified.Research limitations/implications – An in‐depth analysis of the relationships between knowledge management research and...

Knowledge sharing in Chinese construction project teams and its affecting factors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore knowledge sharing in a Chinese context and to examine the impact of some key contextual factors that affect knowledge sharing within project teams in the Chinese construction sector.Design/methodology/approach – Self‐administered questionnaires were used in this study. Data were collected by surveying 222 managerial employees from different project teams in the construction sector in China. Regression analysis was then used to explore the relationship between different factors and the willingness to share knowledge. The potential influence of Chinese traditional cultures on this relationship was also explored.Findings – This paper shows that within the Chinese context, explicit knowledge promotes knowledge sharing while tacit knowledge creates barriers to knowledge sharing in project teams. Moreover, trust is positively related to knowledge sharing but justice, leadership style, and empowerment do not influence whether employees will share knowledge among ...

Ten years of conflict management studies: themes, concepts and relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to map the intellectual structure of conflict management studies and to investigate the key themes, concepts, and their relationships of conflict management literature in the past decade.Design/methodology/approach – Citation and co‐citation analysis and social network analysis were used to trace the development path of conflict management research. The data were collected by searching the SSCI databases, based on 556 journal articles which were published between 1997 and 2006, and their cited references were analyzed and profiled.Findings – The paper shows that conflict management literature focuses on three key themes: workplace conflict and conflict management styles, cultural differences in conflict management, and conflict management in practice. In addition, research on group conflict and work performance has gained momentum in recent years.Originality/value – The intellectual structure of conflict management literature has received little attention in spite th...

Chinese Conflict Management Styles and Negotiation Behaviours An Empirical Test

China has been one of the most important markets for western firms, but negotiating with the Chinese is quite a challenging task. Researchers have been investigating the distinctness in Chinese negotiation and conflict management styles, but have yet to provide solid evidence for it. An attempt is made in this study to illustrate how Chinese people approach conflicts, and thus how this affects their negotiation behaviours during business negotiation, which provides an empirical test of Chinese conflict management styles and their impact on negotiation outcomes. Results show that compromising and avoiding are the most preferred methods of conflict management in China, while accommodating and competing lead to more satisfaction during business negotiation. Managerial implications and future studies are then discussed.

Conflict management styles as indicators of behavioral pattern in business negotiation

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether conflict management styles are able to predict actual behaviors in business negotiation in two different countries.Design/methodology/approach – Subjects were recruited from both Canada and China to participate in a laboratory study. Three simulated business negotiations were used for participants to negotiate deals in both countries in order to compare the validity of conflict management styles in predicting negotiation behaviors.Findings – This study shows that conflict management styles are valid predictors of actual negotiation behaviors in Canada, but not in China. The results also show that Chinese people use a more avoiding approach and demonstrate a higher level of integrativeness during business negotiation simulations, while Canadians use a more compromising approach and show a higher level of distributiveness.Practical implications – Practical implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the usefulness of self‐reported conflict...

An overview of contemporary ethnic entrepreneurship studies: themes and relationships

Purpose – The aim of this study is to explore the status of contemporary ethnic entrepreneurship studies in 1999‐2008 in order to map the intellectual structure of ethnic entrepreneurship research and to provide insights for future research in this field.Design/methodology/approach – This study collected citation data from SSCI, resulting in a data set of 403 journal articles and 18,656 cited references. Then using co‐citation analysis, this study identified the core research themes in the ethnic entrepreneurship literature in 1999‐2008.Findings – The results showed that contemporary ethnic entrepreneurship studies clustered around a few key research themes and their research foci have shifted from research on enclave economies, ethnic enterprises, and social embeddedness to research on immigrant entrepreneurs, immigrant networks, and transnational entrepreneurs.Research limitations/implications – With the qualification of citation and co‐citation analysis, this study profiles the changing paradigms of co...

What matters for knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures? Empirical evidence from China

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify key factors that facilitate knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures and further help better understand knowledge management in the international context. Design/methodology/approach – Using a survey method, this study collected data from over 200 managerial employees in knowledge management-based project teams from China. Regression analysis was then conducted to analyze the impact of individual differences and environmental factors on the willingness to share knowledge among team members to identify key factors for successful knowledge retention in the constantly changing organizational environment in a collectivistic context. Findings – The results show that incentives are very important in individual’s decision to share knowledge in project teams even in a collectivistic culture like China and both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated individuals tend to share more knowledge with their team members. Individuals with high altruism are also fou...

A comparative study of the influence of assertiveness on negotiation outcomes in Canada and China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of assertiveness in determining negotiation outcomes in two different cultures and thus to help understand the cultural differences in the relationship between assertiveness and negotiation outcomes in the West and East, where assertiveness is often viewed quite differently.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from four simulated negotiations of varying degrees of complexity ranging from the most distributive to the most integrative. Over 400 business students were recruited as subjects from a Western culture and an Eastern culture, namely Canada and China, to participate in the simulations in order to test the cultural differences in the relationship between assertiveness and negotiation outcomes.Findings – The results provide support for the effects of assertiveness on both economic outcome and affective outcome, and thus confirm the importance of assertiveness as a negotiator trait; the relationship between assertiveness and ne...

Explore the impact of collectivism on conflict management styles: a Turkish study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of collectivism on conflict management styles in Turkey and to help conflict management researchers and practitioners better understand conflict and conflict management in an international context.Design/methodology/approach – Self‐administered questionnaires with the ROCI scale were used in this study. Data were collected by surveying 244 managerial employees from both public and private organizations. Factor analysis and regression analysis were then used to explore the relationships between conflict management styles and different aspects of collectivism. Differences in demographic factors were also discussed.Findings – This study shows Turkish people are more likely to use collaborating style, instead of compromising or avoiding as expected from a collectivistic culture. Further, different aspects of collectivism have different effects on Turkish conflict management styles: the importance of competitive success leads to preferences for compe...

Personality and negotiation revisited: toward a cognitive model of dyadic negotiation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the studies of personality and negotiation and argues that the relationship between personality and negotiation is worth re‐examination and more research attention should be devoted to this area.Design/methodology/approach – A cognitive model of personality and negotiation is constructed by integrating cognitive and social factors into the exploration of negotiation processes. The mediating roles of negotiator cognitions are discussed within this framework and relationships between personality and three negotiator cognitions: win–lose orientation, face‐saving and trusting are proposed.Research limitations/implications – This study provides an integrative model for studying the relationship between personality, negotiator cognition, negotiation behaviors and outcomes, and thus has impotent implications for future studies on negotiation.Practical implications – The knowledge of the relationship between personality and negotiation will help organizations use p...