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    How do Chinese managers establish trust with New Zealand companies? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Yang, Xiaona (Selina)
    Trust is essential for business success and has attracted much academic attention. However, studies on business relationships between Chinese and New Zealand companies are limited. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors influencing building and maintaining trust, the effects of interpersonal relationships on trust, and the problems when Chinese managers cooperate with New Zealand companies. This research adopted semi-structured interviews to collect data on factors that assist Chinese managers in building and maintaining trust when cooperating with local companies and utilised thematic analysis to analyse the qualitative data. The results reveal that Chinese managers establish trust by valuing three factors — the companies’ reputation, product price, and quality of products or professionalism of services — and four strategies of tentative cooperation, thorough understanding, showing their companies’ abilities and improving strengths. Furthermore, four determinants that assist in maintaining trust are also identified, comprising the quality of products or services, regular contact, empathy, and adaptation to the environment. In addition, the investigation also shows that interpersonal relationships promote building trust; however, there are different opinions on whether a close personal relationship affects trust maintenance. Finally, this study has identified some problems when Chinese managers or owners cooperate with New Zealand companies. The minor problems that occasionally occur but only result in slight loss will be tolerated; however, if problems always occur and cannot be solved through communication or negotiation, it would cause a breakdown of trust. Hence, this study sheds light on trust in the business relationships between Chinese and New Zealand companies.
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    Fulfilling the curious omission of host company responses to reshoring : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Zhang, Lei
    While offshoring has become one of the most significant strategies adopted by home companies, its subsequent reshoring has created new challenges to research. For reasons that remain unexplained, the extant literature focuses on 'Why' and 'How' to reshore near exclusively from the home company's perspective. However, an interactive dyadic relationship exists between the two resource bundles during reshoring. The findings of a content-analysis based literature review reveal that published case studies focus on Western firms' offshoring and subsequent reshoring strategies, ignoring the host company response. Single and multiple case studies were completed using data collected from four host companies in China. The single case study explores the host company's response to reshoring and its influence on the home companies' decisions. Thematic analysis generated four response strategies: cost-related; market-related; knowledge-related; and, relationship-related. The multiple-case study was used to identify how the host company orchestrates resources obtained from the offshoring network in response to reshoring. Four dimensions of resources acquired from the offshoring network: financial; physical-asset related; knowledge; and, human resources were identified. The network for resource exchange was also observed to contain actors beyond the dyad, notably clients who contributed to the resource bundle. The home company's repatriation leaves resources in the host country, defined as the available residual resource (ARR). This resource bundle then leads to risks and potential sources of competition for the home company. This study adds a new dimension, the host company, to reshoring studies restoring what has become unilateral research into a bilateral dialogue.
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    Essays on managerial foreign experience and corporate behaviours in China : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Sun, Zixiong
    Managerial foreign experience is a type of resource which allows managers to think globally and act locally. This thesis contributes to the literature on how foreign experienced managers impact corporate behaviour in China, the world’s largest emerging market. The first essay examines how managers with foreign experience influence corporate risk-taking. I find that foreign experienced managers are positively associated with corporate risk-taking. This relationship only robustly exists among private firms rather than state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The excess risk-taking through foreign experienced managers is positively related to Tobin’s Q, indicating that foreign experienced managers increase firm value through value-enhancing projects, which benefits shareholders. The second essay concentrates on the relationship between managerial foreign experience and earnings quality. I find that foreign experienced managers improve corporate earnings quality, and this improvement is more pronounced in private firms. Moreover, I document that the improved earnings quality is an important mechanism for which foreign experienced managers increase stock returns and decrease agency costs. The third essay in the thesis investigates the relationship between foreign experienced managers and corporate labour investment. I find foreign experienced managers are more likely to recruit and retain high skilled employees, which in turn increases labour cost for firms in total. The positive relationship between managerial foreign experience and labour cost is significant in both SOEs and private firms. Foreign experienced managers may focus on employees’ well-being to complete political goals in SOEs while they are more likely to retain and attract high skilled employees to benefit shareholders’ value in private firms. I further document that the increased labour costs through managerial foreign experience can influence firm value positively. However, it also increases the labour stickiness cost. Overall, this thesis documents the benefits and costs of hiring foreign experienced managers in firms.
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    A resource co-evolutionary model for the internationalization of internet intermediary firms : evidence from New Zealand based internet payment intermediary firms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Business Management at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Wu, Mian
    Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore the internationalization process of Internet Intermediary Firms (IIFs) and explain the unfolding of this process using a resource co-evolutionary lens of organizational knowledge and network resources. The leading research question of this study is thus “through a resource co-evolutionary lens, how and why is the internationalization of IIFs driven by the joint development of knowledge and network resources?” Methodology/approach/design – To answer the leading research question, this thesis applies a process-based research approach to seven qualitative case studies of the internationalization of New Zealand based Internet Payment Intermediaries (IPIs). Findings - This thesis identifies six internationalization episode patterns of IIFs, which are inception, siloing, bundling, multiplying, international replicating, and international withdrawal. The overall internationalization process of IIFs are non-linear but structurally predictable. Changes across these patterns take place at five human and non-human layers of IIF-centric digital platform-based ecosystem architecture – users, platforms, IIFs, usage scenarios, and sellers. Moreover, this thesis finds that IIFs’ product logic, user logic, buyer users, seller users, and cloud-based platform providers are their critical organizational knowledge and network resources, respectively. These knowledge and network resources co-evolve during internationalization, enabling the unfolding of the internationalization of IIFs. The “motor” of change derives from the IIFs’ choice of network externalities, internalization and externalization business approach. Through a resource co-evolutionary lens, this thesis finally provides a three-tier operational process model to describe and explain the internationalization process of IIFs. Practical implications - The message to IIF practitioners is that international development needs to be understood from a processual and structural view. The associated architectural resource properties of IIF-centric platform-based ecosystem and their joint actions are the keys to understanding their intricate global evolution processes. This study also signals international sellers a shift from adapting to the fluid and unruly digital ecosystems to governing the ecosystem through collaborating with IIFs. Originality/value - This is the first study of IIF internationalization. This thesis identifies the non-linear but structurally predictable internationalization process patterns of IIFs which is new to the literature. Moreover, this thesis also reveals the new types of organizational knowledge and network resources, explicitly enabling the internationalization of IIFs. This study constructively extends the traditional resource-based view towards a resource co-evolutionary view to explain the research phenomenon. The operational process model proposed in this study for the first sheds light on how to govern the business ecosystem, which is of both practical and theoretical importance.
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    Achieving holistic sustainability in Chinese and New Zealand business partnerships : an integrative approach : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Chen, Michelle Sitong
    Tensions in sustainability are a relatively new area and largely unexplored empirically between firms in collaborative business partnerships, particularly drawing from paradox theory and organisational ambidexterity theory. If these tensions cannot be understood and addressed adequately, it will not only have negative impacts on individuals’ interests, but also on the development of organisations and ultimately the prosperity of the society. Hence, this study examines empirically how tensions in addressing divergent sustainability issues arise, and are perceived and managed between Chinese and New Zealand firms in business partnerships. Guided by an interpretivist philosophy, this research adopts a qualitative and abductive approach as the preferred research method. In doing so, 33 in-depth individual interviews alongside one informal group discussion were carried out at 16 relatively large Chinese and NZ firms known for their commitment to sustainability that are in business partnerships. This thesis includes three empirical chapters. The first findings chapter identifies tensions in sustainability between Chinese and New Zealand firms and discovers the reasons for them. The findings reveal that the Chinese and New Zealand firms in business partnership are faced with complex and multiple sustainability tensions which are thus more difficult and challenging for them to address simultaneously. This chapter also shows that the tensions are caused by an integration of multiple reasons from individual, organisational and national levels. The second findings chapter explores how managers make sense of these tensions. The results delineate four kinds of managerial logic – paradoxical, contradictory, business and defensive – which are applied to make sense of different kinds of tensions. In contrast to prior studies, the findings reveal that paradoxical logic is the most common logic adopted by the managers at Chinese and NZ companies in business partnerships; as the other types – contradictory, business and defensive logic – are not commonly used. The third findings chapter investigates the strategies that Chinese and NZ firms adopted to manage the tensions in their business partnerships. The findings show two main approaches: trade-off and integrative. This research highlights that working through sustainability tensions using integrative approaches can bring proactive outcomes which will help these companies to advance their sustainability practice through inter-organisational learning, to enhance their mutual understanding and to strengthen their business partnerships over time, thus achieving holistic sustainability. This research contributes to scholarly understanding of tensions in sustainability between firms in collaborative business partnerships in relation to the nature of the tensions, reasons for the tensions, managerial sensemaking of tensions and the strategies for managing the tensions. This also adds value to paradox theory and organisational ambidexterity theory including structural and contextual ambidexterity, and their theoretical and practical implications for tensions in sustainability research.