Innovative Development of Chinese Characteristics in Enterprise Management for the New Era
Abstract
Management is a discipline that has a close connection between theory and practice. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China 70 years ago, especially since the reform and opening up, while the Chinese economy has developed rapidly, Chinese enterprises have also achieved tremendous success. Not only has their overall strength greatly improved, but a group of world-class enterprises with global competitiveness have also emerged. Behind the overall development and progress of Chinese enterprises is the innovation and development of Chinese enterprise management. Especially in the context of China's economic development entering a new era, more and more management scholars and enterprise managers have realized that Chinese enterprise management cannot simply copy Western management theories, but should closely integrate with Chinese enterprise management practices and explore the development of Chinese characteristic enterprise management. This is an urgent task to build management with Chinese characteristics, and also an urgent need for China to cultivate more outstanding enterprises and entrepreneurs.
The Development History and Current Status of Chinese Enterprise Management
The development process of Chinese enterprise management in the 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China can be roughly divided into four stages. One is the initial stage of exploration from 1949 to 1978. In the early stage, the focus was on learning and drawing on Soviet enterprise management theories and models. After the 1960s, the management community began to explore the establishment of socialist enterprise management theories and models that were suitable for China's national conditions, starting from the practice of enterprise management in China. The second is the transitional development stage from 1979 to 1992. After the reform and opening up, we realized that there is a significant gap between China's enterprise management and the world's advanced level, and we must catch up. The transition from a planned economy system to a socialist market economy system has put forward new requirements for innovation in enterprise management and management practices. Many management scholars and business managers attach great importance to learning and drawing on the management theories and experiences of developed countries, hoping to gain inspiration from them. The third is the vigorous development stage from 1993 to 2012. With the establishment and improvement of the socialist market economy system, Chinese management scholars have paid more attention to the localization research of Chinese enterprise management practices, and the Chinese characteristics of enterprise management have gradually become prominent. The fourth stage is the innovative development stage from 2013 to present. With the world's high attention to China's development miracle, there has been a significant increase in research on Chinese enterprise management phenomena and practices in top management journals both domestically and internationally. Chinese scholars have continuously made new progress in research paradigms, research methods, theoretical innovation, and other aspects, enhancing the influence and discourse power of Chinese management in the international academic community.
After 70 years of arduous exploration, China's research on enterprise management has achieved many results. For example, starting from the practice of enterprise management in China, the theoretical community has integrated excellent traditional Chinese culture and management ideas into modern management theory, proposing many management theories with profound Chinese cultural heritage, greatly enriching and developing the theoretical and conceptual system of Chinese enterprise management. Based on the management context in China, the practical field has explored some enterprise management models with Chinese characteristics, such as Huawei's "gray scale management" model and Haier's "person unit integration" management model. Innovation in management theory and management models has effectively promoted Chinese enterprises to break through the disadvantage of being latecomers, form core advantages, and successfully achieve transformation and upgrading.
While acknowledging the achievements of research in Chinese enterprise management, we should also be aware of some shortcomings in the development of Chinese enterprise management. One is that some theoretical research is disconnected from practical enterprise management, and localization is simply for the sake of localization. For example, excessive interpretation of traditional culture and mechanical correspondence with modern management practices; Some scholars are limited by their own research perspectives and lack communication and exchange with peers and enterprises, resulting in an increasingly complex school of Chinese enterprise management studies; wait. The second is to ignore China's national conditions and business management practices, and blindly apply Western management theories. Thirdly, influenced by the Western management research paradigm, there is a tendency to excessively pursue research standardization, advocate complex quantitative research and difficult models, and lack in-depth research on practical problems, making it difficult to discover the Chinese logic and business operation rules behind management practices.
The direction of innovative development in Chinese characteristic enterprise management
2016年5月，习近平同志在哲学社会科学工作座谈会上强调“加快构建中国特色哲学社会科学”，指出“坚持以马克思主义为指导，是当代中国哲学社会科学区别于其他哲学社会科学的根本标志”。在努力实现“两个一百年”奋斗目标的进程中，以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想为指导，坚持马克思主义基本原理和贯穿其中的立场、观点、方法，按照体现继承性、民族性、原创性、时代性、系统性、专业性的要求，创新发展能够有效指导中国企业管理实践的中国特色企业管理学，是中国管理学者的光荣使命。
In the face of the new era, the direction of innovative development of Chinese characteristic enterprise management is to base on the national conditions and Chinese enterprise management practices, improve the disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system of Chinese characteristic enterprise management, and explore and reveal the inherent laws of Chinese enterprise management practices. From the perspective of research subjects, the focus should be on the management practices of Chinese enterprises, with a particular emphasis on studying the management and development issues of local enterprises; From the perspective of research topic selection, the relationship between global management problem research and local management problem research should be correctly handled, highlighting core issues that are of practical significance and cutting-edge in China; From the perspective of research content, we should focus on the special elements in Chinese enterprise management practice, explore the construction of enterprise management concepts with Chinese characteristics, and explain the logical relationships between these concepts; From the perspective of research context, it is necessary to analyze and interpret the unique management phenomena of Chinese enterprises based on specific contexts or perspectives of their management practices; From the perspective of research methods, we should adhere to the methodology of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, while fully drawing on and absorbing beneficial research methods from Western modern management, and promoting research method innovation based on China's reality and research needs.
Adhere to problem oriented approach and promote innovation in management of Chinese characteristic enterprises
In the new era, Chinese enterprises are facing significant changes in market environment, technological environment, and international environment for development. How to promote high-quality development of enterprises in complex and ever-changing market, technological, and international environments is an era issue that Chinese characteristic enterprise management must address.
Based on the practice of Chinese enterprise management, promote theoretical innovation. We should base ourselves on the management practices of Chinese enterprises, discover management elements rooted in Chinese soil, reveal the laws and mechanisms behind Chinese enterprise management practices, and propose original theoretical viewpoints and landmark concepts; Vigorously explore traditional Chinese management ideas, promote their creative transformation and innovative development, and explore the theoretical construction path of Chinese characteristic enterprise management that combines localization and internationalization; Conduct in-depth research on how Chinese enterprises can achieve innovative development, explore unique contextual variables in the innovative development of Chinese enterprises, enhance their core competitiveness, and contribute to the high-quality development of China's economy.
Facing new technological challenges and promoting theoretical innovation. In the 2019 global unicorn enterprise list released by the internationally renowned research firm CB Insights, Chinese companies accounted for about 30% of the total. This indicates that Chinese enterprises do not lack innovative spirit, especially in emerging industries such as the new generation of information technology. Some Chinese enterprises have already taken the lead in management practices in the world, which provides an important practical foundation for the innovative development of Chinese characteristic enterprise management. Under the background of new generation information technologies such as mobile Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, which have profoundly changed the production mode and business environment of enterprises, how can enterprises better adapt to the new market competition through management innovation? How to utilize new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to support enterprise decision-making and management, thereby improving efficiency and effectiveness? Under the circumstance that some Internet enterprises occupy a large amount of data resources, how to guide enterprises to take into account both profit creation and social responsibility? Deepening the research on these issues has become an urgent task for the innovative development of Chinese characteristic enterprise management. Chinese management scholars can fully propose new concepts, construct new theories, create new models, lead and promote management innovation of Chinese enterprises under new technological conditions, and contribute to the innovative development of world enterprise management.
Serve the "the Belt and Road" construction and promote theoretical innovation. The in-depth promotion of the "the Belt and Road" construction has provided major opportunities for Chinese enterprises to better go global. At the same time, enterprises going global are also facing some new problems and challenges. For example, how do Chinese companies layout their trade and investment systems in the process of going global? How to build a risk prevention and management system? How to deal with cultural conflicts and political and economic issues? How to better assume social responsibility? Wait. In depth answers to these questions from a theoretical perspective, exploring management strategies and models that are in line with the actual situation of Chinese enterprises going global, highlighting Chinese characteristics, systems, and elements, and effectively resolving the risks and challenges faced by enterprises going global are urgent issues that need to be deeply studied in the field of Chinese characteristic enterprise management.
Focusing on the reform of state-owned enterprises to promote theoretical innovation. Promoting mixed ownership reform is an important breakthrough in deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises at present. However, current theoretical research on mixed ownership reform still lags behind practical development. The reform of mixed ownership cannot be a one size fits all approach, but should be promoted in a classified manner and tailored to each enterprise. How to specifically promote mixed ownership reform is not only a practical issue that enterprise managers need to face, but also a theoretical issue that management scholars need to conduct in-depth research on. We should take root in the practice of state-owned enterprise reform and development, combine the experience and theoretical research results of state-owned enterprise reform, deeply study the theory of mixed ownership reform that meets the needs of state-owned enterprise reform and development, and establish and continuously improve the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics.
Promote theoretical innovation around cultivating outstanding entrepreneurs. With the tide of reform and opening up, many local enterprises and outstanding entrepreneurs with strong management characteristics have emerged in China. We should pay attention to these leading enterprises, study the psychological and behavioral characteristics of excellent entrepreneurs, observe and analyze the psychological status and decision-making process of entrepreneurs facing business risks and challenges from a dynamic perspective, and analyze the role mechanism of personal style and entrepreneurial spirit of entrepreneurs in the process of enterprise development and growth. Exploring the management ideas of entrepreneurs and their manifestations in management practice in a local context can help to delve deeper into the management logic behind successful enterprises.
(Written by Wang Yonggui and Li Xia)
《 人民日报 》（ 2019年11月25日 09 版）
(责编：张隽、关喜艳)
