This award recognizes a senior scholar who has devoted much of his/her career to the study of Chinese management and has made significant contributions to the field in theory, methodology or in explaining the workings of Chinese organizations or organizations in China; who has advanced the field and blazed a path for future researchers; and who has enhanced the visibility of Chinese management research by impacting the broader research community.

Prof. Xiaoping Chen from the University of Washington has won the Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award 2016. Here are her biography and the statement of accomplishment.

Xiao-Ping Chen (xpchen@u.washington.edu) is currently Philip M. Condit Endowed Chair Professor in the Department of Management and Organization, Foster School of Business, University of Washington. She is a Fellow at Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is also Editor-in-Chief for Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Editor-in-Chief for Management Insights, a bilingual (Chinese and English) magazine for business educators and practitioners.

Professor Chen’s research interests include cooperation and competition in social dilemmas, teamwork and leadership, entrepreneur passion, Chinese guanxi, and cross-cultural communication and management. Professor Chen has published more than 30 research papers in top-tier journals such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,Management Science, and Journal of International Business Studies. She was a faculty previously at Indiana University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She served as a Rep-at-Large in the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management for three years.

Professor Chen is highly involved in Chinese management research and business community. She served as the second President for International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR). She has organized numerous research methods workshops, professional development workshops, and panel discussions for IACMR. She has published eight Chinese books so far, among which the Empirical Methods in Organization and Management Research book has been the best seller in China since 2008.

Professor Chen is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, including Andrew Smith Faculty Development Award (2010), Outstanding University of Washington Woman Award (2010), Outstanding Ph.D. Mentor Award (2009, 2004), Dean’s International Research Award (2008, 2001), Charles E. Summer Teaching Award (2004), Best Conference Paper Award (2012, 2008) by IACMR, and Top 20 Poster Paper Award (2009) by Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychological Association.

Statement of Accomplishment

Professor Xiao-Ping Chen has devoted much of her career to the study of Chinese management and has made significant contributions to the field in theory, methodology and in explaining the workings of Chinese organizations. She also has made contributions to the progress in Chinese management research and enhanced the visibility of the Chinese management research in the global research community, advanced the field, and blazed a path for future researchers.

Professor Chen has published about 50 academic articles in English (with a total of 2672 google scholar citations) and 20 publications in Chinese. Her research interest falls within several areas, including cooperation and competition in social dilemmas, teamwork and leadership, entrepreneur passion, Chinese guanxi, and cross-cultural communication and management. In the area of social dilemma research, she studied voluntary contribution, organizational citizenship behavior, multi-partner strategic alliance, and cross-cultural team building and management. She has published theoretical papers, scale development papers, laboratory studies and experiments, and field studies in this area. Her work has been well recognized (with 1756 citations) and she has developed a national and international reputation in the team cooperation area.

In the area of cross-cultural management, Professor Chen studied individualism-collectivism measurements, high-low context of communication conceptualization and measurement, cooperative vs. competitive decision making, reciprocative behavior, different inducing mechanisms to motivate people to cooperate, and the importance of cultural intelligence in effectively improving cross-cultural performance. Her work has received recognition from the academic community (with 877 citations). Her paper on cultural intelligence and cross-cultural sales performance received the honor of Top 20 Poster award in SIOP; her paper on reciprocity received the Best Conference Paper Award in International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR), and her grant proposal on cultural intelligence and expatriate cultural shock experience received competitive grant in SIOP (sponsored by Nanyang Technological University).

In the area of indigenous Chinese management research, Professor Chen has written a series of papers on Chinese guanxi since 2004. Guanxi can be directly translated into English as Enterpersonal connection, but can also be used more broadly to refer to connection between any entities. As guanxi reflects the core cultural value of the Chinese society, she has worked very hard to accurately define the construct, its features and functions, its positive and negative consequences, and how close guanxi can be developed, maintained or dissolved in the Chinese context. Professor Chen’s work on Chinese guanxi has also received great recognition from the academic community (with 214 citations).

Among the publications in Chinese, 10 are books. One of the books is on research methodology published by Peking University Press, which became an instant best seller in China in 2008. A second edition of this book was published in 2012. This book was later published by Hwatai Publishing House in Taiwan in 2014, and is currently being translated into the Korean language. This book has influenced numerous Chinese scholars and has helped them to learn how to conduct rigorous management research and how to publish high quality management research papers in top-tier journals.

Another book is a sole-authored textbook, Managing across Cultures, published by Tsinghua University Press, which is widely adopted as a textbook by many professors in Chinese universities. Professor Chen is currently working on the 3rd edition of this text.

Professor Chen has served in many roles in our profession to promote high quality research, especially culture and China related research. To highlight, she is currently the Editor-in-Chief of OBHDP. One particular effort Professor Chen made is to encourage world management scholars to study China, and a special issue on Phenomenon-Based Research in China has received wide attention in the academic community and is currently in good progress.

Professor Chen also served as co-guest editor for a Special Research Forum entitled Eest Meets East: New Concepts and Theories in Academy of Management Journal. This special issue was published in April 2015, and is poised to become one of the most influential special issues in the history of AMJ.

Another significant service Professor Chen has devoted her time and energy in the past 13 years is to serve the International Associate for Chinese Management Research (IACMR). She was a founding member of the association, served as the first program chair for its inaugural conference in Beijing (2004), then served as the senior Vice President for two years and then the second President of IACMR for two years, with another two years as its Past President. During this time, she also served as senior Consulting Editor for its flagship journalManagement and Organization Review for four years. She has organized numerous professional development workshops, research methods workshops, distinguished speaker panels, and chaired various committees. Currently, she is a Past President Fellow in IACMR.

Related to IACMR, she had served for three years as the Executive Editor of Chinese Management Insights (CMI), a Chinese-English bilingual magazine that translates academic management research findings into practically relevant knowledge for managers. In this capacity, Professor Chen interviewed the most prominent CEOs or Founders of Chinese companies such as Jack Ma of Alibaba, Wang Shi of Vanke, Ma Weihua of China Merchant Bank, Liang Xinjun of Fosun Group, Feng Lun of Vantone etc. These interview reports have been published in CMI, and have received much attention from Western media (e.g, Bloomberg, Voice of America, NPR).

Starting in 2015, this magazine is renamed Management Insights, and is co-published by IACMR and Fudan School of Management. Professor Chen is serving as Editor-in-Chief. The inaugural issue was published in March 2015, and the second issue will be published in June 2015. This magazine is well received by the Chinese business community, and is adopted as a major supplemental source for EMBA students in many business schools such as Guanghua Management School at Peking University, CEIBS, etc.