Chair: FU Pingping**, Professor, University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Email: pingping.fu@nottingham.edu.cn 

Discussant: LI Wendong Associate professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Email: wendong.li@cuhk.edu.hk 

Participants’ names and affiliations:
1. Fu, Pingping**, Professor, University of Nottingham Business School Ningbo China 
email: Pingping.FU@nottingham.edu.cn, 
2. Lin, Boxiang (Doc student), same as above 
email: Boxiang.Lin@nottingham.edu.cn;
3. Peng, Jingjing* (Doc student), same as above 
email: Jingjing.Peng@nottingham.edu.cn
4. Patsioti, Ioanna* Associate professor, American College of Greece 
email: Ipatsi@acg.edu
5. Qu, Qing* Professor, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University 
email: Quq@sem.tsinghua.edu
6. Xu, Liguo Associate professor, School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University 
email: liguoxu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
7. Ye, Wenjie* University of Nottingham Business School Ningbo China 
Assistant Professor, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Zhejiang College
email: Wenjie.Ye@nottingham.edu.cn 
8. Zheng, Xianjing (Doc student), School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Tel. 18392180609,
email: 544847655@qq.com; 
9. Zhu, Zhekai* (Doc student) School of Business, Chinese University of Hong Kong
email: Zhekai.Zhu@cuhk.edu.hk 

Goal of the workshop:
To introduce the papers relating to the three themes: leadership, culture and ecology and to show how and why they are important to the digital era, and to receive some feedback for finishing them. 

Content of the workshop 
To respond to the conference theme, How to Conduct Research on Chinese Management in the Digital Age, we present a PDW session with five working papers. 

Paper 1 explores humanistic leadership for the future; Paper 2 examines responsible leadership in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) companies; Paper 3 investigates the role of Moqi in dyadic communication; Paper 4 compares two types of organizational ecology to highlight the influence of Chinese traditional culture; and Paper 5 compare Aristotle and Confucius, proposing a conceptual framework for research on ethics, leadership, and ecology in the digital era. Together, the session highlights three key themes: Leadership, Culture and Ecology. 

Leadership has long been recognized as a driver of productivity, with most theories focusing on how to motivate followers to achieve organizational goals. However, although many companies now recognize the limitations of performance-driven leadership and are adopting more humanistic approaches, the leadership literature has not reflected the new approaches. Using Chinese companies as examples, Paper 1 introduces humanistic leadership and develops a new conceptual framework for the theory and future research. The paper also discusses the culturally sensitive practices of this approach. 

Paper 2 focuses on responsible leadership in ICH companies. Through interviews with 71 leaders, the study identifies factors influencing responsible leadership and its effect on employee retention. Measures were developed based on the interview results and hypotheses were tested using survey responses from Subsequent studies using survey responses. Findings show that responsible leadership is negatively related to employees’ intention to leave, with occupational identity and family support playing moderating roles. 

Culture is another key theme in this session. Paper 3 examines Moqi, a unique Chinese cultural phenomenon that shapes trust and understanding in communication. Preliminary findings from 16 interviews show that leaders and subordinates often interpret Moqi differently, and it has varying effects depending on the context. Further experiments are planned to explore its impact more deeply. 

Ecology, a rapidly growing organizational model in China, is explored in Paper 4 through a comparison between Haier, a leading house appliances manufacturer, and Lantai, a non-profit organization. The study highlights how both organizations thrive within ecosystems thanks to the traditional Chinese values such as collaboration, moral character (Ren), right conduct (Yi), and wisdom (Zhi). 

Finally, Paper 5 compares the ethical teachings of Confucius and Aristotle, focusing on their shared emphasis on practical ethics, social harmony, and virtue cultivation. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for future research on leadership and moral/virtue ethics in the digital age. 

In sum, we hope the three themes — leadership, culture, and ecology — will provide new insights for researchers studying Chinese firms in the digital era.

3. Intended participants and admission criteria – Anybody who is interested in the research topics are welcome to join