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Manuscript submission deadline: June 30, 2023
Guest editors
Prof. Peter Li, Department of International Business and Management,
University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, email: [log in to unmask]
Prof. Ziliang Deng, RENMIN Business School, Renmin University of China, email: [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]
Prof. Mooweon Rhee, Department of Management, School of Business, Yonsei
University, email: [log in to unmask]
Prof. Steven Shijin Zhou, Department of International Business and
Management, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, email: [log in to unmask]
Background
and Objective
Hidden champions or niche leaders are highly successful small or
mid-sized companies in the top three positions in terms of global market share
in a niche market segment, thus often called “small giants”. Such firms focus
narrowly on a market niche, usually in need for specialized technical expertise
and market insight so as to direct their resources toward maintaining the top
positions in that market niche (Simon, 1992). Moreover, these firms commonly
remain invisible to the general public because their businesses tend to involve
the upstream components used in the downstream processes (e.g., B2B
businesses).
Not only prevalent in Europe, niche leaders are also getting
popular in the East Asia, such as Japan, South Korea, and China. For example,
the Japanese government launched the program of “Global Niche Top Companies
Selection 100” in Fiscal Year of 2013-2014 (repeated in 2019-2020) with four
evaluation criteria: (1) market performance in terms of revenue and
profitability; (2) strategic uniqueness via innovation; (3) competitive advantages,
and (4) internationalization. In short, a Global Niche Top firm is one
operating in a market that is not particularly large, but it holds an
overwhelming share in a niche market, and it has an important presence that
supports global supply chains. Similarly, the government of South Korea started
the project of “World-Class 300 & Global Specialized Enterprise
Cultivation” in 2015 with five evaluation criteria: (1) high-level
globalization; (2) highly innovative management; (3) recognized brand; (4) strong
competitive advantages, and (5) sustainable growth. Hence, these niche leaders
in the East Asia are similar to the hidden champions in Europe.
Lagging behind the counterparts in Japan and South Korea, many
Chinese firms are often at the bottom of global value chains with marginal
profits (Deng, Ma & Zhu, 2022). The strengths of such Chinese firms
typically lie in imitation and downstream assembly, rather than innovation and
upstream components. However, over the past two decades, many Chinese small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have tried to enhance their competitive
positions by moving up along the global value chains (Li et al., 2022), similar
to the case of their counterparts in South Korea in the past (Suh & Kim,
2014). In particular, inspired by the notion of “hidden champions”, the Chinese
government has recently sponsored two groups of SMEs, i.e., “niche
champions” and “specialized, advanced, differentiated, and innovative” firms.
In particular, SADI firms serve as the vehicle to promote new techno-nationalism
(Luo, 2022) and counter the US-China decoupling (Li et al., 2021).
It is worth noting that the niche leaders in China may be
smaller than those in Europe, Japan and South Korea where the focus is on the
medium-sized niche leaders, so China promote both medium-sized and small niche
leaders.
All niche leaders (similar to hidden champions) have following
common characteristics:
1.
Specialized in a core component segment within one or more
specific supply chains;
2.
Advanced in internal management related to the lean process,
e.g., production, R&D, technology, human resource, and finance, among
others, especially at the high-end position in the global value chains;
3.
Differentiated from competitors with some unique features and
advantages;
4.
Innovative by providing novel products and/or services to their
customers.
Niche leaders have been studied from different perspectives (see
Schenkenhofer, 2022 for the most recent review), including financial
performance (e.g., Johann, Block & Benz, 2021); human resource management
(e.g., Garaus, Wagner and Kummer, 2015); internationalization strategies (e.g.,
Audretsch, Lehmann & Schenkenhofer, 2018), among others. With a few
exceptions (e.g., Kim, 2016; Lei & Wu, 2020), most of such studies focus on
the empirical data from certain European countries, such as Germany
(Schenkenhofer, 2022; see Kim & Park, 2019 for a review of studies
comparing SMEs in Germany and South Korea).
The East Asian countries have paid more attention to niche leaders
in recent years, e.g., China’s SADI program and Korea’s “strong medium-sized
enterprises” (Kim, 2016; Lei & Wu, 2022). However, one can observe clear
distinctions between the niche leaders in Asia and the hidden champions in
Europe (cf. Kim & Park, 2019; Schenkenhofer, 2022). For instance, the niche
leaders in Asia often start from imitation and then move up the value-added
ladder; while the hidden champions in Europe are rarely listed publicly, most
of niche leaders in China have either gone public or plan to go public soon,
and they proactively pursue brand recognition; the niche leaders in China often
expand into adjacent business domains from their original core beyond the
options of focus and differentiation (cf. Schenkenhofer, 2022), and they tend
to strike a balance between domestic and global markets. It is worth noting
that, somewhat related to the born-global firms or international new ventures
that tend to be niche players in high-tech sectors (Cavusgil & Knight,
2015; Deng, Jean & Sinkovics, 2018; Hennart, Majocchi & Hagen, 2021),
the endogenous decision by niche leaders in Asia to attain global leadership is
relatively preceded by the exogenous structure of niche market segment
(Schenkenhofer, 2022).
This special issue aims to improve our understanding of niche
leaders in the Asia-Pacific region and offer unique and abundant opportunities
to reconsider the diverse extant theories on entrepreneurship, innovation, and
international business, among others, by enriching and extending such theories
to account for the unique features of niche leaders in the Asia-Pacific region.
In particular, studying diverse niche leaders bears special implications for
SMEs in other contexts. We seek manuscripts to advance theoretical perspectives
with the new empirical evidence from the Asia-Pacific region.
Among others, potential research question are as follows:
A. Individual/Team Level:
Do Asian niche-leading entrepreneurs have unique leadership and
decision-making pattern?
How do Asian niche leaders form their board and top management team (TMT)?
Are there any unique patterns? How board members and TMT influence strategic
decision?
What kind of team structure do Asian niche leaders have?
B. Firm/Alliance Level:
What are the unique strategies, structures, resources and
governance mechanisms among Asian niche leaders?
How do Asian niche leaders balance and integrate “focus” and “diversification”?
How do Asian niche leaders use digitalization improve their capabilities and
resilience?
How do Asian niche leaders strike a balance between “exploitation” and
“exploration”?
How do Asian niche leaders form social network and strategic alliance?
How are Asian niche leaders embedded in industry ecology and platform?
How do Asian niche leaders collaborate with universities and research
institutions?
What is the process of internationalization, regionalization, and globalization
among Asian niche leaders?
How do Asian niche leaders leverage global supply chains?
C. Context/Ecosystem Level:
How do Asian niche leaders seize external opportunities in both
home and overseas markets?
What kind of industry policy design and approaches could facilitate the
development of Asian niche leaders?
How do Asian niche leaders leverage and influence the development, expansion,
and competition of industrial clusters?
What are the unique relationships between Asian niche leaders and their
governments?
Will the development of Asian niche leaders influence the technological and
economic decoupling?
What will be the impact on and from de-globalization and new
techno-nationalism?
D. Innovation Pattern
What unique business models do Asian niche leaders have?
What are the differences between Asian niche leaders and other “champions”
(e.g., hidden champions in Germany) in terms of business model?
What are the unique innovation patterns of Asian niche leaders?
E. Developmental Process
Will Asian niche leaders have unique entrepreneurial processes
and mechanisms?
How do Asian niche leaders acquire internal and external investment?
How do Asian niche leaders cope with carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals?
How do Asian niche leaders carry out their corporate social responsibilities
and ESG activities?
Timeline
Manuscript submission deadline: June 30, 2023
First-round reviews and decisions: September 30, 2023
Tentative date for the Special Issue publication: December 15,
2024.
Manuscript
submission
Manuscripts should be formatted as per the Journal’s
guidelines (https://www.springer.com/journal/10490/submission-guidelines).
Authors should select this special issue, while submitting manuscripts
online (https://www.editorialmanager.com/apjm/default.aspx).
Informal inquiries are valued, and can be directed to the guest editors.
Editorial
team biographies
Peter Li is Li Dak Sum Chair Professor of International
Business at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, and part-time Professor
of Chinese Business Studies at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. His primary
research focus is on building geocentric (West-meeting-East) theories from the
cultural and historical perspectives. He has published about 80 articles in
various academic journals, 20 book chapters in English, and 5 books. In
addition, he has also published over 40 articles in practice-oriented Chinese journals.
He has been serving on the editorial boards of several major English journals,
i.e., Journal
of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Discovery,
Journal of Management Studies, Journal of International Management, Global
Strategy Journal, and Cross-Cultural & Strategic
Management. He is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal
of Trust Research and the former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Management
and Organization Review as well as the former Senior Editor of Asia
Pacific Journal of Management.
Ziliang Deng, is a Professor and Associate Dean (research and global
engagement) at Renmin Business School, Renmin University of China. His recent
research has focused on international business in the Chinese context. His
works have appeared in Asia Pacific Journal of Management,
Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal
of Management Studies, and Journal of World Business,
among others. He is a Senior Editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Management and
an Associate Editor of Journal of International Management.
Mooweon Rhee is the Underwood Distinguished Professor, Hyundai Motor
Company and YSB Research Chair Professor, and Professor of Management at the
School of Business, Yonsei University. His research interests revolve around
organizational learning, status/reputation, social networks, and Asia-based
theories of organizations. His works have appeared in Academy
of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review,
Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of
Management Studies, Management Science, Organization Science, Research Policy,
and other scholarly journals. He currently serves Management and Organization Review as
a senior editor.
Steven Shijin Zhou is an Associate Professor in the Department of
International Business and Management, Nottingham University Business School,
China. His research focuses on Chinese indigenous studies, innovation, and
organizational learning. He has published peer-reviewed papers in journals such
as Journal
of International Business Studies, Management and Organization
Review, and Asia Pacific Journal of
Management, among many others. He was served as senior editor of Management
and Organization Review.
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