Innovation, Learning and Education in China

China’s influence in business and innovation within the World is likely to grow over time. History shows that China once greatly influenced Western culture and provided the world with new, radical inventions. However, the innovation within the country did not progress well even with the establishment of new China in 1949 and in particular during the “cultural revolution” and retreatment from the rest of the world during the twentieth century. Starting with the reforms of Xiaoping it was Western culture’s turn to influence Sino-culture and Chinese innovation, which has resulted largely in what some have called a ‘cost innovation’ strategy (Zeng & Williamson, 2007). However, this influence has been shown to exaggerate the incremental nature of innovations within the Chinese context (Johnson & Weiss, 2008). As the next phase in its transition towards a major global economic power, China has embarked on a mission to develop its capabilities for new and radical ‘indigenous’ innovation and update the educational and intellectual mission of the country.

Papers for this special issue should relate to major issues regarding innovation in China- for example, education (and its reforms), learning and creativity, innovation type and business growth. We welcome original empirical and conceptually rigorous papers at all levels of analysis. In general, papers will ideally examine the connections among innovation, education and managing technology and business growth in China.

Topics may include:

• Historical perspectives of innovation, learning and/or education in China.
• Case studies of Chinese-created radical innovations.
• Educational and innovation practices at the individual level.
• Descriptive case studies characterizing the creativity of individuals and correlating this with educational background and life experiences within the Chinese context.
• Explorations of how individuals manage creative tensions within educational instruction in the schools, colleges and universities in China.
• Educational and innovation practices at the classroom level.
• Exploration of the progress of various regions of China in classroom reforms.
• Comparison cases of classrooms in which CBU (creative but undesirable) student behaviour is tolerated versus DBU (desirable but uncreative) student behaviour.
• Educational and innovation practices at the industry and institutional level.
• Investigations of the creative process in Chinese educational institutions.
• Case studies and descriptions of industry and the need and use of creativity to explore the practices being implemented by Chinese companies like Lenovo, Haier, Alibaba and Baidu.
• Educational and innovation practices at the national level.
• Educational and innovation policies involved in technological and process/service related innovation.
• Critical analyses of China’s national policies toward innovation and education.

Coverage (of JTMC)
JTMC is the only journal that focuses exclusively on technology management in China. The journal encourages theoretical and applied research papers which identify good practice, address the existing deficiencies in processes and assist in the development of the transfer of technology and knowledge.
Coverage includes the following areas of technology management and how they impact upon the areas of marketing, human resources, accounting and finance and the supply chain:

Technology management
Technology transfer
Chinese business and culture
Research management in China
Innovation management
Technology economics
Knowledge transfer and sharing
Knowledge management
Technology and business strategy
Project management
Entrepreneurship and leadership
Cross - culture management
Product life cycle management

Journal Editor
Dr Richard Li-Hua, Salford University, Manchester, UK
r.li-hua@salford.ac.uk

Guest Editors of the Special Issue
Dr. William H.A. Johnson, Penn State University
Professor Joseph W. Weiss, Bentley University

Send manuscripts for consideration to William H.A. Johnson at: whj1@psu.edu
Deadline for submitting papers to Guest Editors: June 15, 2010