Multidisciplinary approach paves way to understanding country and its economy

Oxford University's unveiling of yet another China center a couple of weeks ago should signal much more than the simple addition to the growing number of such centers at universities around the world.

The Oxford opening, unveiled by no less a dignitary than Prince William, not only highlights the growing fascination with China worldwide but should also mark a subtle but distinctive change in the focus of such centers toward the academic study of Chinese business and management.

Already the world's second-largest economy, and widely predicted to overtake the US within a few years, China's economic miracle and dramatic rise in power and influence globally is clearly behind this growth in university-based China centers.

A glance at UK and US university sectors is enough to be persuaded of the ubiquitous nature and relatively recent emergence of these China centers. Perhaps with the exception of American studies university departments at British universities, no other country commands such attention right now.

But with the recent slowdown in the Chinese economy, albeit relatively modest and carefully managed, China centers around the world need to shift their attention toward the challenges facing Chinese companies and in particular their attempts to develop further their presence on the international stage.

However, China centers, and Sinology in general, continue to focus most on the study and understanding of the traditional areas of the arts and social sciences. Typically, Chinese language, history and sociology dominate.

But with question marks against the sustainability of China's economic rise and the erosion of its once pivotal low-cost advantage, it is the competitiveness of Chinese business that should begin to take center stage at these China centers. Not that this should lead to any dilution in the importance of the traditional areas of study.

Indeed, any real understanding of and insight into the challenges facing Chinese industry can only be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach. A blend, therefore, of business and management studies with these traditional areas is the way forward for the modern university-based China center.

Naturally this business and management focus also has to include the further expansion of international business into and across the Chinese mainland. Key to China's continued economic emergence is industrial development outside the first-tier cities and coastal provinces, with western China an obvious focus of attention.

China's open-door policy, initiated by Deng Xiaoping, has ignited a frenzy of foreign direct investment and entry of international business into the Chinese mainland that is largely responsible for the subsequent economic miracle.

But it is now time for Chinese businesses to rise, domestically and globally, and take the baton of economic development with the establishment of increasingly competitive branded products and services.

However, this does not limit the role and influence of foreign business.

Thus a modern-day China center should in effect be regarded as a China business center and not just a Chinese business center.

It is no surprise to see such a rapid rise in international expansion by China's largest, leading enterprises. China's high-tech giants such as telecommunications equipment producer and network service provider Huawei and PC manufacturer Lenovo exemplify this trend.

Chinese Internet giant Alibaba added to the already intense publicity generated by the international expansion of Chinese companies in recent years with its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO raised about $25 billion, making it the largest IPO in history.

However, it is also of little surprise to see the relatively slow development in brand building within Chinese companies, even the most internationally advanced such as Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE (telecommunications equipment and services) and Haier (household appliances).

It is this brand building that represents one of the key challenges, if not the key challenge, facing China and the sustainability of its economic rise.

Any modern day China center must therefore incorporate this most clearly in its aims at the outset.

Furthermore, a very careful blend of expertise will be needed to maximize any gains in understanding and assistance to Chinese companies with their global brand building. Historians, linguists, social scientists and business and management expert academics need to work together closely under the China center umbrella.

Despite the business and management focus, such a multidisciplinary approach is crucial. Of course it is also vital that engagement with and regular input from leading industrialists takes place, even though an academic culture must be maintained.

Importantly, it is only a university-based China center that can really deliver intellectually rigorous research and unbiased help. Commercially driven and privately owned equivalents are no match.

Many continue to call on Chinese business to take over the reins of economic growth, and to internationalize and modernize, but this is highly unlikely to happen naturally and smoothly.

It is thus of supreme importance that Oxford University's new China Center, and similar university-based China centers worldwide, provide significant academic attention to competitive brand building inside Chinese companies.

The author is a visiting professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a senior lecturer in marketing at Southampton Solent University's School of Business. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 09/26/2014 page13)