20 Years of Chinese Leadership Research: A systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

As the Chinese economy has grown over the past decades to take a prominent place on the world stage, so has research on Chinese leadership. The growing research provides much needed breadth in our understanding of Chinese leadership. However, the research is quite fragmented as it has developed in several largely disconnected areas. This study develops an integrative framework of Chinese leadership, based on a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles published in the last 20 years. We synthesize insights from 169 articles to develop a comprehensive understanding of traditional Chinese leadership practices and Western leadership theories applied in Chinese organizations. Furthermore, we advance research on Chinese leadership by proposing five areas of future research that build on our integrative framework.