Why Is Indigenous Management Research Important? Responses to Previous Questioning Views and Suggestions for Future Development

Abstract

As Chinese management practices have received wide attention from academy at home and abroad, the importance of indigenous management research is becoming increasingly prominent. However, there are still views that question the purpose and value of indigenous management research. For example, is indigenous research equal to regional research? Why does management research need indigenous theory? Why can indigenous research contribute to general theory? These views weaken understanding of the significance of indigenous research and hinder further development of indigenous management research. This paper combines speeches and viewpoint discussions at the International Symposium on “Research on Organizational Change and Leadership Behavior from the Perspective of Chinese Enterprises”, presents some successful examples of management research, analyzes and clarifies above-mentioned doubts, and expounds the nature, characteristics and difficulties of indigenous management research. Specifically, this paper elaborates the “indigenous” from three aspects: the different definitions between indigenous research and local research, the legitimacy of indigenous research, and the perspectives needed for indigenous management research. In addition, this research illustrates the necessity of indigenous theory in management research through the lens that one good theory will make compromise among generality, accuracy and simplicity. Moreover, indigenous management research can also contribute to the general theory through theorizing about the indigenous research context. Finally, this paper puts forward suggestions for further development of indigenous management research. For example, seeking meaningful indigenous research problems, following the research paradigm based upon the spirit of engaged scholarship, choosing appropriate research methods and strategies, considering dialectically about holistic thinking while building theories, carrying out dialogue actively between indigenous and mainstream theories, and building indigenous research communities following three stages which can interact recursively, that is, differentiation, mobilization and legitimacy building.