This research aims at bridging two distinct creative streams and promoting innovation. Business innovation and literature creation are two powerful engines for propelling modern society. However, how they pursue novelty with their styles and how they can learn from each other is rarely addressed. The author uses both literature surveys and participant observation, systematically looking into six areas in each stream. They are the classification of final products, the key elements contained in a success output, personal traits and skillsets of creators, originations of 'aha' moments, the realisation of a creative idea, and the ecosystem surrounding a creation. In addition to pinpointing the novelty roots shared by the two streams, this research reveals the critical differences in the six areas. The article further points out how business innovation could enrich itself by learning from its creative counterpart based on the disparities.

Chinese SOEs have been experiencing dramatic changes over the last three decades. Although there is an active debate on the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese SOEs, few studies pay attention to the quantitative relationship between Chinese SOEs' new product development and the ownership structure of the industries. Does the change of weight of SOEs in an industry affect the overall innovation output of the industry? By examining new product development data in all 39 industries in China from 2006 to 2010, this research measures the influence of the SOEs on the industrial innovation at different ownership scenarios. Through comparative analysis between different industrial groups and regression, this study reveals that in the industries which has 15%-30% of SOEs, the overall innovation demonstrates the best results, which are reflected in more new products, larger monetary value of innovation, and a higher efficiency of new products development.

This article aims to present an alternative toolkit for change management by introducing I Ching – the oldest Chinese book squarely focused on changes, and its working mechanism, which is polar opposite to conventional Western management philosophy and methodology. The article points out that ‘the I Ching way’ works mainly on non-causal relationship, provides an unbounded ‘result-process-advice’ set for dealing with uncertainty, and offers a means for integrating changes and change elements. It represents either a different thinking or an operating system. Adopting the I Ching way in management undoubtedly stimulates out-off box thinking and have an alternative for dealing with complex issues.

This research employs a concept of ‘innovation trinity’ – a common denominator of innovation consisting of three types of innovations: functionality, delivery and relationship innovation – to trace the dynamics of innovation in the typewriter industry. It reveals that about a century’s existence of the typewriter industry, from the creation to the final fading out, could be described by a full seven-stage innovation chain with two sustaining loops. The presented dynamics of the typewriter industry challenges the traditional concepts on dominant design and stages of an innovation life cycle and offers a venue for further exploring the vigour of innovation.

Among all management toolkits originated from China, I Ching may be the least known one to the Western world, due to its polar opposite to conventional Western management philosophy and methodology. Based on analysing the working mechanism and its functionality in providing an unbounded ‘result-process-advice’ set for dealing with uncertainty, this paper focuses on the linkage of the I Ching idea and modern management philosophy and tactics. It examines the differences and similarities of the two ways in areas such as theory, method, perspective on change, solution formulation and tactics deployment. It argues that the both toolkits are useful in dealing with changes. While going with the Western routine, having some ideas outside the causal link enables managers to better prepare for uncertainty. While going with the I Ching routine, having a causal link to fill the vagueness of different unrelated situations will make more sense.

One condition for China's sustainable development in the 21/sup st/ Century is to ride the technology tide and further develop her new economy segments. Among these new development poles, electronic business (E-business) is a promising field due to the proliferation of the Internet technologies and an increasing integration of the world economy. China's openness, including possible accession to the World Trade Organisation, changes the operational environment of both. overseas and Chinese enterprises. However, systematic examination on the new opportunities and challenges in cooperation and competition between overseas and local firms in e-business is still lacking. This article aims to highlight the behavior and considerations of multinational companies (MNCs) and the Chinese Government, which are two driving forces in forming the landscape of Chinese E-Business.

One important aim of economic reform in China is to allow state-owned enterprises to be more market driven. This contribution, based on an industry competition model and four cornerstones for indicating economy transformation, scrutinizes the major changes taking place in the Chinese construction industry. It finds that the behaviour of key stakeholders such as managers, contractors, government, suppliers, clients, and new entrants in the industry has dramatically changed. However, a contractual chain within the industry is far from complete, and relationships between the main stakeholders are problematic. Thus, further reforms are needed to maintain industry's orderly development.