A Concentric Model of Private Firm Leadership in China: Insights from Founding Entrepreneurs

As discussed in Chap. 2, there has been little empirical research focusing specifically on executive leadership in Chinese private enterprises. The existing literature is composed mainly of large-sample survey studies of executive leadership, with no distinction between firms with different ownerships. Given an extremely dynamic, complex and inhospitable environment, both institutional and social, we argue that the emergence and success of the vibrant private economy can be ascribed primarily to the exceptional leadership of the founders of private enterprises as well as the other leaders who have worked with them. To further develop this insight, we interviewed 13 carefully selected and extraordinarily successful Chinese leaders of private firms to gain an in-depth understanding of their unique backgrounds, management practices and thoughts on leadership. Chaps. 3 to 15 contain the interview transcripts. In this chapter, we present the results of the content analysis of these 13 interviews.