The debate on theoretical contextualization began with a dual focus on the context-embedded approach and the context-specific approach. In my view, over the past 20 years, the focus of the discussion has shifted from developing indigenous management theories toward how the Chinese context offers fertile ground for developing novel theories with global relevance.

Parental mentoring plays a pivotal role in fostering intrafamily succession and entrepreneurial endeavors. Taking an identity-based perspective, we conducted an exploratory multiple case study involving nine Chinese family firms to investigate how successors perceive the influence of mentoring from their entrepreneurial parents on the development of their entrepreneurial identities. Our findings reveal that successors' entrepreneurial identity changes from ambiguous to clarified through four perceived parental mentoring strategies, namely laying foundations, painting bright futures, relating experiences, and leading by examples. In particular, we show how the unique Chinese family dynamics resulted in some paradoxical tensions influencing the successors' entrepreneurial identity. By taking a holistic view, we conceptualize parental mentoring as a crucial nurturing strategy for successors and connect it to the process of successor identity transformation. This research sheds light on the nexus of entrepreneurial identity, family dynamics, and the Chinese cultural context within the realm of family business research and practice.

One of the most interesting facts about economic history is that income levels remained flat for most of recorded human history and then began to increase in a sustained fashion during the 17th century, providing citizens of industrialized countries with standards of living that would have been unimaginable for most of human history (see Figure 1).

I am honored to be asked to write an essay on my involvement with Management and Organization Review (MOR) and the Chinese management research community. I was one of the founding senior editors of MOR at its inception in March 2005. I still have Volume 1, Issue 1 on my bookshelf in my office. From the start, it was a team effort with six senior editors, four consulting editors, a host of scholars on the editorial review board and the editorial advisory board, as well as ad hoc reviewers. The IACMR was an important partner and supporter of the journal. Anne Tsui was our editor-in-chief, but she knew how to involve the entire ‘village’ in the production of MOR, even those of us who were not bona fide Chinese management scholars but who would do everything they could to make the journal a success. We are indeed grateful to Anne, and everyone involved. It was an initiative at a grand scale.

This study delves into the intricate relationship between chief executive officers' (CEOs') experiences of poverty and the digital transformation of their firms. Employing comprehensive data collection on CEOs' birthplaces and leveraging advanced text analytics to quantify digitalization, our analysis encompasses a wide array of listed companies in China. The findings reveal that CEOs' impoverished experiences exert a detrimental influence on their firms' digital transformation efforts, primarily due to a lack of motivation and social resources necessary for such initiatives. However, this adverse effect can be ameliorated when CEOs gain access to substantial social resources in later life. Our conclusions are robust, supported by rigorous testing, and underscore not only the impact of CEOs' early-life poverty on corporate digitalization but also the potential for overcoming these challenges through the acquisition of external social resources and connections in adulthood. This study contributes significantly to existing literature and offers practical implications for enhancing corporate digital transformation strategies.

We document significant time-series and cross-sectional momentum in 28 equity option factors. Factor momentum is distinct from a static factor portfolio, and prominent option factor models cannot fully explain its returns. Despite high autocorrelation, factor momentum profits are mainly driven by high and persistently different mean factor returns in the case of longer formation periods. Option factor momentum fully subsumes option momentum, but not vice versa. Our findings are robust over time, across various market states, and for alternative momentum strategy constructions.

I fondly recall the very first gathering of founding editors, spearheaded by Anne Tsui, roughly two decades ago in San Francisco. We engaged in thorough discussions about the journal's direction, policies, and even plans for the inaugural issue, which concluded with a delightful dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Management and Organization Review (MOR) has a plethora of achievements to celebrate and commend, thanks to the diligent, dedicated, and meticulous work carried out over the past 20 years by our collective community, including editors, authors, reviewers, and partners. This is particularly true for our distinguished editors-in-chief and editors, who span multiple generations. I am proud of my involvement and contribution to the journal's early development and to have witnessed its remarkable growth.

In reflecting on the history of Management and Organization Review (MOR), it is not cliché to say that ‘time flies’. It is amazing that MOR has been in existence for 20 years. The memories of the excitement, challenges, and anxiety in the founding years are still vivid, like yesterday. Most organizations die within 5 years of their birth (Daepp, Hamilton, West, & Bettencourt, 2015; Gürtler & Miller, 2022; SAIC, 2013). We can assume that MOR has passed its survival threat. What accounts for its survival success? Is it luck, as would be the case of some entrepreneurial ventures that came to be at the right time in the right place? Survival was not on the minds of the founders of MOR; making an impact on advancing Chinese management research was. What were the founders' aspirations for creating a new journal in an already highly competitive and mature field of journal publishing in business and management? How well has MOR reached its aspirations? Twenty years is a good occasion to take stock of the achievements of MOR, its challenges and opportunities, and what future does it desire in serving the global community of Chinese management and organization scholars?

Xiao-Ping's invitation brings back many wonderful memories associated with the MOR community since its inception, so I am grateful to have this occasion to share these memories with you. My relationship with MOR is connected through a number of colleagues and friends and a series of events.

It was all because of Anne Tsui's vision, leadership, and never-exhausted energy that nurtured MOR to be born out of a scholarly scratch. I happened to be within proximity to lend her a helpful hand.

To begin with, I wish to thank Editor-in-Chief Xiao-Ping Chen for her initiative to celebrate MOR's twentieth anniversary by inviting a series of essays under the seductive title ‘MOR and Me’, with the overarching subtitle ‘Chinese management research: Looking back, current status, and future prospects’.

Financial losses can have persistent effects on the financial system. This article proposes an empirical measure for the duration of these effects, Spillover Persistence. I document that Spillover Persistence is strongly correlated with financial conditions; during banking crises, Spillover Persistence is higher, whereas in the run-up phase of stock market bubbles, it is lower. Lower Spillover Persistence also associates with a more fragile system, for example, a higher probability of future crises, consistent with the volatility paradox. The results emphasize the dynamics of loss spillovers as an important dimension of systemic risk and financial constraints as a key determinant of persistence.

“Stealth mergers” are not reported to the government because they fall below the required size threshold. We study stealth mergers involving public targets for which manipulation of transaction sizes is unlikely. These stealth mergers result in less R&D spending, patenting, and capital expenditures, and in lower value patents for both acquiring firms and their competitors relative to non-stealth mergers. Industry concentration increases, and product market competition decreases for stealth acquirers. Stealth acquirers and their competitors earn higher cumulative abnormal returns relative to non-stealth mergers. Our results suggest more government scrutiny is warranted for stealth mergers.

IPO underwriters have an incentive to underprice an IPO when they allocate shares to their affiliated funds. We label this conflict of interest “supernepotism” and we analyze its effect on IPO pricing. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD) on a novel hand-collected data set, we find that higher allocations to underwriter-affiliated funds cause higher IPO underpricing. Our evidence suggests that supernepotism has monetary costs for issuers.

Using manually compiled cost of equity (COE) estimates disclosed in takeover regulatory filings, we provide novel evidence on how investment bankers estimate discount rates. COE estimates are related to several risk proxies, such as beta and size. Other firm characteristics are unrelated to COE estimates or provide relations contradicting academic evidence. We also explore the role of incentives. For example, banks use significantly higher COEs in management buyouts, which potentially underestimates target value, making the bid more attractive for target shareholder approval.

The growing popularity of home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb, partly fueled by hosts’ ability to evade local taxes and regulations, has been shown to elevate housing costs by reallocating long-term housing units to the short-term rental market. This study assesses whether enhanced tax enforcement can mitigate this trend. We analyze staggered tax collection agreements between Airbnb and Florida counties, wherein Airbnb collects taxes from the hosts directly. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find these agreements significantly slow the growth of housing costs, highlighting the importance of tax policy in addressing the sharing economy’s influence on housing affordability.