It is with great enthusiasm that I announce the publication of the special issue Advancing Temporal Research in Chinese Management. This collection is both timely and important, offering fresh theoretical insights into how China has achieved rapid economic transformation over the past four decades while simultaneously sustaining its enduring cultural traditions.

The guest editors – Pengxiang Zhang, Weiguo Zhong, Sali Li, Lin Jiang, and Christina M. Chan – have done an exceptional job curating and shaping this issue, which features eight exemplary articles. They also introduce a novel 3C framework – compressing, cyclic, and continuing – to articulate a distinct and understudied Chinese temporal lens. By applying this framework to integrate insights across the accepted papers, the editors illuminate how temporal dynamics influence organizational identity formation, entrepreneurial reentry, innovation processes, ESG strategies, and performance persistence.

I trust that readers will find the contributions in this special issue rich with groundbreaking ideas that not only deepen the two dominant streams of temporal research – activity mapping and actors’ temporal orientations – but also extend their global relevance through the incorporation of culturally embedded perspectives. In doing so, this special issue advances comparative temporal scholarship and positions time as a central analytical construct for understanding Chinese management and its broader implications.