The “chosen” business practices: how narratives of Jewish practices construct advantages of foreignness in China

Keywords: Advantages of Foreignness, Narratives, China, Israel

Abstract: We examine how domestic narratives construct positive, norm-deviant stereotypes of foreign managerial practices and its impact on perceived advantages of foreignness, using qualitative and quantitative studies of Chinese perceptions of Jewish/Israeli managerial practices as empirical support. In Study 1, we qualitatively examined perceptions of Jewish practices in Chinese books, social media and workshops, revealing that Jewish practices were perceived as positive and counter to Chinese norms (e.g., guanxi). In Study 2, we used a quantitative survey to confirm that the perceptions of Jewish practices as positive and norm-deviant were widely shared but Chinese had conflicting perceptions of their own business practices. In Study 3, the experimental results found that Chinese were more inclined to invest in firms with practices stereotyped as Jewish, but only for firms with Jewish founders or Chinese founders with Jewish cultural exposure. Implications for research on advantages of foreignness for foreign and domestic firms is discussed.