The Belt and Road Initiative: Opportunities and Challenges of a Chinese Economic Ambition

In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping launched what is now known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Since then, the initiative has instilled apprehension, enthusiasm and uncertainty around the globe in equal measure. The Belt and Road Initiative: Opportunities and Challenges of a Chinese Economic Ambition strives to reflect upon and synthesize the challenges and opportunities faced by China and indeed the rest of the world pertaining to the implementation of such an ambitious project. It covers perspectives from regions both in and around Asia, as well as from Europe, the United States and Africa. In addition to this, the initiative is discussed through the lens of various disciplines such as geo-politics, marketing, currency, finance, leadership, negotiation, security and the digital component of the Silk Road. The resulting compilation provides for a thoroughly extensive and pluralistic examination of the BRI, lending the reader a peek into what the world may anticipate from China and this project in the years to come. 

David De Cremer is the provost chair and professor in management and organization at NUS Business School. Before moving to NUS, he was the KPMG endowed professor of management studies at the University of Cambridge (where he is now a fellow). He is a research affiliate at Yale Law School, Yale University (USA), and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the founder of the LEAD platform (LEading Artificial intelligence & Digital management) and a scientific advisor to the companies Novartis (the Ethics-based Compliance Initiative), and KPMG (building trustworthy climates). He is a prolific author in the fields of management, behavioural economics and psychology and his research has received many international awards, including three early career awards and a mid-career award for his scientific contributions. In addition, he was elected as a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science, being named the most influential (behavioural) economist in the Netherlands (Top 40 of economists) and named one of the Top Thought Leaders in Trust by the organization Trust across America. He has consulted and taught many companies including, among others, KPMG, Barclays, Solvay, Novartis, HSBC, Mizuho, Microsoft, AB Inbev, and IBM. He is also a bestselling author, having sold over more than 1,000,000 copies of his latest book Huawei: Leadership, Culture and Connectivity (This book received the PwC best business book award in Russia). His work has been discussed in media such as, among others, the Bloomberg News, The Economist, Forbes, The Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Wall Street Journal, CBS Money Watch, The Times, The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, and BBC. He received his PhD from the University of Southampton, England, an MA from Cambridge University, and an MSc in social psychology, and BA in philosophy from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He was a (visiting) professor at New York University, Harvard University, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and London Business School (LBS) in the past.

Bruce McKern is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and a member of the UTS Business School Advisory Board. In his early career as a chemical engineer, he worked with Dupont, Union Carbide and General Electric before completing a doctorate at Harvard University. His previous academic appointments include Director of the Stanford Sloan Master’s Program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, Professor of International Business and Co-Director of the Centre on China Innovation at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, President of the Carnegie Bosch Institute and Professor of International Business at Carnegie Mellon University, Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and Dean of two Australian business schools. During 2015 and 2016, he was also a Visiting Research Fellow working on innovation at INSEAD, the University of Oxford Technology and Management Centre for Development, and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

His research and publications have been in the fields of international business and innovation, and he is an authority on innovation in China. His most recent book is China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation (with George Yip), MIT Press, 2016. In addition to his current research on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, he is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of China Innovation (forthcoming in 2019). He is also author of numerous academic papers, Harvard and Stanford case studies and nine books, including ‘China’s Innovative Nation’ in Disruptive Asia, Asia Society, 2017; ‘Innovation in Emerging Markets: The Case of China’ (with George Yip) in International Journal of Emerging Markets, 2014; and Managing the Global Network Corporation (2003). He is also an Editorial Board Member of Management International Review, Member of the International Advisory Committee of the Research Centre for Technological Innovation at Tsinghua University, Beijing; Adviser to the Maritime Silk Road Society in Hong Kong; and a Mentor for the CSIRO ON Prime Accelerator. Previously he was a Member of the US-Korea Business Council in Washington DC, the MIT Enterprise Forum in Pittsburgh, a Board Member of the Harmarville Rehabilitation Center and a Founding Member of the Global Trade Institute of Pennsylvania. He also comments in international media on issues of MNC strategy and China innovation, including The Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, China Radio International, China Daily, South China Morning Post, The Conversation, Australian Financial Review, RTS Switzerland; CGTV Washington DC, etc.

Jack McGuire is a Doctoral Student at the National University of Singapore Business School in the Department of Management and Organisation. Prior to this, he held the position of Experimental Lab Manager of the Cambridge Experimental and Behavioural Economics Group (CEBEG) and Research Assistant in the Department of Organisational Behaviour at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He has obtained an MA (SocSci) from the University of Glasgow, an MSc from University College London, and has also held research positions in the University of Tubingen and the University of Hong Kong. In addition to his time spent in academia, he has also worked in consultancy specializing in behavioural economics.