How do Chinese companies view the next few months? The CKGSB Business Conditions Index registered 59.3 in April, falling slightly on March’s overall index of 59.7. This shows that for the survey’s sample firms, of which the majority are relatively successful in China, the next few months are being viewed with some optimism. The CKGSB Business Conditions Index comprises four sub-indices for corporate sales, corporate profits, corporate financing and inventory levels. Corporate sales fell slightly from 74.5 to 73.1, while the profit index rose from 58.9 in March to 61.5 in April. With the sales forecast falling and the profit rising, this shows that cost expectations are improving.

30 visiting students from Costa Rica’s INCAE Business School spent a week at CKGSB’s New York office, during an insightful “Specialization in Finance” program, which included lectures, panel discussions and visits to three New York companies – Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg and the New York branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China’s largest bank.

CKGSB Assistant Professor of Marketing Li Yang is quoted by both Bloomberg and Forbes discussing how China’s top search engine operator has been affected by a recent scandal.

CKGSB Economics Professor Li Wei, creator of the CKGSB Business Conditions Index (BCI), tells a Knowledge Series audience that China must accelerate its planned economic reforms to put manufacturing resources to better use as the nation’s debt and overcapacity problems worsen.

The Wall Street Journal’s sister company Dow Jones Newswires publishes a dedicated article on Prof Li Wei’s Business Conditions Index, a monthly survey that takes the pulse of some of China’s leading entrepreneurs and executives.

Everyone in the world is concerned about how the Chinese economy is faring and understandably so. China’s linkages with the world mean that the health of the Chinese economy has a bearing on other economies as well. The CKGSB Business Conditions Index, based on a survey conducted each month, gauges business sentiment about the macro-economic environment among successful Chinese business executives. In January, the Index showed that for most relatively successful firms in China, optimism about business conditions over the next six months is waning, and executives are at best cautiously optimistic.

Liu Ling, a managing director at New China Capital Management, the investment manager for Cathay Funds, told a CKGSB Knowledge Series event that China’s stock-market gyrations are the growing pains of a “healthy and solid” economy, highlighted by China’s middle class overtaking America’s to become the biggest in the world.

Sun Baohong, the Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing at CKGSB, and Carnegie Mellon University business and computer science professor R. Ravi outlined at a CKGSB Knowledge Series event a consumer-centric marketing framework that they said would bump up profit growth and return on investment significantly more than a campaign-centered strategy.

China's online sector is witnessing a series of frenzied M&As and partnerships between sworn rivals.

The CKGSB EMBA on China Business for Korean Leaders has successfully completed its first module in Beijing under the heading ‘China’s Macro Economy and Big Picture.’ All sessions and programs in the module received enthusiastic feedback from the students due to the extraordinary insight they had gained about China’s latest issues.

According to the CKGSB Business Conditions Index (BCI), businesses in China remain confident, but it remains unclear if they will continue to. In October 2015, the BCI posted a figure of 54.0, a mild rise over September’s 51.1 and slightly above the confidence threshold of 50. The BCI hit a 14-month high of 61.3 in May 2015 before sliding steadily, with readings from July to September hovering above 50, indicating that the sample firms became less optimistic about business conditions with regard to the following six months. Despite a moderate rally, it is unclear whether the momentum will hold and so companies need to remain cautiously optimistic.

Knowledge sharing between Chinese and US scholars in leading business and policy schools produces fascinating discussion as unique partnership continues to bear fruit.

The heady days of double-digit economic growth rates are now history in China, and even achieving 7-7.5% growth is unthinkable. The stock market has been on a roller coaster ride. The Renminbi has fallen dramatically and the trade numbers are down too. Li Wei, Professor of Economics at CKGSB, feels that to solve this China must implement structural reform. The downside: it will be painful. The upside: the Chinese economy will be better off in the long run.

While China’s slowing GDP growth has caused some to sound the alarm, CKGSB Economics Professor Li Wei instead told leading Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail that there were some positives to the slowdown, not least more affordable housing.

Everyone knows that China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are in dire need of reform. However, it seems the government wants to take its time through the reform process. The State Council's recently released guideline document on SOE reforms hasn’t set any deadlines or quantifiable targets. Rather it seems to stress upon the importance of not rushing through or forcing any immature reforms. There's a reason for that. Any attempt to speed up implementation of reforms at Chinese SOEs can have devastating consequences. We explain why.

An exciting panel of distinguished guests led by Professor of Economics Li Wei shared their thoughts on some of the most pressing issues currently facing China’s economy at an event at CKGSB’s Beijing campus.

Slow growth in the Chinese economy will put pressure on local governments’ ability to repay their debts.

CKGSB has hosted another successful visit to its Beijing campus from group of international students, this time from the prestigious Columbia Business School in New York City.

The CKGSB Business Conditions Index shows that companies are expecting the Chinese economy to encounter some difficulties in the coming six months. In July 2015, the CKGSB Business Conditions Index (BCI) registered 51.5, a drop on June’s index of 55.6, and now only just above the confidence threshold of 50 (Figure 1). In May 2015, […]

With the CKGSB Business Conditions Index (BCI) posting its highest reading for nearly a year, things are looking up for competitive companies in China, despite the potential impact that continuing macroeconomic risks might have on operations.