Optimism for Chinese firms over the next six months still holds, but the corporate financing environment is getting difficult and the corporate inventory is increasing, according to the CKGSB Business Conditions Index, which registered 61.5 in February, a slight increase on January’s mark of 59.8. For CKGSBʼs sample of successful businesses operating in China, corporate sales index fell slightly from 82.7 to 80.5, while profits rose from 67.0 to 72.2, both are well above the confidence threshold of 50. Yet the other two sub-indices—corporate financing and in inventory—are below 50.

CKGSB Professor of Economics Li Wei talks to the Financial Times about the growing trend of listed Chinese companies from the auto, industrial, chemical and manufacturing sectors switching tack and investing in entertainment, pharma and gaming – often through overseas takeovers – in a bid to capitalize on changing newly-surging sectors and turn around failing business models.

Baidu, China’s largest internet search engine, is having a hard time after a college student named Wei Zexi died after mistaking an advertisement on Baidu for an experimental cancer treatment for medically reliable information. Baidu was then accused of being “unethical”, failing to clearly delineate paid advertisements from search results. Months later, the Nasdaq listed company reported its worst quarterly earnings. With the increased competition from domestic players like Tencent and Alibaba and the downward pressure on online advertising, which contributes to over 90% of Baidu’s revenue, it is crucial for Baidu to diversify its business.

Over the past 25 years, China has become the world’s preeminent manufacturer, churning out everything from running shoes to Apple products. Powering that ascent was heavy foreign direct investment combined with a seemingly inexhaustible pool of cheap labor. But now, as the Chinese economy slows, wages rise and the workforce atrophies, the decades-long manufacturing boom may be ending. To help deliver China from industrial decline, the Chinese leadership is betting on automation. However for Beijing to become the world's robotic leader, there is an even more complex issue behind updating robotic technology: how to handle the displacement of large numbers of Chinese workers?

CKGSB cements its reputation as a thought leader on China business and economic issues, as three professors are joined by leading industry figures to debate the challenges and opportunities that lie in store for 2017 and beyond.

Four young Chinese entrepreneurs working at, or running, web-based start-ups based in the US pitched their companies to a panel of judges at a recent Knowledge Series event at the school’s New York offices in Manhattan.

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. BCI registered 54.5 in August, slightly less than July’s 56.3. Corporate sales and inventory levels rose slightly.

CKGSB Professor of Economics Li Wei is featured in a China Daily article that looks at how China’s manufacturing sector is adapting to new global realities, as the country advocates scientific and technology-oriented new enterprises to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Employment figures and commodities prices in the US and the Bank of Japan’s recent rate decision are among the topics discussed by CKGSB Professor of Economics Li Wei during an in-depth studio discussion with CCTV’s ‘Global Business’ anchor Tracey Chang.

CKGSB Professor of Economics Li Wei completed a full media tour of London to introduce his Business Conditions Index (BCI) to a European audience, before discussing the prospects for China’s economy and its impact on global businesses to a packed crowd at London’s iconic Ritz Hotel.

Having delayed serious structural reforms, China faces eye-watering overcapacity in heavy industries. Steel production volume is more than double that of the next four leading producers combined: Japan, India, the United States and Russia. Aluminum production capacity reached 40 million tons last year, exceeding global consumption by 9 million tons. Most remarkably, between 2011 and 2013 China produced more cement than the US did during the entire 20th century—6.6 gigatons, compared to the US’s 4.5. What can China possibly do about this excess capacity that is weighing on the balance sheets of debt-ridden firms reeling from China’s economic slowdown?

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.