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Previous research has found that cognitive frame, mental models, and schema embody a dominant logic of firms that structure the behavioral routines of managers and can become a central force shaping a firm's decisions and actions. This exploratory study seeks to provide insight into an emerging dominant logic among recently established private-sector Chinese enterprises. Using multiple case studies of Chinese entrepreneurial firms, we identify convergence on a surprisingly similar dominant logic based on closely aligned concepts and accompanying behaviors: a defensive perspective of business environment; a conservative strategic decision-making process; and full involvement of owners and top managers in daily operations that substitute for development of elaborate routines and systems. Although a dominant logic may facilitate decision making and growth, it may also act as a perceptual blinder limiting opportunity search as firms seek to minimize risk in an uncertain environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

First formulated in the USA in the 1920s, the neighbourhood unit schema provides a model layout for an integral residential district. Over the past eight decades, the neighbourhood unit plan has traversed national boundaries and spread widely throughout the world. This article traces the multiple involvements of the schema and its variants in the process of modernization in China. Drawing upon Edward Said’s concept of ‘travelling theory’, the study reveals the complexities surrounding the appropriations, interpretations and reinventions of the neighbourhood schema in a constant flux of historical practices. The article shows that the domestication of the concept in China was a continual process of translating, selecting, combining and reinventing, instead of a direct borrowing of foreign ideas. It is concluded that the neighbourhood unit schema is far more than another sign of globalized repetition; instead, it is constantly tamed into different programmes of modernization in new times and places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]