There is a large literature on public-private-partnership, covering many different areas and aspects. This article deals with a specific but important aspect: the decision-making mechanisms to choose the management of PPP enterprises. In this sector, a suitable choice of managers is of particular importance because the persons chosen must balance the public and private interests. This is often difficult to achieve. Two new procedures are discussed, “Directed Random Choice” and “Rotating CEOs”. In each case, the advantages and disadvantages of the procedure of choosing the managers of PPP enterprises are discussed and evaluated. It is concluded that the two novel mechanisms should be seriously considered when choosing the managers of PPP enterprises.

The rapid digitalisation of business processes and the widespread adoption of remote work since the COVID‑19 pandemic have forced private enterprises to re‑examine the role of human resource management (HRM). Drawing on the resource‑based view, this study investigates how digital HR strategies—covering recruitment & selection, training & development, performance management and digital employee services—affect employee engagement and firm performance in a context where a significant portion of the workforce operates remotely. Using survey data from 150 employees and managers in 50 privately owned firms in Chongqing, China, supplemented by semi‑structured interviews with HR leaders, we develop a digital HR adoption index and test its impact on remote work effectiveness and organisational performance. The results show that higher levels of digital HR adoption positively influence employee engagement, reduce perceptions of relative deprivation and cyberloafing, and enhance remote work effectiveness. Regression analysis further indicates that remote work effectiveness mediates the relationship between digital HR adoption and organisational performance. Qualitative insights highlight the importance of leadership support, training and the integration of platforms such as WeChat Work, DingTalk and Tencent Meeting for managing remote teams. Our findings offer evidence‑based recommendations for private enterprises in emerging economies to align digital HR strategies with remote working arrangements, support employee well‑being and sustain performance.

Effective small and medium enterprise (SME) leadership demands creative solutions to ensure organisations survive and thrive during the turbulent times that COVID-19 continues to bring. This paper explores how SME leaders (in micro and small organisations) prioritise and access the skills and development needed to provide effective and sustainable leadership to organisations, focusing on the role of resilience and the benefits it provides. Participants were selected through purposive and snowballing sampling. Online surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted and provided qualitative data that contributes to an understanding of the role of resilience and the view of participants as to what is needed to effectively respond to a dynamic environment. Evidence shows that SME leaders prioritise learning and development opportunities that provide demonstrable benefits throughout the organisation. Building business resilience remains a fuzzy concept; however, viewing resilience as a multi-level construct offers benefits when designing and delivering development opportunities. It has been found that networking, partnerships, and relationship building promote resilience and may offer a solution to how to embed resilience building into development opportunities that SME leaders value and wish to engage with. This article contributes by illustrating and exploring leadership development within SMEs during a period of unexpected and untested uncertainty. The pandemic caused major shock waves within business communities, and SMEs were significantly affected. The research is limited in that it is expected to be a once-in-a lifetime event, and as such conditions may not be replicable, learning opportunities for other ‘shock’ events are possible. The findings of this paper have relevance to practice in that, while the event may be one-off, shocks to the business environment are not.

High-quality implementation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (cross-border M&As) is an important pathway for emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) to enhance their international competitiveness. However, in comparison to developed countries, cross-border M&As by EMNEs are often prohibited by the liability of origin caused by negative political coverage. How and why negative political coverage affect the completion of cross-border M&As by EMNEs? What are the contextual constraints that moderate the impact of negative political coverage on cross-border M&As completion? Based on the “liability of origin” theory, this paper addresses these questions using data from the Zephyr database on cross-border M&As by EMNEs in the United States from 2016 to June 2021 and employing a logit model for estimation. The research findings are as follows: (1) Negative political coverage leads to negative perceptions of emerging market countries by host country stakeholders, creating the liability of origin and stigmatizing the corporate nationality, thereby reducing the success rate of cross-border M&As by EMNEs. (2) Increasing geographical distance leads to information asymmetry, reinforcing the negative impact of negative political coverage on the completion of cross-border M&As by EMNEs. (3) Relevant mergers and acquisitions exacerbate the negative effect of negative political coverage on the success rate of cross-border M&As by EMNEs. (4) Being a publicly traded firm and having successful experience in cross-border M&As both intensify the negative impact of negative political coverage on the success rate of cross-border M&As by EMNEs.

In modern conditions of instability and changes in the factors of the environment of the functioning of many business structures, the construction of their management systems is becoming more complicated; the issue of the conceptual principles of enterprise management is becoming especially important. The conducted research is aimed at substantiating the conceptual principles of enterprise management, defining tasks, and developing recommendations for increasing the efficiency of business processes, strengthening economic potential, and ensuring adaptation to modern challenges. It was determined that under the enterprise management system, it is advisable to consider the methods of influence and interaction between the subject and the object of management, which is based on compliance with principles, using methods, and performing functions in order to achieve the set goals and fulfill the tasks of the enterprise’s activities. The authors proposed a structure of procedural support for building an enterprise management system, which includes. The study developed a system of principles for building organizational structures for managing the activities of enterprises. The main principles of organizing the process of managing a production enterprise include achieving economic efficiency, personal material interest, single leadership, self-management, proportionality, and systematicity. The main recommendations for improving the efficiency of business processes and ensuring adaptation to modern challenges include: the use of digital platforms for promoting the corporate mission, vision and values; the creation of interactive employee training programs; the use of analytical tools for collecting and analyzing data; forecasting market trends and modeling development scenarios; the implementation of systems for integrating key enterprise functions; the use of specialized platforms for risk assessment; building a culture of innovation; methodological support for monitoring the results of the implementation of digital tools; the integration of environmental and social initiatives into all levels of management.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of China’s pharmaceutical industry, this study investigates how pharmaceutical enterprises can achieve profitable sales innovation amid the process of digital transformation. Grounded in the Affordance theory, it posits that the positive impact of digital transformation on sales innovation is driven by the affordance afforded by digital technology and ubiquity. The research focuses on A-share pharmaceutical companies in China, utilizing data from 2012 to 2022 and employing multiple regression analysis to examine the influence of digital transformation on corporate sales innovation. The results demonstrate a significant positive effect of digital transformation on sales innovation. The study further categorizes digital transformation into technological affordance and ubiquity affordance, separately validating their roles in promoting sales innovation. Moreover, by considering synergistic effects, the research unveils the intricate relationship between digital transformation and corporate innovation performance. The findings provide a fresh perspective on understanding how digital technology propels sales innovation and offer concrete guidance for the digital transformation practices in the pharmaceutical industry.