Murmann, Johann Peter The Rise of China and the Specter of a Superpower War: Avoiding the Curse of History at the Grassroots Journal Article In: Management and Organization Review, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 946–957, 2024. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: China, Innovation, Superpower Conflict2024
@article{Murmann_2024,
title = {The Rise of China and the Specter of a Superpower War: Avoiding the Curse of History at the Grassroots},
author = {Johann Peter Murmann},
doi = {10.1017/mor.2024.51},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-01-01},
urldate = {2024-01-01},
journal = {Management and Organization Review},
volume = {20},
number = {6},
pages = {946–957},
abstract = {Johann Peter Murmann’s “The Rise of China and the Specter of a Superpower War: Avoiding the Curse of History at the Grassroots” (2024) is both a scholarly reflection on China’s extraordinary economic ascent and a call for academic and civic engagement to prevent a new superpower conflict.
Murmann begins by tracing his decades-long research into innovation and industrial evolution, starting from the 19th-century synthetic dye industry. His early work on Germany’s leadership in dyes evolved into studying China’s dominance in that field after 1995. He attributes China’s success to regional policy variations, entrepreneurial dynamism, and local institutional flexibility—factors often underestimated in Western analyses.
As deputy editor of Management and Organization Review (MOR), Murmann focused on China’s transition from imitation to innovation. He co-edited China’s Innovation Challenge (2016), which debated whether China could avoid the “middle-income trap.” While Justin Lin predicted continued growth without systemic reform, Gordon Redding argued that reaching U.S. income levels required decentralization. Murmann’s empirical studies later confirmed China’s increasing innovation capacity between 2015–2020, though challenges remain in private-sector autonomy and academic freedom.
Examining sectors like digital technology, electric vehicles, and telecommunications, Murmann highlights how Chinese firms such as Huawei, Tencent, BYD, and NIO leveraged intense domestic competition, government support, and large-scale market experimentation to innovate globally. Yet this industrial rise parallels growing geopolitical tension with the United States. Drawing historical analogies to pre–World War I Germany and Britain, Murmann warns that structural rivalry could lead to catastrophic conflict—what Graham Allison terms “Thucydides’s Trap.”
Murmann concludes by urging educators, especially management scholars, to foster grassroots understanding between China and the West. Echoing Immanuel Kant and Chinese philosopher Kang Youwei, he envisions a “great community” of peaceful coexistence. He calls for intellectual exchange, humility, and dialogue to “bend the arc of history” away from war and toward mutual prosperity and perpetual peace.},
keywords = {China, Innovation, Superpower Conflict},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Murmann begins by tracing his decades-long research into innovation and industrial evolution, starting from the 19th-century synthetic dye industry. His early work on Germany’s leadership in dyes evolved into studying China’s dominance in that field after 1995. He attributes China’s success to regional policy variations, entrepreneurial dynamism, and local institutional flexibility—factors often underestimated in Western analyses.
As deputy editor of Management and Organization Review (MOR), Murmann focused on China’s transition from imitation to innovation. He co-edited China’s Innovation Challenge (2016), which debated whether China could avoid the “middle-income trap.” While Justin Lin predicted continued growth without systemic reform, Gordon Redding argued that reaching U.S. income levels required decentralization. Murmann’s empirical studies later confirmed China’s increasing innovation capacity between 2015–2020, though challenges remain in private-sector autonomy and academic freedom.
Examining sectors like digital technology, electric vehicles, and telecommunications, Murmann highlights how Chinese firms such as Huawei, Tencent, BYD, and NIO leveraged intense domestic competition, government support, and large-scale market experimentation to innovate globally. Yet this industrial rise parallels growing geopolitical tension with the United States. Drawing historical analogies to pre–World War I Germany and Britain, Murmann warns that structural rivalry could lead to catastrophic conflict—what Graham Allison terms “Thucydides’s Trap.”
Murmann concludes by urging educators, especially management scholars, to foster grassroots understanding between China and the West. Echoing Immanuel Kant and Chinese philosopher Kang Youwei, he envisions a “great community” of peaceful coexistence. He calls for intellectual exchange, humility, and dialogue to “bend the arc of history” away from war and toward mutual prosperity and perpetual peace.
My Publications
The Rise of China and the Specter of a Superpower War: Avoiding the Curse of History at the Grassroots Journal Article In: Management and Organization Review, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 946–957, 2024.2024