1 Jason Dean, “Bezos Says Amazon Will Boost Investment in China,” Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2007, https://
2 Karen Weise, “Amazon Gives Up on Chinese Domestic Shopping Business,” New York Times, April 18, 2019, https://
3 Noah Smith, “Who Has the World’s No. 1 Economy? Not the U.S.,” Bloomberg, October 18, 2017, https://
4 Wikipedia, s.v. “List of Countries by GDP (PPP),” last modified June 15, 2020, https://
1 Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan, “Know Your Customers’ ‘Jobs to Be Done,’ ” Harvard Business Review, September 2016, https://
2 China’s Five Year Plan and other government resources.
3 Karl T. Ulrich, “Alpha Assets and Sustained Competitive Advantage” (working paper, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2020).
4 Harris Collingwood, “Do CEOs Matter?,” The Atlantic, June 2009, https://
1 Newley Purnell, “Jeff Bezos Invests Billions to Make Amazon a Top E-Commerce Player in India,” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2016, https://
2 Greg Bensinger, “Amazon Plans $3 Billion India Investment,” Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2016, https://
3 Liza Lin, “Why Amazon Isn’t Ready for Prime Time in China,” Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2017, https://
4 China Internet Network Information Center, “Statistical Report on Internet Development in China” [in Chinese], July 20, 2004, http://
5 iResearch, “China B2C Ecommerce Research Report 2005,” May 12, 2006, http://
6 “China’s Amazon,” The Economist, August 21, 2003, https://
7 Gang Yu, interview by the authors, March 8, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Yu are from the same interview.
8 Matt Hines, “Amazon Buys Into Chinese Market,” CNET, August 19, 2004, https://
9 Hines, “Amazon Buys Into Chinese Market.”
10 Zhongshan Jia, “Taobao Transaction Broke 16.9 Billion Yuan” [in Chinese], Beijing Evening News, January 18, 2007, http://
11 Former Amazon executive, interview by the authors, March 26, 2019. All subsequent quotes from the executive are from the same interview.
12 Former Amazon senior manager, interview by the authors, March 21, 2019. All subsequent quotes from the manager are from the same interview.
13 Shaoqing He, “Guoqing Li: Richard Liu Got $2 Billion to Burn” [in Chinese], Sohu.com, October 15, 2015, https://
14 Melanie Lee, “Interview—Amazon Aims for Top Three in China Market,” Reuters, May 10, 2012, https://
15 Vivienne Walt, “Amazon Invades India,” Fortune, December 28, 2015, https://
16 Yuntao Huang, “The Path to Profitability of Amazon China: A Marathon, Not a Sprint” [in Chinese], Reuters, May 17, 2012, https://
17 Long Wong, interview by the authors, March 21, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Wong are from the same interview.
18 Liza Lin and Laura Stevens, “Why Amazon Isn’t Ready for Prime Time in China,” Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2017, https://
19 Yu Sun, “Amazon China: ‘Everyday Low Price’ e-tailer Doesn’t Know How to Play Gimmicks” [in Chinese], Talents Magazine, March 12, 2013, http://
20 Kana Inagaki, “Amazon’s Scale in Japan Challenges Rivals and Regulators,” Financial Times, June 25, 2018, https://
21 Lifen Wang, “How Richard Liu Thinks of His Competitors” [in Chinese], Youmi, 2011, YouTube video, 19:05, https://
1 Carol Zhao, interview by the authors, September 28, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Zhao are from the same interview.
2 Monty Mathisen, “Del Rio: China Operation Is Profitable,” Cruise Industry News, February 23, 2018, https://
3 Arnie Weissmann and Susan Li, “NCL’s Frank Del Rio Talks China, Roast Chickens and Cardiac Surgeons,” Travel Weekly Asia, March 30, 2016, https://
4 Jason Leppert, “Royal Caribbean International Takes Delivery of New Quantum of the Seas,” Popular Cruising, October 30, 2014, https://
5 Cheddar, “CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Shares Secrets to Crack Chinese Market,” Twitter, January 12, 2018, https://
6 Jacintha Stephens, “Norwegian Joy Calls at Singapore en-route to China,” Seatrade Cruise News, May 22, 2017, https://
7 Cruise Line International Association, Asia Cruise Trends 2017 Edition, July 2017, https://
8 Weihang Zheng, interview by the authors, October 30, 2019.
9 Alex Xiang, interview by the authors, September 22, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Xiang are from the same interview.
10 Laine Higgins, “How Norwegian Cruise’s Chief Navigates the Sea-Suite,” Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2019, https://
11 Frank Del Rio, “Out of Cuba, with a Suitcase,” New York Times, June 11, 2011, https://
12 Jing Lin, interview by the authors, October 12, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Lin are from the same interview.
13 Hannah Walhout, “Goodbye Tea Room, Hello Brew Pub—How to Move a Cruise Ship from China to the Americas,” Travel+ Leisure, June 10, 2019, https://
1 Hyuk Joon Lee, interview by the authors, August 29, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Lee are from the same interview.
2 Rose Yu, “Chinese Cars Fall Farther Behind,” Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2015, https://
3 Ning Zhu, interview by the authors, August 30, 2019.
4 Dongshu Cui, interview by the authors, September 22, 2019.
5 China Central Television, “ShuFu Li: Turning the Impossible into a Miracle” [in Chinese], April 8, 2019, YouTube video, 42:40, https://
6 Volvo Global Newsroom, “Volvo Cars Goes from Strength to Strength as First V90 Rolls Off Production Line,” June 22, 2016, https://
7 China Central Television, “ShuFu Li: Turning the Impossible into a Miracle.”
8 Robert Bao, interview by the authors, November 11, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Bao are from the same interview.
9 China Central Television, “ShuFu Li: Turning the Impossible into a Miracle.”
10 Dengfeng He, “Hyundai Speed Accelerates Beijing’s Economical Growth” [in Chinese], Beijing Youth Daily, October 20, 2003, http://
11 Shuyuan Zhou, “Hainachuan Fights Against Mobis” [in Chinese], China Business Journal, March 27, 2010, http://
12 Xiaodong Zhang, “Beijing Hyundai: Low Profit and Weak Brand” [in Chinese], Economic Observer, December 27, 2008, http://
13 William Xu, interview by the authors, November 10, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Xu are from the same interview.
14 Gang Cong, “Hexi Xu Aims to Break Mobis Monopoly” [in Chinese], 21 Century Business Herald, July 23, 2007, http://
15 Weigang Chen, interview by the authors, November 15, 2019.
16 Yoko Kubota and Kentaro Sugiyama, “China’s Demand for Japanese Cars Has Collapsed,” Reuters, October 8, 2012, https://
17 Jonathan Soble, “Toyota and Honda Post Record China Sales,” Financial Times, January 7, 2014, https://
1 Derek Shen, “Chitu Went Offline—What’s the Future for China’s Professional Networking,” WeChat official account, June 26, 2019.
2 LinkedIn executive, interview by the author, December 13, 2019. All subsequent quotes from the executive are from the same interview.
3 In the Loop, “Jeff Weiner: LinkedIn’s Expansion into China Is Key,” Bloomberg TV, October 10, 2014, https://
4 In the Loop, “Jeff Weiner.”
5 Linus Chung, interview by the author, January 30, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Chung are from the same interview.
6 Mark Feng, interview by the author, December 12, 2018.
7 Derek Shen, “The Backstory of LinkedIn’s Offline Ads” [in Chinese], jiemian.com, June 12, 2015, https://
8 Robin Zhang, interview by the author, November 30, 2018. All subsequent quotes from Zhang are from the same interview.
9 Yanan Liu, “Derek Shen: How I Built a Startup within LinkedIn” [in Chinese], Tencent News, July 8, 2015, https://
10 Shuting Zhong and Junjie Huang, “Why LinkedIn Isn’t Enough and How Chitu Comes to Life” [in Chinese], qdaily.com, July 27, 2015, http://
11 Zongshen Cai, “Derek Shen: LinkedIn’s Advantage Lies in Its 400 Million Users” [in Chinese], the Paper, June 15, 2016, https://
12 Neil Shen, interview by the authors, June 21, 2019.
13 Paul Mozur and Carolyn Zhang, “In China, Silicon Valley Giants Confront New Walls,” New York Times, July 22, 2017, https://
14 Derek Shen, “So Long, LinkedIn” [in Chinese], LinkedIn, June 23, 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/再见领英-derek-shen/.
1 Doug Leone, interview by the author, June 21, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Leone are from the same interview.
2 Neil Shen, interview by the author, June 21, 2019. All subsequent quotes from Shen are from the same interview.
3 Charlie Cambell, “Lei Jun Wants to Be China’s Answer to Steve Jobs. But Trump’s Trade War Is Getting in His Way,” Time, July 12, 2018, https://
4 Julia Fioretti and Donny Kwok, “Tencent-Backed Meituan Climbs 5 Percent on Debut, Brightens Outlook for HK IPOs,” Reuters, September 19, 2018, https://
5 Xiaopeng He, “Predict the Future” [in Chinese] (speech at Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum, Hong Kong, June 15, 2019), https://
6 Xing Wang, “My Ten Years with Sequoia” [in Chinese] (speech at Sequoia China 10-year anniversary ceremony, October 17, 2015), http://
7 Udayan Gupta, Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Stories (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000).
8 Udayan Gupta, Done Deals.
9 Xing Wang, “My Ten Years with Sequoia.”
10 Tao Zhang, interview by the authors, June 30, 2019.
11 Xing Liu, interview by the authors, June 25, 2020.
12 Xing Liu, interview by authors, March 11, 2019.
1 Jessie Yang, interview by the authors, November 23, 2019. All subsequent quotes are from the same interview.
2 Naveen Tewari, interview by the authors, November 8, 2019. All subsequent quotes are from the same interview.
3 Xiyuan Zhang, “China’s Mobile Phone Users Broke 900 Million” [in Chinese], People.com.cn, May 25, 2011, http://
4 Kevin Wang, interview by the authors, November 26, 2019. All subsequent quotes are from the same interview.
5 Yangwu Huiying, “Making Ads No Longer Annoying” [in Chinese], YiMagazine, September 2, 2015, https://
1 Bin Xia and Cheng Xu, “Ian Yang: Wining the Future with China” [in Chinese], China News Service, September 24, 2019, https://
2 Don Clark, “Intel’s Culture Needed Fixing. Its C.E.O. Is Shaking Things Up,” New York Times, March 1, 2020, https://
3 Dean Takahashi, “AST Will Build $16-Million PC Plant in China,” Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1993, https://
4 National Bureau of Statistics of China, “Opening Up” [in Chinese], September 11, 2009, http://
5 Wee Theng Tan, Embedded: Intel in China: The Inside Story (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2010).
6 Wee Theng Tan, interview by the authors, March 12, 2019. All subsequent quotes are from the same interview.
7 Zhijun Ling, The Lenovo Affair (Beijing: CITIC Press Group, 2005).
8 Zhichao Dong Shicheng and Nong Xiang, “Why Has Intel Been Paranoid” [in Chinese], IT Times Weekly, October 24, 2005, http://
9 Wee Theng Tan, Embedded.
10 Wangli Moser, interview by the authors, March 16, 2019.
11 Cheng Chen, “Honglin Ge: IT Industry in Chengdu Dates Back to 1950s” [in Chinese], 21st Century Business Herald, January 19, 2012, http://
12 Noel Randewich and Matthew Miller, “Qualcomm to Pay $975 Million to Resolve China Antitrust Dispute,” Reuters, February 10, 2015, https://
13 Wee Theng Tan, Embedded; “China Becomes Biggest PC Market in 2012—IHS report,” BBC, April 29, 2013, https://
14 Intel annual report 2017 and 2018.
15 Gordon Orr and Christopher Thomas, “Semiconductors in China: Brave New World or Same Old Story?,” Mckinsey.com, August 1, 2014, https://
16 Yimou Lee, “China Lures Chip Talent from Taiwan with Fat Salaries, Perks,” Reuters, September 4, 2018, https://
17 R&D leader at Intel, interview by the authors, May 25, 2019. All subsequent quotes are from the same interview.
18 Stacey Higginbotham, “Secrets of Intel’s ‘Super 7’ Cloud Computing Customers,” Fortune, November 15, 2015, https://
1 Peter Marino, “Gildo Zegna,” Interview Magazine, April 27, 2010, https://
2 Georgina Safe, “Zegna Keeps It in the Family to Expand Its Retail Empire,” Sydney Morning Herald, September 22, 2011, https://
3 Safe, “Zegna Keeps It in the Family.”
4 Radha Chadha and Paul Husband, Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love Affair with Luxury (Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2010).
5 Annie Hou, interview by the authors, April 22, 2020. All subsequent quotes from Hou are from the same interview.
6 Wenbin Wu, interview by the authors, May 10, 2020.
7 Thomas Gorman, “Building Strong Family Business: Interview with Zegna CEO Gildo Zegna” [in Chinese], Fortune (China), November 16, 2009, http://
8 Inge Hufschlag Handelsblatt, “Italian Designer Zegna Seeks to Suit Men at Home, Office,” Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2000, https://
9 Former boutique manager, interview by the authors, April 17, 2020.
10 Chen Qin, “Beyond the Brand” [in Chinese], Fortune (China), October 15, 2011, http://
11 Chen Qin, “Beyond the Brand.”
12 Sally Stiegler, interview by the authors, May 22, 2020.
13 Former executive, interview by the authors, April 27, 2020. All subsequent quotes from the executive are from the same interview.
14 Laurie Burkitt, “Fashion House Zegna Battles Rivals for China’s Affluent,” Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2011, https://
15 Bain & Company, 2011 China Luxury Market Study, December 2011, https://
16 Chris Buckley, “China’s Leader Wears Many Hats, but Only One Jacket,” New York Times, May 25, 2016, https://
17 Buckley, “China’s Leader Wears Many Hats.”
18 Bain & Company, 2017 China Luxury Market Study, January 2018, http://
19 Ogilvy China, “Making Luxury Brands Matter,” April 2019, https://
20 Ben Bland, “Zegna Tailors Strategy for Changing Chinese Market,” Financial Times, October 8, 2015, https://
21 Zhizhong Du, interview by the author, April 22, 2020.
22 Elizabeth Segran, “How a Century-Old Luxury Brand Like Gucci Won Over Gen Z,” Fast Company, July 10, 2019, https://
23 Lucy Handley, “Instagram Could Be a Crucial Stock-Picking Tool When Investing in Luxury Firms,” CNBC, October 19, 2018, https://
24 McKinsey & Company, China Luxury Report 2019, April 2019, https://
25 Michelle Toh, “Chinese Shoppers Are Giving Luxury Brands Some Hope,” CNN, June 11, 2020, https://
26 Tianwei Zhang, “Hermès Hauled in $2.7 Million in One China Store on Saturday: Sources,” WWD, April 13, 2020, https://
1 Theodore Levitt, “Marketing Myopia,” Harvard Business Review 38, no. 4 (1960): 45–56.
2 Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich, Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009).
3 Terwiesch and Ulrich, Innovation Tournaments.
4 Bain & Company, “RAPID®: Bain’s Tool to Clarify Decision Accountability,” August 11, 2011, https://
5 David Robertson and Karl Ulrich, “Planning for Product Platforms,” Sloan Management Review 39, no. 4 (1998): 19–31.
1 Yoko Kubota, “China Chases Foreign Capital to Fend Off Coronavirus Slowdown,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2020, https://
2 Wikipedia, s.v. “May You Live in Interesting Times,” last modified on June 3, 2020, https://