Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, Volume 4, Issue 1

As the manuscript of 2012 Volume 4, Issue 1 went to Emerald for production in November 2011, JCE will soon enter its fourth year and will hence pass another milestone. Evidence from entrepreneurship research with regard to new venture creation and performance tends to suggest that only the fitter new ventures would survive and prevail in their first three years of existence while at least a third of new ventures would have failed and disappeared. As Editor of this journal, I am delighted to witness JCE, like a new business venture, to have demonstrated its value and legitimacy in a rather competitive environment of academic publication in the field of entrepreneurship over the last three years. The download figure of the journal has been very satisfactory and citations of articles published in the journal are on the consistent rise. All this would not have been possible without the great support received from our authors, readers, advisors, reviewers, and of course Emerald. Yet, I can take the pleasure to inform all our stakeholders that there is a lot more positive to come.

Over the last 12 months, JCE has been undergoing considerable changes on a few fronts on which a firmer foundation is laid to support its further development. First, through a global search, Professor Jian Gao at Tsinghua University, China, has been appointed as new Co-Editor. Professor Jian Gao is currently Assistant Dean of School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Deputy Director of Research Center for Technological Innovation, and Associate Director of National Entrepreneurship Research Center at Tsinghua University. He is a leading figure in Chinese entrepreneurship and innovation research in China. Since 2002 he has been the Coordinator of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Programme China Project. He will bring with him his unrivalled insights into Chinese entrepreneurship and innovation and vast connections to communities of entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners to the benefit of JCE.

Second, thanks to an excellent response to our international search for new members of both Editorial Advisory Board and Editorial Review Board, we were able to revamp and strengthen both boards by bringing on board those who are equipped with excellent knowledge and expertise of the field and are willing to commit time and effort to help take JCE forward. Third, since November 2011 JCE has moved to the ScholarOne manuscript system Emerald has developed to streamline the process of manuscript management. Fourth, the baton of publisher at Emerald has passed from Victoria Buttigieg and her assistant Cristina Irving to Matthew Burton and his assistant Jo Alexander. I like to take this opportunity to thank Victoria Buttigieg and Cristina Irving for their consistently strong support to all the changes that were proposed and implemented. Under the management of new publisher, JCE is now an integral part of Emerald’s portfolio of enterprise-focused journals and will benefit from both the publisher’s vast experience in managing the portfolio and opportunities of cross-marketing and promotion. Finally, in response to a growing interest from academian and practitioners alike in entrepreneurship and innovation in the emerging economies, we have decided that from 2012 onwards JCE will broaden its scope of dissemination of original research on entrepreneurship and practices from a China focus to the focus of China and other emerging economies. In 1999 we published a special issue on “entrepreneurship in developing countries”, and it struck a chord with the community of our readers. Submissions concerning entrepreneurship and innovation in the emerging economies have been increasing. The change of the journal’s scope was in part to respond to this trend of transition. We would like to make JCE a unique platform where exciting developments of entrepreneurship and innovation in China and other emerging economies are timely profiled, critical contextual factors influencing the developments are properly explored, and new ideas and theories to account for these developments are boldly advanced and debated.

As JCE evolves, I hope it will be established as an indispensable international academic journal specializing on perspectives on entrepreneurship and innovation from and about China and other emerging economies, appealing to:

• academics, researchers, teachers concerned with entrepreneurship;

• policy makers from both central and local governments whose objective it is to promote entrepreneurial activity;

• chief executives in industries and senior managers concerned with entrepreneurship; and

• entrepreneurs themselves who are engaged in entrepreneurial activity in China and other emerging economies.

The aim of JCE is to offer our readers critical insights you need into entrepreneurship developments taking place in this group of important economies in the world today.

Jun LiCo-Editor