It is unusual for any speech to maintain strong influence over the general strategies of an organization and the behavior of its employees over time. ‘Haier Is a Sea’, presented by Zhang Ruimin, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Haier, more than twenty years ago, is an exception. This commentary identifies the core features of sea as a metaphor, explores the philosophical roots of this metaphor, and discusses the implications.

Two articles published in MOR recently have been about Chinese innovation (i.e., Augier, Guo, & Rowen, 2016; Luo & Child, 2015). The first paper argues that Chinese innovations are different from Western innovations because they have greater emphasis on imitating existing technologies. It raises a question about ‘how China's history, culture, institutions, and organizations aid or hinder innovation’. However, the second paper argues that enterprises in emerging economies in general, and Chinese enterprises in particular, benefit from a unique compositional capability (composition-based view [CBV]) with a focus on the competitive advantages gained from innovations created by combining existing resources in novel ways. These two papers seem to engage in a debate over whether and how Chinese firms are capable of innovation.

As he gazed on the sea, Confucius sighed: ‘The passage of time is like the flow of water, which goes on day and night’. In later generations, the image of ‘water’ was found everywhere in Chinese literature, and most works used the metaphor first expressed by Confucius (Xing & Liu, 2015). However, Lao Zi's understanding differed from Confucius's, as he was more concerned with the virtues of water than its image. He believed that ‘the highest virtue is like that of water. Water benefits everything in the world without contending’.

This Management and Organization Review (MOR) special issue on ‘Coopetition and Innovation in Transforming Economies’ aims to explore key features of the strategic relationship between coopetition and innovation in transforming economies. It is generally accepted that innovation can be a fundamental driver for economic growth, new sources of employment, and dwindling economic disparity. However, increasingly activities of innovation no longer take place primarily within the firm but are often the outcome of the overall set of relationships of the firm. The two phenomena of competition and cooperation have become more and more inter-related, thus creating new opportunities, affecting innovation and change. This reality is of special interest in the context of transforming economies’ transition to higher value adding economic growth and development due to, for example, the specific moderating or mediating role of national cultures and philosophical inspiration (e.g., Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) in shaping the coopetitive mindset (Dagnino, Di Guardo, & Padula, 2012) and the potential differentiation between countries and regional ecologies.

In his letter, Zhang Ruimin symbolized Haier as a sea to signify the firm's openness and boundlessness. Using the metaphor of ‘Haier Is a Sea’, Zhang illustrated a number of cohesive, collaborative relationships between Haier employees and nature and the environment as well as the importance of an evolving corporate culture in a rapidly changing world. This letter was addressed to Haier employees, but it was also framed as a ‘communiqué to the public’ to explain who Haier was and what the company represented. This letter has been, and will likely continue to be, a model for inspiring Haier employees to believe that anything is possible.

In the movement of Chinese indigenous management research, a sort of ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ (as critiqued by Peng, 2005: 133) seems to have been emerging, namely, some Chinese scholars see Chinese culture, philosophy, and way of thinking are unique and cannot be accounted for by some of the established, often West-based, theories.

We are excited to announce the third conference of the Management Organization Review (MOR) Second Research Frontiers Conference Series. Whereas the first two conferences focused on China and India, the Rotterdam conference shifts focus to Russia, Ex-Soviet Republics, and Eastern Europe. This interdisciplinary Research Frontiers Conference serves as a key MOR exploration dialectic for advancing and opening new research directions of phenomena in the social sciences underlying management and organizations, globalization, and economic growth through boundary-crossing dialog and discourse with a focus on all transforming economies.