Book on Mao Zedong’s continued influence becomes book award finalist

‘Mao and Markets’, a book co-authored by Professor Christopher Marquis of Cambridge Judge Business School that outlines how current Chinese policy reflects the continuing influence of Mao Zedong, was named a finalist in the 2023 George R. Terry Book Award by the Academy of Management. 

The honour was announced at the 83^rd annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Boston on 4 August. 

The George R. Terry Book Award is “granted annually to the book judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the last two years. Books that contribute to the advancement of management theory, conceptualisation, research, or practice are eligible for this prestigious award,” says the Academy of Management.

‘Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise’, is authored by Christopher Marquis, Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management at Cambridge Judge, and Kunyuan Qiao of McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington.

Conventional wisdom of greater liberalisation in China has proved faulty

The book published in November 2022 by Yale University Press outlines how, contrary to conventional wisdom, China’s growing embrace of free markets has not led to a more liberal society and the shedding of a state-controlled economy over the past few decades. Instead, the beliefs and practices of Mao Zedong (1893-1978), the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1949, still define Chinese policy despite growing prosperity. 

The influential ‘Financial Times’ columnist Martin Wolf named ‘Mao and Markets’ one of his “Best Books of 2022: Economics”, writing that “this important book” shows that beliefs that China would move toward greater democracy “were always naive”.