With great pleasure we present this special issue of management research in Hong Kong by the faculty members at The City University of Hong Kong's Department of Business and Management. The articles in this special issue represent a broad sample of work from the Asia-Pacific Region. The papers underwent what no doubt felt like an endless review process to the authors. However, the result is an interesting and representative cross-section of current research work by the Department's academic staff. Many publishable articles were not selected for inclusion here and we are sorry for that, but we do look forward to seeing them in future issues of Management Research News or elsewhere.

These articles are meant to push boundaries of the fields from which they came: marketing and sales management, quality control and quality management, international management, business ethics, and strategy. The original call for papers requested submissions that would reflect the dynamism of indigenous Chinese management in the diversified context of Hong Kong and China. The end result is an interesting and diversified portrayal of research in the Asia-Pacific Region.

In "A New Retail Technology in Asia: Warehouse Clubs", Cecilia Yu, Research Associate and University Lecturer, Dr. Neil Herndon investigate how well warehouse club technology, mainly develop in the West, transferred to an Asian environment. They found that the Hong Kong environment created some problems for the direct transfer of this technology and recommend some strategies to deal with these problems.

The next piece, by Associate Professor Maris G. Martinsons, reports an on-going research programme that is focused on the implementation of quality management systems based on the ISO 9000 standards. In his paper entitled "The Quest for Quality Management" Profiling the Pioneers in Hong Kong", Martinsons's findings indicate that the quest for quality consciousness is an important concern of Hong Kong managers.

Dr. Daniel Z. Ding, Assistant Professor in International Management in "Exploring Chinese Conflict Management Styles in Joint Ventures in the People's Republic of China", considers the conflict in handling styles of Chinese managers in the context of international joint ventures in that country. The study extends the conflict resolution style literature by examining the significance of the development of a repertoire of indigenous skill-based conflict resolution styles built upon the Thomas-Kilman model of conflict management.

The significance of "relationship marketing" is explored by Vincent Fok, Lecturer in Marketing, and Viola Chong, Research Associate in "Chinese Cultural Values and Segmentation of Youth Apparel Market: A Hong Kong Experience". The authors suggest that some Chinese cultural values encourage developing relationships between customer and business which tend to influence customer retention.

"The Impact of Moral Ethos on How Ethical Dilemmas are Experienced and Resolved in Six Hong Kong Companies" is the title of the paper written by Associate Professor Robin Snell, Research Associate Almaz Chak, and Professor Keith Taylor. In that work, the three authors address the effect that companies' moral ethos have on how their managers tackled ethical dilemmas. They have drawn on the moral ethos profiles (MEPS) developed by Kolberg and them employ qualitative data to investigate the effects of how managers have tackled these dilemmas at their workplace.

Overall then, we have a picture of a Department committed to intellectual research of excellence, committed to the improvement of managerial practice and industrial competitiveness on a local and regional stage. The authors and the Department will be delighted to respond to any request for further information on their research activities.

Andrew Chan, Assistant Professor
Department of Business and Management
The City University of Hong Kong
bmandrew@cityu.edu.hk