Western perceptions of Chinese business: Sun Tzu and the misuse of history

Abstract

Sun Tzu's Art of War has been highly popular with professionals and academics alike in the 1990s and 2000s. Since the 1990s it has been adapted to a large number of business purposes from project management (Kiat & Pheng, 1992) to marketing (Macdonald & Neupert, 2005); strategy (Chen, 1994) to small businesses (Sheetz­ Runkle, 2014). Ironically while researching a book on the history of Chinese business, I found no evidence that the Art of War ever inspired Chinese business or management practice in the past. Which raises the question, has this historical document been misused by management?