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This article examines China’s path to joining the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), a private international organization founded in Paris in 1920, of which China was a member from 1931–1949 and from 1994 onwards. The article charts the actors and debates behind two meaningful encounters. The first took place while the Nanjing government was raising funds for economic reconstruction, and the ICC aimed to mediate China’s fundraising efforts through private multilateral channels. The second was in the 1980s, when the People’s Republic was seeking to enter the world trade system. ICC members acted as educators and facilitators of world trade practicalities for the People’s Republic, which eventually rejoined the ICC in 1994. The article draws on Chinese, European, and American source material collected from governments, chambers of commerce, and private businessmen to make a twofold contribution. First, it adds nuance to the narrative of China’s economic internationalization by identifying an important non-governmental diplomatic channel. Second, it questions the ICC’s self-proclaimed identity as a non-political economic organization by showing how the political was indissociable from the economic when it came to China’s membership.

PurposeLocal Chambers of Commerce networks provide small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with an opportunity to access essential information and networking with other businesses, resulting in improved business performance. However, rural SMEs are less likely to participate in these networks and often possess lower performance. This paper aims to examine the relationship between being members of local Chambers of Commerce networks and rural SMEs’ performance by comparing business performance between rural SMEs who are members and non-members of local Chambers of Commerce networks. This paper also further explores difference in business growth plans between rural SMEs members and non-members.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis draws on cross-sectional data of 3,769 rural SMEs in England and Wales from the UK's Government Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2015. Propensity score matching (PSM) is applied to control for selection bias and variations in business characteristics before comparing business performance, measured in terms of annual turnover, sale growth and profitability, between rural SMEs that are members and non-members of local Chambers of Commerce networks.FindingsOur results show that rural SME members of local Chambers of Commerce networks are more likely to grow their sales than non-members. However, they perform as good as non-members in terms of turnover and profitability. The results also emphasise that local Chambers of Commerce networks are crucial for rural SMEs to develop the skills of the workforce and leadership capability of managers, new product/service development and new working practices. Therefore, to enhance rural SMEs' performance, tailoring the services of local Chambers of Commerce to support rural businesses' needs and encouraging rural SMEs to make use of business networks are recommended.Practical implicationsThe paper unpacks the relationships between being local Chamber of Commerce membership and business performance, offering lessons for rural SMEs to boost their business performance and growth through participating in local business association networks.Originality/valueThis paper is the first study that explores the comparative analysis of business performance and growth plans between rural SMEs that are members and non-members of the local Chamber of Commerce networks. We provide an empirical evidence-based analysis to existing literature regarding the advantages of being local Chamber of Commerce memberships to enhance business performance in rural areas.

There is an increasing recognition of the need to provide ways for people to raise concerns about suspected wrongdoing by promoting internal policies and procedures which offer proper safeguards to actual and potential whistleblowers. Many organisations in both the public and private sectors now have such measures and these display a wide variety of operating modalities: inhouse or outsourced, anonymous/confidential/identified, multi or single tiered, specified or open subject matter, etc. As a result of this development, a number of guidelines and policy documents have been produced by authoritative bodies. This article reviews the following five documents from a management perspective, the first two deal with the principles upon which legislation might be based and the others describing good management practice: the Council of Europe Resolution 1729 (COER); Transparency International 'Recommended Principles for Whistleblowing Legislation' (TI); European Union Article 29 Data Protection Working Party Opinion (EUWP); International Chamber of Commerce 'Guidelines on Whistleblowing' (ICC); and the British Standards Institute' Whistleblowing arrangements Code of Practice 2008 (BSI).