Party Secretary GeJianxin of the Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics(CUFE), invited the world-renowned scholar Professor Russell W. Belk, KraftFoods Canada Chair in Marketing of Schulich School of Business of YorkUniversity, to the School for a one-week academic exchange activity. The eventwas devised to give the faculty and students of the CUFE Business School aclearer understanding of connotations of sharing economy which has beenprospering in recent years as well as the connections and differences betweensharing economy and sharing, gift-giving, and marketplace exchange, and toinform them of the latest development in the international academic community.It was sponsored by the program “Sharing Economy: UserCognition and Organizational Growth” which was funded by the2019 CUFE Themed Academic Lecture Sponsorship Program.
The visit of ProfessorBelk to the CUFE Business School involved various activities, includinglectures, seminars, and academic talks. He delivered two lectures titledSharing,Gift-giving, and Marketplace Exchange: Similarities and DifferencesandNewsTrends of Sharing Economyon May 15 and 17, respectively. During thelectures, Professor Belk noted that people could conduct exchanges in threeforms, namely sharing, gift-giving, and marketplace exchange. Though theysometimes overlap, there are still differences between them, so we candistinguish them in certain ways. Professor Belk then talked about themotivations for people to engage in the three basic forms of exchanges as wellas more diversified derivative forms such as sharing economy and onlineexchange, and elaborated on the impact of money, emotion, and materialism on people’schoices over how to exchange goods and services. He found that culturaldifferences are manifested in these practices, and then compared the cases inChina with those in Western societies by incorporating China’s Guanxi culture(i.e., culture of relationship network) and some special gift-giving models inthe Chinese context like “red envelopes” and “electronic red envelopes” intohis discussion.
Through vividpresentation and articulations, Professor Belk illustrated the concepts ofsharing, gift-giving, and marketplace exchange with a number of relevantexamples, giving CUFE Business School faculty and students a clearer and deeperunderstanding of the three forms of exchanges as well the development ofsharing economy. Teachers and students in attendance showed a keen interest in ProfessorBelk’s presentation, and questions they raised were addressed by him one byone. The lecture came to a successful end amidst warm applause of CUFE BusinessSchool faculty and students.
Professor Belk is aninternationally renowned scholar in sharing economy. Since the 1980s, he haspublished a series of papers on gift-giving and sharing in globally topjournals. In particular, he conducted continuous research of sharing economyand published his studies in 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2014, gradually figuring outthe pattern of sharing economy. Professor Belk has become one of the mostinfluential authors in the realm of sharing economy, with his research findingsconsidered major reference sources for follow-up research and his publicationsexplicitly marked as “highly cited literature” by the Web of Science. Currently,as the research of sharing economy is still in its infancy and relevantdefinitions have not been clarified, the visit and vivid presentation ofProfessor Belk gave CUFE Business School faculty and students a clear pictureof the concept.
The visit of ProfessorBelk has further enhanced the international cooperation of the CUFE BusinessSchool in the research of sharing economy, facilitated the construction ofrelevant disciplines, and expanded the academic influence of CUFE in thisresearch area.
