On the evening of September 23, 2024, at the invitation of the School of Management, Professor Xin Li from Newcastle University, UK, conducted an online academic exchange with faculty and students of the school, delivering an academic report titled "Refining Both/And: A General Strategy for Integrating Contradictory Opposites." This seminar was the 23rd session of the School of Management's 2024 Overseas Lecture Series, chaired by Professor Qingfeng Tian, with participation from some faculty members and graduate students.

At the beginning of the meeting, Professor Tian introduced Professor Li's research directions, scientific achievements, and academic contributions, after which the attendees warmly welcomed Professor Li. In this report, Professor Li, based on his team's research practices, focused on discussing the importance of balancing and integrating the two poles of contradictions. He reviewed existing classification methods of paradoxical tensions, such as the balance issue between "integration and differentiation," the opposition of "exploitation and exploration," and the contradiction between "cost leadership and differentiation."

Furthermore, Professor Li constructed a SMART framework for organizational paradoxes from cognitive and behavioral perspectives, conducting an in-depth analysis of the five strategies: Superficial, Multiversal, Amalgamative, Reformulative, and Transcendental. Finally, he proposed a general decision-making model, sharing how the field of management can refine the concept of "Both/And" to help organizations reasonably address complex issues in practical management.

During the Q&A session, Professor Li engaged in an in-depth exchange and discussion with faculty and students on topics such as how the five general strategies for paradoxes evolve and the application scenarios of different expressions of paradoxes. Professor Tian provided a brief summary of the report, and attendees expressed their gratitude to Professor Li. The seminar concluded successfully.

[Written by Zitao Zeng / Reviewed by Jing Shao and Shuang Zhang]

Introduction to the Speaker:

Li Xin, Ph.D., is currently an Associate Professor (tenured) at the Business School of Newcastle University, UK. He previously served as an Assistant Professor at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. His research areas include corporate strategy, international business, management paradoxes, and indigenous management studies in China. He has published over thirty papers in both Chinese and English in various academic journals, including the *Academy of Management Review*, *Management and Organization Review*, *Asia Pacific Journal of Management*, *Journal of Management Inquiry*, *Asia Pacific Business Review*, *Cross Cultural & Strategic Management*, *Management Journal*, *Nankai Business Review International*, *Foreign Economics & Management*, and *Chinese Culture and Management*. He has presented more than fifty conference papers at international academic conferences such as AOM, AIB, SMS, EGOS, and IACMR. He serves as an editorial board member for several well-known international management journals. In 2015, he received a research grant of 1.32 million Danish kroner from the Carlsberg Foundation for independent research on the international catch-up phenomenon of latecomer firms in China.