Institutional Logic is focussing on how broader belief systems shape the cognition and behavior of actors. According to Friedland and Alford (1991) Institutions are defined as both supra organizational patterns of activity by which individuals and organizations produce and reproduce their material subsistence and organize time and space. They are also seen as symbolic systems, ways of ordering reality, thereby rendering experience of time and space meaningful. Thornton and Ocasio (1999) define institutional logics as the socially constructed, historical patterns of material practices, assumptions, values, beliefs, and rules by which individuals produce and reproduce their material subsistence, organize time and space, and provide meaning to their social reality. Focusing on macro-societal phenomena, Friedland and Alford (1991) identified several key Institutions: the Capitalist market, bureaucratic state, democratic, nuclear family, and Christianity that are each guided by a distinct institutional logic. More recently, Thornton, Ocasio and Lounsbury (2012) added community as another key institutional order. This revision to a theoretically abstract and analytically distinct set of ideal types makes it useful for studying multiple logics in conflict and consensus, the hybridization of logics, and institutions in other parts of society and the world. While building on Friedland and Alford’s scheme, the revision addresses the confusion created by conflating institutional sectors with ideology (democracy) and means of organization (bureaucracy), variables that can be characteristic several different institutional sectors. Thornton and Ocasio (2008) discuss the importance of not confusing the ideal types of the inter-institutional system with a description of the empirical observations in a study that is to use the ideal types as meta theory and method of analysis. With this project we would like to explore how hybrid organizations, which incorporate competing institutional logics such as capitalistic market thinking and social objectives are internally managed in order to embody those logics. With regards to the different context in many dimension between China and Switzerland, the comparison between governance of companies in those two countries is thus crucial. This would help to better understand the underlying principle of the institutional logic debate on the one hand side but also help to foster collaboration between the two countries.

The study of nonlinear partial differential equations plays an ever increasing role in science, and many fundamental mathematical aspects need to be developed further in order to answer important questions for applications in branches as different as physics, biology, and economy to mention just a few. The present project brings together experts in these domains from China and Switzerland with the goal to exchange ideas, consolidate the present knowledge, and, most important, foster new collaborations between the participating Universities. Renmin University of China has recently established the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (IMS), led by Professor Yuan Lou. Professor Lou and 5 postdocs at IMS work in the area of Partial Differential Equations, including reaction-diffusion equations, calculus of variation and nonlinear analysis. More details of the research group at IMS can be found at the website https://ims.ruc.edu.cn/more2.php?cid=2. The research interest of Yaobin Ou is in the mathematical theory of partial differential equations from fluid mechanics, in particular on the well posedness of free boundary problems and singular limits (low Mach number limit and related problems). The research group of Peter Wittwer will contribute to the collaboration with expertise closely related to these research interests. The group has been working as well on reaction diffusion problems as on problems in fluid mechanics and singular limits. The research group of Zhengguang Guo also has expertise in the question of regularity of solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations. He has in the past visited the DPT at Geneva Universities at several occasions (mainly financed SSSTC ). His contribution has been crucial in order to establish contact and bring together the research groups at the IMS and the DPT who participate in this project. The mathematical approaches to the problems of these research groups are however complementary in many ways and the collaboration therefore promises to be most interesting and very rich, since different ideas and techniques will be brought together. The Institute for Mathematical Sciences will serve as the leading platform for the project. The start of the project will therefore be in the form of a kick off meeting at Renmin University which will bring together all the participants of the project. This will allow to exchange ideas and to establish collaboration on concrete mathematical problems. Subsequent visits of the Chinese partners to the University of Geneva will allow to push these projects forward and will tighten the link between the participating institutions. It will at the same occasion allow to define the future collaboration between the institutions. We expect that as a result of this project a permanent collaboration between the participating Institutes will be established.

The 4th Plenary Meeting of the 18th Central Committee of CPC of 2014 made the decision of accelerating the formulation of the Chinese civil Code in China. To echo this initiative, the National People’s Congress officially launched the formulation of the Civil Code. First and foremost, is to draft the general principle for the Civil Code. Since the reform of the Qing Dynasty, China’s legislation has been following the framework of the statutory law, which is also referred to as the civil legal framework, with the Civil Code as its core symbol. The Civil Code is not only a legal reflection of social and economic life but also a summary of people’s lifestyle. However, as opposed to the legislation model in Germany and France, which separates the legislation of the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, China integrates the legislation of the Civil and Commercial Laws, which is in line with the concept of legislation in Switzerland. Although Switzerland has modified its Obligation Law based on the economic and social changes, the legal logic behind its laws can still be applied to the legislation in China even if these two countries differ a lot in terms of economic and social aspects. It is generally acknowledged in the legal community that the Law of Obligation in Switzerland is praised for its succinctness and articulation. Two important principles are established in the legislation: the first is that every clause should contain a maximum of three paragraphs; second, every paragraph cannot be more than one sentence. With hundreds of years of development, the above principles are followed and respected. The Obligation Law in Switzerland is a federal law, and it is deeply rooted in the practice of laws, making it flexible and accepted by citizens. The pragmatism of the law also influenced the law enforcement in the domestic courts. The public can clearly understand the regulations stipulated in the law, and the law enforcement bodies tries to be precise in the application of laws. This technique of legislation incorporates the rigorousness of the German laws and the resilience of the French laws, which makes it advantageous in the practice of laws. The legislation of China’s Civil Codes is in a critical stage. However, in the legislation of General Principles, launched at the very beginning of the overall process, certain emphasis is placed on debts. Therefore, China could draw experience from the revision of the Law of Obligation in Switzerland in the formulation of the General Principles of the Civil Code, the Chapter of Debt and the Law of Obligation.

The global prevalence of mobile touch devices has changed dramatically in recent years, with the number of mobile-only users exceeding the number of desktop-only users in 2015 (ComScore 2015), the time spent on mobile devices for media consumption increasing from 45 min per day in 2011 up to 3 hours per day in 2015 (eMarketer 2015), and the share of all e-commerce transactions on mobile touch devices growing three times faster in the US in 2015 than e-commerce overall (Internetretailer 2015). Despite this dramatic growth, research has not kept pace with the rapid expansion of device types. The current cross-cultural project addresses this lack of research and examines how changes in computing input-modalities (i.e., direct versus indirect touch interfaces; multi-touch interfaces with or without hand-gestures) affect the psychological process and experience of consumers across Western and Eastern cultures. This research project examines whether cultural predispositions in information processing (holistic or contextual processing of Eastern consumers vs. analytic or non-contextual processing of Western consumers; Nisbett et al. 2001; Masuda 2003) will differentially affect Western and Eastern consumers’ ability to mentally simulate product use and their inclination to purchase a product based on the interface-type they are using. The primal hypothesis is that processing-congruent interfaces (i.e., interfaces that support consumers’ information processing style; complex gestures in holistic thinking cultures vs. no gestures or less complex gestures in analytically thinking cultures) promote consumers’ ability to mentally simulate product use and promote actual conversion. The findings of this research will have important implications for the study of human-computer interaction across cultures and the robustness of mobile marketing applications in cross-cultural environments.

Exchanges of views on the banking and financial sector between China and Switzerland are of special significance. This is for instance established by the fourth round of the financial dialogue between the two countries which took place on November 24, 2016 in Geneva; high-ranking representatives of the financial market authorities and the central banks insisted on the expansion of bilateral cooperation in this field. At the academic level, this important cooperation could first be realized thanks to scholarly exchanges. Professor Christian BOVET, the former dean of the law faculty of Université de Genève, has been very much involved in developing the contacts between the two Universities. In the fall 2015, Prof. GUO Rui, associate professor at Renmin University of China School of Law ("RUC"), visited the University of Geneva. Prof. THEVENOZ, who also serves as the Geneva's Centre for Banking and Financial Law's executive director,is willing to offer a course on banking law to RUC students. The project will also organize a joint conference. Teaching and scientific exchange of views would then naturally lead to joint research projects.

Exchanges of goods and ideas between China and the Mediterranean in the Ancient world left traces in the archaeological record of Europe and in China. However, a majority of artefacts that witness East-West and West-East long-distance exchanges are not published in both languages and await interpretation. Sharing methodologies and source material, as well as promoting cross-cultural forms of education and research: these are the core goals pursued by this collaboration project between the Department of Archaeology and Museum Studies, School of History in Renmin University of China and the Unité d'Archéologie Classique, Département des Sciences de l'Antiquité, Faculté des Lettres, UNIGE. Professor Wei Jian has led more than 80 archaeological excavations, with a focus on the Inner Mongolian section of the Eurasian grasslands. He has built up a department specialised in frontier archaeology with an international teaching team: cross-cultural exchange is thus crucial to the Department of Archaeology and Museum Studies, School of History in Renmin University. Professor Lorenz E. Baumer is directing several excavation and research projects in the Mediterranean (Sicily, Calabria, Albania, Greece and Cyprus) and a field school in Switzerland, some of them focalizing especially on intercultural encounters and exchange on a regional and local level. He built up a research team with a large spectrum of expertise, reaching from the Aegean prehistory to the Late Antique period, including also the reception of Antiquity in modern European arts and collections. He is also directing a doctoral school about “Identity in Antiquity”, and has realized since his nomination in Geneva in 2009 twenty exhibitions. He is also active in the development of the Digital Humanities at the University of Geneva.