New and novel business paradigms in and from China and India Justin Paul University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA Jane Menzies Department of Management, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia Ambika Zutshi School of Management and Marketing, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, and Huifen Cai International Management and Innovation, Middlesex University, London, UK and Middlesex University Business School, London, UK Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to identify and discuss new and novel business paradigms in China and India. In addition, this study examines the new business environment in those countries (2020 onwards) in the context of COVID 19 and explores the challenges and opportunities in the post COVID period. Design/methodology/approach – Based on content analysis, this study discusses contemporary topics such as innovation, exports, foreign direct investment, technology, social capital, board independence as part of corporate governance and explores novel themes such as consumer behaviour in regard to luxury brands and women entrepreneurship in an emerging country context in this paper. Findings – It was found that there are several novel paradigms in the context of China and India. A paradigm shift in diplomatic relations has taken place as an aftermath of COVID-19 in the world. Originality/value – This paper explores most of the unique dimensions of new and novel paradigms in the context of China and India. Keywords China, India, Emerging countries Paper type General review 1. Introduction It is with no doubt that globalization has been increasing over the past 50 years (Teagarden and Schotter, 2013; Paul and S anchez-Morcilio, 2019), which is defined as a greater interdependence between economies of the world, the removal of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions and barriers (Paul, 2015), coupled with improved information communication technologies and transportation. Globalization has led to fast growth in the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and they have responded proactively by modifying their strategies in developing countries (Narula and Dunning, 2009; Bhasin and Paul, 2016; Paul and Mas, 2019). One benefit of greater globalization has been the rise of developing countries such as China and India. China and India are two old-world cultures, and represent two of the most populous emerging markets of the world, with India having a population of 1.33 billion (DFAT, 2020a) and China’ s population at 1.395 billion (DFAT, 2020b). These economies have also been one of the world’ s fastest-growing economies over the past six years, for instance, China’ s average gross domestic Novel business paradigms 785 Received 12 September 2020 Revised 25 September 2020 Accepted 25 September 2020 European Business Review Vol. 32 No. 5, 2020 pp. 785-800 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0955-534X DOI 10.1108/EBR-09-2020-0224 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0955-534X.htm