Guanxi, Networks and Economic Development: The Impact of Cultural Connections
01 Jan 2013-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the mechanics of guanxi in an organizational setting, focusing on the use of interpersonal relationships within Chinese firms to discover how firms initiate, build and use Guanxi networks.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanics of guanxi in an organizational setting, focusing on the use of interpersonal relationships within Chinese firms to discover how firms initiate, build and use guanxi networks. Two richly detailed case studies document changes that take place over time in two distinct networks with respect to key actors and their contacts. This research also investigates patterns of social structure that emerge over time in these two distinct cases looking at brokerage relationships, network density, and dyadic redundancy in three waves at six month intervals. The cases are dissimilar in all aspects except absolute size demonstrating the universal use of guanxi across time, geographic location, specific industries, and firm experience. Dynamic network visualization is used to highlight the sequence and rate of activity in each network to identify salient changes. The findings show that firms seek to improve their organizational guanxi by improving existing employees’ guanxi quality within the firm and by recruiting new actors from outside the firm. Additionally, firms use organizational guanxi to expand their networks by forming cooperative partnerships with complementary organizations that enhance the attributes or potential of both organizations. And finally, firms initially exploit brokerage in organizational guanxi, then attempt to stabilize the network by fostering new ties to exclusive contacts.
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01 Jan 2003
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TL;DR: Most work on corruption has tended to reflect the interests and background of those working in the area as mentioned in this paper, which is not the case in many other areas of political science and economics.
Abstract: Most work on corruption has tended to reflect the interests and background of those working in the area. Distinct methodological camps of political scientists and economists have existed for many y...
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China: Environmental Values and Civil Society, by Bryan Tilt as discussed by the authors combines various methodologies including seven months of residence and participant observation in Futian, semistructured interviews, survey questionnaires with government officials, industrial workers, farmers and State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) scientists and bureaucrats, as well as attendance of township government meetings.
Abstract: The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China: Environmental Values and Civil Society, by Bryan Tilt. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. xviii +192 pp. US$89.50/£62.00 (hardcover), US$29.50/£20.50 (paperback). Bryan Tilt's remarkable monograph has an importance that cannot be overstated. The book portrays the often horrifying conditions precipitated by a confluence of development targets, privatization of industry and growing uncertainty amongst farming communities. Much of the literature on environmental pollution in China recites a macroscale mantra of the central state producing policies which local governments are too corrupt to enforce. By contrast, Tilt presents a much needed informative and detailed account of the lived realities of pollution victims, pollution perpetrators and regulatory agents. The study combines various methodologies including seven months of residence and participant observation in Futian, semistructured interviews, survey questionnaires with government officials, industrial workers, farmers and State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) scientists and bureaucrats, as well as attendance of township government meetings. Ethnographic methods in particular have enabled Tilt to provide a humanizing picture of actors all too often written off as corrupt. Here is an engrossing account of grassroots understanding of pollution, development and environmental values as they are situated in particular socio-political contexts. After a brief preface, the book is divided into 8 chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion. Chapters one and two provide some solid general background on China's recent history and how it has played out in the research setting of Futian, a township situated on the western edge of the heavily industrialized Panzhihua municipality, in Sichuan. Tilt traces the rise of a development imperative during the Maoist years, and its emphasis on rural industrialization. In the late Mao and early reform periods, Futian experienced what most locals remember fondly as a golden age of industrial development, when revenue from local industry was used to develop local infrastructure. By the late 1990s this communitarian ethic had fully given way to privatization, as local industries were sold to outsiders. The profit from small and low-tech polluting industries such as Futian' s zinc smelter, coking plant and coal-washing plant ceased to benefit the local community and government to the same extent, and these industries were eventually closed for noncompliance with environmental protection regulations. The effects of these changes on the relationships among the local community, industry and the local state are examined further in chapters three and four. Where previously critiquing local industries for causing pollution would have amounted to attacking the state itself, privatization opened space for a critical assessment of their impact. That benefits were no longer distributed to the local communities also increased incentives to complain about pollution. Other studies have already examined the complexities of enforcing environmental protection regulation due to inadequate staffing and ambiguous responsibilities. Tilt gives us a real sense of the scope of these problems. The size of the Renhe district's Environmental Protection Bureau's enforcement team - consisting of three technicians and the monitoring station chief and charged with overseeing more than 120 factories across 14 townships - is grossly inadequate. Despite this, the local population is shown to be acutely aware of pollution, belying assumptions that those in economic dire straits are too poor to care about the environment. A key strength of this study lies in its questioning of the very terms of the debate: what is deemed worthy of protection? What, in the discourse of sustainable development, is to be sustained? What is to be developed? Predictably, the answers vary with the speaker, as do the pathways of action which are premised upon them. …
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References
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TL;DR: The psychological principles that govern the perception of decision problems and the evaluation of probabilities and outcomes produce predictable shifts of preference when the same problem is framed in different ways.
Abstract: The psychological principles that govern the perception of decision problems and the evaluation of probabilities and outcomes produce predictable shifts of preference when the same problem is framed in different ways. Reversals of preference are demonstrated in choices regarding monetary outcomes, both hypothetical and real, and in questions pertaining to the loss of human lives. The effects of frames on preferences are compared to the effects of perspectives on perceptual appearance. The dependence of preferences on the formulation of decision problems is a significant concern for the theory of rational choice.
15,513 citations
TL;DR: Charmaz as mentioned in this paper presented a practical guide through qualitative analysis to construct grounded theory, using qualitative analysis, and showed that qualitative analysis can be used to understand grounded theory in a practical way.
Abstract: BOOK REVIEW: Constructing grounded theory. A practical guide through qualitative analysis Kathy Charmaz, 2006, 208 pp. London: Sage. ISBN 2005928035
11,206 citations
8,224 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: A Case Study of a Neighborhood Organization Initiation and Structure of the Organization Revitalization Activities and Their Support Relationship to Voluntary Associations and Networks Relationship to City Government Outcomes.
Abstract: Theory The Role of Theory in Doing Case Studies What is the Case Study Method? What is the Role of Theory in Doing Case Studies Exploratory Case Studies Case Selection and Screening: Criteria and Procedures Causal Case Studies I: Factor Theories Causal Case Studies II: Explanatory Theories Descriptive Scase Studies Conclusions Descriptive Case Studies A Case Study of a Neighborhood Organization Initiation and Structure of the Organization Revitalization Activities and Their Support Relationship to Voluntary Associations and Networks Relationship to City Government Outcomes List of Respondents and Annotated Bibliography Computer Implementation in a Local School System The Computer System in Operation Organizational Issues Explanatory Case Studies A Nutshell Example: The Effect of a Federal Award on a University Computer Science Department Essential Ingredients of Explanatory Case Studies: Three Drug Prevention Examples Simplified Case Example No. 1: "Town Meetings Galvanize Action Against Drug Dealing" Simplified Case Example No. 2: "Interagency Collaboration to Reduce BWI Incidents" Simplified Case Example No. 3: "Designated Driver Program, Delivered Through Vendors" "Transforming" a Business Firm Through Strategic Planning Company Profile and Conditions Leading to Change Strategic Plan Transforms the Business Chronology Sheriff's Combined Auto Theft Task Force The Practice and Its Funding Implementation of the Practice Outcomes to Date Chronology Cross-Case Analyses Technical Assistance for HIV/AIDS Community Planning Defining a Framework for Assessing the Effectiveness of Technical Assistance (TA) Documented Outcomes, Varieties of TA Studied and Possible Rival Explanations for the Outcomes Findings on Individual Hypotheses Regarding Reasons for Successful TA Delivery Proposal Processing by Public and Private Universities Introduction to the Study The Time Needed to Process and Submit Proposals Costs of Preparing Proposals Case Studies of Transformed Firms Why Study Transformed Firms? What is a Transformed Firm? What Kind of Transformation Did the Firms Experience? Did the Transformations Share Common Conditions Summary: General Lessons About Transformed Firms About the author
7,160 citations
TL;DR: For instance, King, Keohane, Verba, and Verba as mentioned in this paper have developed a unified approach to valid descriptive and causal inference in qualitative research, where numerical measurement is either impossible or undesirable.
Abstract: While heated arguments between practitioners of qualitative and quantitative research have begun to test the very integrity of the social sciences, Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba have produced a farsighted and timely book that promises to sharpen and strengthen a wide range of research performed in this field. These leading scholars, each representing diverse academic traditions, have developed a unified approach to valid descriptive and causal inference in qualitative research, where numerical measurement is either impossible or undesirable. Their book demonstrates that the same logic of inference underlies both good quantitative and good qualitative research designs, and their approach applies equally to each. Providing precepts intended to stimulate and discipline thought, the authors explore issues related to framing research questions, measuring the accuracy of data and uncertainty of empirical inferences, discovering causal effects, and generally improving qualitative research. Among the specific topics they address are interpretation and inference, comparative case studies, constructing causal theories, dependent and explanatory variables, the limits of random selection, selection bias, and errors in measurement. Mathematical notation is occasionally used to clarify concepts, but no prior knowledge of mathematics or statistics is assumed. The unified logic of inference that this book explicates will be enormously useful to qualitative researchers of all traditions and substantive fields.
6,233 citations