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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TL;DR: The authors explored the history of early-modern and modern China, from the seventeenth century to the present, examining the rise and fall of China's last empire, the emergence of a modern nation-state, the sources and development of revolution, and the implications of complex social, political, cultural, and economic transformations in the People's Republic of China.
Abstract: This course explores the history of early-modern and modern China, from the seventeenth century to the present. We will examine the rise and fall of China’s last empire, the emergence of a modern nation-state, the sources and development of revolution, and the implications of complex social, political, cultural, and economic transformations in the People’s Republic of China. Course materials include scholarly monographs, a memoir, primary sources, and visual and material artifacts that offer diverse perspectives. We will meet twice a week for a combination of lectures, discussion, and viewing of visual texts.
339 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: This paper analyzed Chinese commercial negotiating practices for two reasons: the first is to minimize future misunderstandings in such activities, and the second is to provide guidance for government-to-government negotiations.
Abstract: Abstract : This study analyzes Chinese commercial negotiating practices for two reasons. The first is to minimize future misunderstandings in such activities, and the second is to provide guidance for government-to-government negotiations. The research procedure used involved interviews with American businessmen and bankers with extensive experience in the China trade, and--in order to control for American cultural factors--interviews with comparable Japanese bankers and businessmen. What was learned from the experiences of businessmen is to value in government-to-government negotiations, even though there are substantial differences between commercial and diplomatic relationships. At present both Beijing and Washington seek a more cooperative and complementary relationship. (Author)
213 citations
TL;DR: The rational choice approach to social behaviour rationality, egoism and social atomism models of the actor rationality, action and deliberation individualism, and social structure was proposed in this article.
Abstract: The rational choice approach to social behaviour rationality, egoism and social atomism models of the actor rationality, action and deliberation individualism and social structure.
154 citations
TL;DR: A comprehensive critical examination of China's folk architectural forms is presented in this article, where the authors provide a study of the environmental, historical and social factors that influence housing forms for nearly a quarter of the world's population.
Abstract: A comprehensive critical examination of China's folk architectural forms. Together with its companion volume, \"China's Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation\", it provides a study of the environmental, historical and social factors that influence housing forms for nearly a quarter of the world's population. Both books draw on the author's 30 years of fieldwork and travel in China, as well as on published and unpublished material in many languages. The work begins by tracing the interest in Chinese vernacular buildings in the 20th century. Early chapters detail common and distinctive spatial components, including the interior and exterior modular spaces that are axiomatic components of most Chinese dwellings as well as conventional structural components and building materials that are common in Chinese construction. Later chapters examine representative housing types in the three broad cultural realms - northern, southern and western - into which China has been divided. Knapp completes his survey with an exploration of China's old dwellings in the context of the rapid economic and social changes that are destroying so many of them.
50 citations
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TL;DR: Teiwes and van de Ven as discussed by the authors pointed out that strong professional and personal ties played a significant role in bonding Lin Biao's group together during the Cultural Revolution and pointed out the pervasiveness of these interpersonal influences after the founding of the People's Republic.
Abstract: Scholars of the Chinese Communist Party recognize the critical influences of guanxi on political behaviour. Lowell Dittmer, for example, argues that guanxi is "the central term in our conceptualization of informal politics" in China. Lowell Dittmer, "Chinese Informal Politics", The China Journal, No. 34 (July 1995), p. 10. Hans J. van de Ven identifies intense personal relationships in the party cells during the period when the Party was born. Hans J. van de Ven, "The Emergence of the Text-Centered Party", in Tony Saich and Hans van de Ven (eds), New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), p. 9. Zhang Guotao specified guanxi as the primary force that ensured the Party's survival when the nationalists and the Communists split from the United Front in the 1920s. See William W. Whitson with Chen-hsia Huang, The Chinese High Command: A History of Communist Military Politics, 1927-1971 (New York: Praeger, 1973), p. 50. Other studies of the CCP confirm the pervasiveness of these interpersonal influences after the founding of the People's Republic. Li Rui's memoirs indicate the important role of guanxi in pursuing political advantages and mutual protection in the 1959 Lushan Plenum. Li Rui, Lushan huiyi shilu (True Record of the Lushan Conference) (Zhengzhou: Henan Renmin Chubanshe, 1995), pp. 34, 74, 169, 280. Frederick C. Teiwes and Warren Sun deem personal ties an important factor in determining the alignments of the Party elite during the Cultural Revolution. An excellent analysis is their in-depth examination of the Lin Biao case, in which strong professional and personal ties played a significant role in bonding Lin's group together. Frederick C. Teiwes and Warren Sun, The Tragedy of Lin Biao (London: Hurst and Company, 1996), pp. 38-42. In investigating elite politics during the post-Mao period, Richard Baum sees zongpai (factions) as a decisive factor in politics and a "source of significant irregularity in reform cycles". Baum defines zongpai as "informal networks of
59 citations
TL;DR: This paper pointed out that American attitudes towards China have undergone the regular cycles of romanticism and cynicism, of idealization and disdain, that were so well described twenty-five years ago in Harold Isaacs' classic, Scratches on Our Minds.
Abstract: WE AMERICANS always seem to be busy clearing up misconceptions about China. In our attempt to get beyond one set of misunderstandings, however, we often create new ones to take their place. We substitute today's "truth" for yesterday's myth, only to discover that today's "reality" becomes tomorrow's illusion. This is why American attitudes towards China have undergone the regular cycles of romanticism and cynicism, of idealization and disdain, that were so well described twenty-five years ago in Harold Isaacs' classic, Scratches on Our Minds.' Over the past ten years, American attitudes towards China have experienced another swing of the perceptual pendulum. The idealistic rhetoric of the Cultural Revolution, together with the dramatic improvement in Sino-American relations, created a period of pronounced fascination with China that lasted through most of the 1970s. The Maoist vision of egalitarianism, populism, and selflessness seemed attractive to many Americans. After twenty years of hostility, the possibility of renewing a friendly relationship with a quarter of mankind appealed to still more. A
58 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss various published reports within the issue, including one by Xu et al. that examines the policies and practices of Chinese urban land reform, one by Logan et al that examines city-to-city migrants in China and one by Huang and Jiang that explores Chinese housing inequality.
Abstract: The article discusses various published reports within the issue, including one by Xu et al. that examines the policies and practices of Chinese urban land reform, one by Logan et al. that examines city-to-city migrants in China and one by Huang and Jiang that explores Chinese housing inequality.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the transformation of guanxi from communal, kin-based ties to a cultural metaphor with which diverse individuals build flexible social relationships in late-socialist China.
Abstract: Building on research that analyzes how social relations and networks (guanxi) shape the Chinese market, this article asks a less-studied question: How is the market changing guanxi? The authors trace the transformation of guanxi from communal, kin-based ties to a cultural metaphor with which diverse individuals build flexible social relationships in late-socialist China. As a “generalized particularism,” this cultural metaphor provides something analogous to the culture of civility in Western societies. The authors discuss the political potential of guanxi in terms of its dual tendency toward the “publicization” and “privatization” of power. The development of guanxi civility suggests the diverse cultural origins of civility and serves as a reminder of the particularistic roots in the universalistic assumption of Western civility.
57 citations
"Guanxi, Networks and Economic Devel..." refers background or result in this paper
...Lo and Otis (2003) support these findings in their study on how the markets have shaped guanxi demonstrating that guanxi is flexible and adaptable....
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...…that is flexible and adaptable and its use is on the rise, albeit colonizing new areas of operation (Jacobs 1979; Gold 1985; Hwang 1987; Davies et al. 1995; Boisot and Child 1996; Lovett, Simmons and Kali 1999; Wood, Whiteley and Zhang 2002; Yang 2002; Lo and Otis 2003; Hammond and Glenn 2004)....
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...…the elite strata), and an extended web of kinship,” always “particularistic, fixed by the specific positions of the people involved” and “confined to a community knit together through blood ties, the feudal court, or in some cases a long history of personal association” (Lo and Otis 2003, 132)....
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56 citations