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Guanxi, Networks and Economic Development: The Impact of Cultural Connections

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.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
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

Journal ArticleDOI
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

Book ChapterDOI
31 Jan 1930

51 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
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

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors investigated the nature and implications of the political embeddedness of China's private capital holders and found that the embeddedness is "thick" in the sense that it encompasses an intertwined amalgam of instrumental ties and affective links to the agents and institutions of the party-state.
Abstract: In recent years, scholars have puzzled over the fact that China’s increased economic privatization and marketization since the early 1990s have not triggered a simultaneous advance in political liberalization. Many have sought to explain why – despite a marked upsurge in popular unrest – sources of social support for the political order have remained sizeable. Seeking to shed light on this debate, this article investigates the nature and implications of the political embeddedness of China’s private capital holders. The embeddedness of these individuals is “thick” in the sense that it encompasses an intertwined amalgam of instrumental ties and affective links to the agents and institutions of the party-state. Thick embeddedness therefore incorporates personal links that bind private capital holders to the party-state through connections that are layered with reciprocal affective components. Such close relations work against the potential interest that private capital holders might have in leading or joining efforts to press for fundamental political liberalization. Drawing on these findings, the article places China’s economic and political development in comparative perspective, and lays out the most likely scenarios for China’s future.

30 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross model of guanxi usage in state-owned and foreign-invested enterprises is developed to understand the differences in the way guanxi is used in state and foreign enterprises.
Abstract: In the past 20 years, there has been a growing interest in the workings of Chinese management and organisation. Recent research has also focused on Chinese leadership. This paper examines an emerging issue uniquely important to the Chinese leadership setting – guanxi. A research process was initiated that included a ten‐case preliminary field study followed by a more extensive investigation of guanxi with 40 Chinese business leaders. Results revealed complex differences in the way guanxi is utilised in state‐owned and foreign‐invested enterprises. The differences are conceptualised using Falcione et al.’s notion of structuration, and developed into a “cross model” of guanxi usage.

30 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Green and Shapiro as discussed by the authors argue that rational choice scholarship in political science is excessively theory-driven: too few of its theoretical insights have been subjected to serious empirical scrutiny and survived, but rational choice theorizing has the potential to identify and correct logical inconsistencies and slippages.
Abstract: Donald Green and Ian Shapiro argue that rational choice scholarship in political science is excessively theory‐driven: too few of its theoretical insights have been subjected to serious empirical scrutiny and survived. But rational choice theorizing has the potential to identify and correct logical inconsistencies and slippages. It is thus valuable even if the resulting theories are not tested empirically. When Green and Shapiro's argument concerning collective dilemmas and free riding is formalized, it turns out to be deeply flawed and in many respects outright false. Their mistake is common enough: they misclassify a variety of collective dilemmas as prisoner's dilemmas. Because they misunderstand the theory of rational choice, Green and Shapiro allege that it is refuted by empirical findings that, in fact, support it.

29 citations

Book
28 Apr 2010
TL;DR: The authors brings back domestic politics in studies of foreign policy and presents an analytical framework for China's foreign policy, focusing on internal sources of external policy, including domestic regimes and leaders' vision, relations with Southeast Asia, and managing domestic-external interaction.
Abstract: Part 1: Analytical Framework 1. Introduction: Bringing Back Domestic Politics in Studies of Foreign Policy 2. Internal Sources of External Policy: An Analytical Framework Part 2: Cases of China's Foreign Policy 3. Domestic Regimes and Leaders' Vision: Relations with Southeast Asia 4. Leadership Succession, Priority, Debates, and Shocks: WTO Accession 5. Managing Domestic-External Interaction: China-U.S. WTO Agreement 6. Securing Strategic Resources for Domestic Economy: Oil Diplomacy 7. Institutions and Players: Diversified Policy Making Process Part 3: Conclusion 8. Understanding a Rising China

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used an interpretive research methodology to examine critically the experiences of the pioneering joint ventures in Shanghai and found that effective technology transfer mechanisms and soft management skills, to develop relationships, motivate workers and bridge differences in cultures and systems, were critical success factors.

28 citations