Open Access
Guanxi, Networks and Economic Development: The Impact of Cultural Connections
TLDR
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.read more
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The search for modern China
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.
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Chinese commercial negotiating style = 談判作風
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.
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Choice, Rationality and Social Theory
D. S. King,Barry Hindess +1 more
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.
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China's Old Dwellings
Robert W. McColl,Ronald G. Knapp +1 more
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.
References
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‘Out With the Old’—An Evaluation of the Relevance of Traditional Chinese Cultural Beliefs in Today's China
Mike Willis,Veng Quan +1 more
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper evaluated the views of a range of 20 to 35-year-old Chinese respondents regarding the applicability and relevance of various traditional Chinese values such as trust, respect and guanxi in regard to personal, social, business and consumer behavior contexts.
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Capitalism, Institutions, and Economic Development
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model of crisis in the modern state and the transition sequence of the transition from institutional capitalism to a modern state, which they call Carriers of Change.
How Business Guanxi Affects a Firm’s Performance : A Study on Chinese Small and Medium Sized Construction Companies
Wanyi Tang,Qian Cheng +1 more
TL;DR: The Chinese term "Guanxi" literally refers to interpersonal relationships which have aroused growing interests among researchers and business practitioners as discussed by the authors, and common research interests are mainly cen-...
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Extending network analysis with social inclusions: A Chinese entrepreneur building social capital
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used Social Integration (SI) developed at Erasmus University Rotterdam on the basis of Karl Weick's organization theory to enrich current social network theory with a module that links networks on basis of multiple inclusions of actors in several social-cognitive groups (networks).