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
References
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29 Aug 2009
TL;DR: It is shown by analyzing the local linking structure between Chinese web sites and the content of Chinese web documents that interaction betweenChinese web sites can be seen to exhibit two types of guanxi: strong Guanxi and cheap guanxia.
Abstract: Guanxi is a type of dyadic social interaction based on feelings, trust, and the development of friendship. In this paper, we define the concept of guanxi as it is applied to the interaction between web sites. We show by analyzing the local linking structure between Chinese web sites and the content of Chinese web documents that interaction between Chinese web sites can be seen to exhibit two types of guanxi: strong guanxi and cheap guanxi. We compare the local linking structure of Chinese web sites to the local linking structure of web sites in the general web and in Japan, Iran, and France. Finally, we explore methods to identify types of guanxi in the Chinese web, and give a method for simulating guanxi in a web graph model.
6 citations
01 Jan 2008
5 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Tiananmen Papers: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force Against Their Own People -In Their Own Words as mentioned in this paper, is an insider's glimpse into the Chinese Communist Party's decision-making process.
Abstract: The Tiananmen Papers: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force Against Their Own People -- In Their Own Words.Compiled by Zhang Liang, Andrew J. Nathan, and Perry Link, eds. New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2001.513 pp. $30 hbk. Interested in an insider's glimpse into the Chinese Communist Party's decision-- making process, specifically a step-by-step guide on how the Communist Party decided to carry out the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown? If so, read The Tiananmen Papers. Although the credibility of this text's Chinese documents is in question, the fact that Chinese leaders are vehemently criticizing the text suggests it has hit a nerve. For example, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman recently responded to The Tiananmen Papers as follows: "Any attempt to play up the matter and disrupt China by the despicable means of fabricating materials and distorting facts will be futile." Perhaps the Chinese government's strong outcry against this work is one reason why Western critics are comparing The Tiananmen Papers to the Pentagon Papers. The Tiananmen Papers claims to expose, for the first time, the Chinese Communist Party's decision-making process that led to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. This text claims to be based on an anonymous Chinese source's compilation of thousands of Communist Party documents and records, including detailed Chinese security accounts of student demonstrations, highlevel Party meeting "minutes," and summaries of conversations between key political figures. Since Western scholars remain uncertain whether The Tianan men Papers are truly based on authentic, unaltered documents, this work may be founded on severely compromised and fictionalized data. However, renowned Western-based China scholars who have examined this data are gambling on their hunch that The Tiananmen Papers are the real thing. Three of The Tiananmen Papers' strongest supporters, all prestigious China scholars, have contributed to this text: Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link edited it, while Orville Schell wrote its "afterward." Nathan is a political science professor and former director of the East Asian Institute at Columbia University, Link is a Princeton University professor of Chinese, and Schell is dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Although many Western academics, journalists, and foreign-policy makers appear to trust China scholars' conclusions that the Tiananmen documents are largely authentic, they continue to wonder aloud about the identity of the anonymous Chinese source who supplied these documents, who uses the pseudonym Zhang Liang, how he got these documents out of China, and how The Tiananmen Papers scholars determined the credibility of their documents. …
5 citations
Book•
01 Dec 1971
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of Mas's doctrine of land reform and its relevance to revolutionary warfare is presented, and the conditions that provide the opportunity for the constraints to land redistribution are examined.
Abstract: : The report is a study of Mas's doctrine of land reform and its relevance to revolutionary warfare. It critically reviews Mao's basic hypotheses concerning the role of land reform in the revolutionary war, examines the conditions that provide the opportunity for the constraints to land redistribution, and draws some policy implications. A revolution is considered as a protracted armed struggle, led by the Party and supported by the masses. Each of three elements, The army, The Party, and the masses has a key role to play.
5 citations