Guanxi, government and Corporate reputation in China: Lessons for international companies

The purpose of this paper is to explore corporate reputation in the transitional Chinese context, and to examine the impact of guanxi on reputation management. China remains a hierarchical guanxi-based society despite the rapid transition to a market-led economy. The decentralised business environment today is more complicated than that in the pre-reform era. As reputation is relationship based, guanxi is an important form of reputation capital. Corporate reputation in China is all about managing relationships with key stakeholders, the most important being the government. Government at the top level is crucial for reputation-building and deal-making. Given the idiosyncratic market conditions and differences in culture, MNCs have to adopt a localisation strategy in corporate communications, showing due respect for the local culture

Entrepreneurial Networking in China and Russia: Comparative Analysis and Implications for Western Executives

In this article, I compare personal networks of Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs in terms of network structure, relationships and resources accessed in networks. The Chinese data is composed of longitudinal phone interviews with 94 Internet entrepreneurs in Beijing, and the Russian data is comprised of longitudinal face-to-face interviews with 75 entrepreneurs in Moscow, Ekaterinburg and Petrozavodsk. Implications for Western executives are discussed.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39905/3/wp520.pd

Internet Entrepreneurship: Networks and Performance of Internet Ventures In China

This article examines the contingent value of entrepreneurs' networks to survival likelihood of Internet ventures, and the dynamics of entrepreneurs' networks over time. The empirical data are composed of the longitudinal surveys of 94 Internet ventures in Beijing, China. The study found the positive and the negative contingent effects of structural holes on the survival likelihood of new firms. The study found that networking skills of entrepreneurs are associated positively with the changes in networks over time. Improved social skills lead to greater firm legitimacy.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40139/3/wp753.pd

Entrepreneurial Networking in China and Russia: Comparative Analysis and Implications for Western Executives

In this article, I compare personal networks of Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs in terms of network structure, relationships and resources accessed in networks. The Chinese data is composed of longitudinal phone interviews with 94 Internet entrepreneurs in Beijing, and the Russian data is comprised of longitudinal face-to-face interviews with 75 entrepreneurs in Moscow, Ekaterinburg and Petrozavodsk. Implications for Western executives are discussed.entrepreneurs, networks, China, Russia

The influence of social capital on risk-taking propensity. A study on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs

This paper studies the influence of social capital on immigrant entrepreneurs’ risk-taking propensity. The paper has a particular focus on Chinese immigrants and also explores the effects of the so-called “guanxi”, a specific form of social capital for Chinese communities. The empirical research is based on a survey conducted in 2012 on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Andalusia (Spain). An ordinal logistic regression specification was employed to test the hypotheses. The results show that the Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs with greater structural, relational and cognitive social capital and better “guanxi” have a higher risk-taking propensity in their business activity

The measurement of guanxi: Introducing the GRX scale

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Industrial Marketing Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.This study posits and examines a measurement scale for measuring guanxi based on three Chinese relational constructs – ganqing, renqing and xinren. Focusing on Anglo-Chinese buyer–seller relationships, the research reports the findings from six qualitative in-depth interviews and survey data obtained from over 200 Taiwanese trading companies. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses the findings from the final second-order confirmatory factor analysis of the guanxi model identified 11 items for measuring ganqing, renqing, xinren and guanxi respectively. The results offer a useful starting point in order for business practitioners to assess their guanxi and at the same time provide academics with a scale for operationalizing the measurement of guanxi

An Examination of Localization Success Factors of Chinese Big Four Accounting Firms

In May 2012, the Chinese government mandated that once the Big Four accounting (KPMG, PwC, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte) joint venture agreements expire, the firms must begin to localize most of the senior management. Although most of the Big Four firms employ many locals, there are more expatriate partners than Chinese counterparts. Because of this, the Big Four firms must quickly find qualified local senior management personnel. Amongst compliance and global regulatory issues, the Big Four firms must develop a strategy for localizing. Through a survey, this study aims to examine how expatriates and local Chinese managers perceive the effectiveness of the firm’s current localization plan. By analyzing external and internal forces that affect localization, I will make recommendations for the joint-venture accounting firms to plan, create, and execute a successful localization strategy

A different capitalism? : Guanxi-capitalism and the importance of family in modern China

The emergence of Capitalism is said to always lead to extreme changes in the structure of a society. This view implies that Capitalism is a universal and unique concept that needs an explicit institutional framework and should not discriminate between a German or US Capitalism. In contrast, this work argues that the ‘ideal type’ of Capitalism in a Weberian sense does not exist. It will be demonstrated that Capitalism is not a concept that shapes a uniform institutional framework within every society, constructing a specific economic system. Rather, depending on the institutional environment - family structures in particular - different forms of Capitalism arise. To exemplify this, the networking (Guanxi) Capitalism of contemporary China will be presented, where social institutions known from the past were reinforced for successful development. It will be argued that especially the change, destruction and creation of family and kinship structures are key factors that determined the further development and success of the Chinese economy and the type of Capitalism arising there. In contrast to Weber, it will be argued that Capitalism not necessarily leads to a process of destruction of traditional structures and to large-scale enterprises under rational, bureaucratic management, without leaving space for socio-cultural structures like family businesses. The flexible global production increasingly favours small business production over larger corporations. Small Chinese family firms are able to respond to rapidly changing market conditions and motivate maximum efforts for modest pay. The structure of the Chinese family proved to be very persistent over time and to be able to accommodate diverse economic and political environments while maintaining its core identity. This implies that Chinese Capitalism may be an entirely new economic system, based on Guanxi and the family

Internet Entrepreneurship: Networks and Performance of Internet Ventures In China

This article examines the contingent value of entrepreneurs' networks to survival likelihood of Internet ventures, and the dynamics of entrepreneurs' networks over time. The empirical data are composed of the longitudinal surveys of 94 Internet ventures in Beijing, China. The study found the positive and the negative contingent effects of structural holes on the survival likelihood of new firms. The study found that networking skills of entrepreneurs are associated positively with the changes in networks over time. Improved social skills lead to greater firm legitimacy.Structural holes, human capital, Internet, entrepreneurship, China

Guanxi and business environment in china: an innovative network as a process of knowledge-based economy

Guanxi is a specific part of Chinese business environment. Since the openness of China, it seems that a contradiction appears between the constraints of corporate governance and the cultural and traditional behaviour in business. Most of west analyses consider that Guanxi is only a form of corruption and therefore it should be fight it out. The originality of our work is to frame these questions in the context of recent concepts such as communities of practice and epistemic communities. Based on these concepts, we consider that the firm can be analysed from a dual perspective: cognitive and organisational. The first one belongs to the guanxi logic and the second one to the corporate governance. According to these framework, we point out the fact that guanxi provides an innovative network in order to diffuse and enhance knowledge.Guanxi, corporate governance, communities, knowledge, network