This thesis explores the contemporary role of guanxi in Chinese entrepreneurship. Although previous research has considered the subject of guanxi and Chinese entrepreneurship, this study aims at providing a deeper and richer understanding of its roles and nature. The study focuses on the relationship between guanxi and Chinese entrepreneurs and specifically deals with the question, “Has the importance of guanxi been diminishing in Chinese entrepreneurship?” In order to deepen the understanding of guanxi, its nature, characteristics, benefits, advantages, disadvantages, process and applications are explored. Furthermore, as there are many commonalities between networking and guanxi, the study also distinguishes the differences between the two subject matters. In many aspects, it is important to understand the attitude and behaviour of Chinese entrepreneurs. As Chinese entrepreneurs are affected by traditional Chinese heritage, the study also uses different approaches to explain the difference between western and eastern entrepreneurship. The specific qualitative and quantitative technique used for data generation is the adoption of case studies, surveys and telephone interviews. A total of two in-depth case studies, two surveys and thirty telephone interviews have been conducted. From these findings, respondents and interviewees expressed their view points on how guanxi related to their businesses. The findings are used to identify the relationship between guanxi and modern Chinese entrepreneurs, the changing nature of guanxi, and in turn how the changing business environment affects guanxi. The findings from this study conclude that although guanxi is important in China, it is only a tool to implement business strategies but never a substitution, and its importance has been diminishing in Chinese entrepreneurship.

This thesis aims to examine the conditions for entrepreneurship in Taiwan by the occurrence of cultural phenomenon guanxi. Based on the concept of familiness and guanxi, the family is central in this study of family business. Traditional descriptions of the Asian culture claim that guanxi is vital in the business context. Though, recent studies indicate that significance of guanxi seems to be changing. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of the importance and relevance of guanxi in the context of Taiwanese family business. By travelling to Kaohsiung, Taiwan to interview six managers of Taiwanese family firms this study’s empirical material was gathered for further processing based on a qualitative approach. This material led to the theoretical fields of social capital, familiness, Confucian culture and guanxi. Furthermore four propositions were modelled to test the expressions of guanxi in the visited companies. By testing these propositions a wide dissemination of perceptions about family and business was identified in the result. How guanxi is embodied in Taiwanese family business is due to how the owning family is structured and how the owning family choose to relate to international influences. The conclusion of this essay is therefore that guanxi is expressed by individual values in the company and is not as visible in the company it self as traditions would claim. The family is still central in Taiwanese culture and business, but how the importance of the family is expressed has changed with the development of guanxi.

The Chinese term “Guanxi” literally refers to interpersonal relationships which have aroused growing interests among researchers and business practitioners. Common research interests are mainly centered on theoretical study and model building instead of applying them to business practices while this paper is aimed to investigate how business Guanxi works from a practical view, and in particular how business Guanxi affects the performance of small and medium-sized Chinese construction companies. Three independent managers in different regions are chosen as the initiating point to explore how Guanxi works by tracing back their inter-connectivity as well as interactions among different stakeholders. The empirical findings indicate business Guanxi acts as an important source of information and the efficient way to seek financial and technical support, to increase market shares and reduce risks, has a positive effect on to the performance of small and medium-sized Chinese construction firms. Based on the empirical findings, it is further argued that a good business Guanxi is likely to create competitive advantages in supporting Tsang’s arguments. Finally a managerial implication is provided which tries to remind practitioners that business Guanxi is a necessary factor for the survival of Chinese construction enterprises but it is not sufficient. Managers should not solely rely on Guanxi even if two parties have high quality of connections, and the institutional tools are needed in order to secure the health of Guanxi.

Previous studies of emotion issues most focus on customer interaction and individual emotion, few studies focus on the interaction between supervisors and subordinates. Some findings also showed the Chinese supervisors would categorize their subordinates into ¡§insiders¡¨ and ¡§outsiders¡¨. Therefore, this search aimed at the emotion behavior and reaction between supervisors, insiders and outsiders. The findings of this search showed the Chinese supervisors tend to have more positive emotion behavior to ¡§insiders¡¨. Even they have negative behaviors to ¡§insiders¡¨, they will show more consideration. In the other way, ¡§insiders¡¨ always not worry about supervisors¡¦ negative behaviors even they will clarify some facts to supervisors, but ¡§outsiders¡¨ always use the evade way to confront supervisors¡¦ negative behaviors.

This research explores the nature of guanxi inside Chinese enterprises and considers the implications for leadership at a time when Western leadership models are growing in dominance, and Eastern cultural norms are still in existence. The literature on guanxi is extensive, but the lack of its application inside organizations, and, in this case, in the leadership function is sparse. The research questions include whether guanxi is applied internally to the organization and, if it is, how does this influence leadership behaviour? The research adopts a pragmatist, social constructivist position, and uses a mixed method approach to investigate the interaction between leadership behaviour and guanxi: the internal guanxi. The researcher is an employee of ABLE Electric Motor Group, a large and successful private sector enterprise in the rapidly growing and transforming Chinese economy. Drawing on the special and unique position in the organisation and existing experience, the researcher uses multiple employee case studies, involving 34 in-depth interviews with senior leaders across ABLE, and surveys the Chinese electric motor sector using a questionnaire collected from 337 respondents. The research developed a conceptual model, creating links between Chinese leadership characteristics and guanxi characteristics, and these are used to focus on the collection and analysis of themes. These themes correspond to seven propositions arising from the initial desk research, the on-going participant observation and a pilot study. These are then explored further through the findings and discussion. The findings suggest that internal guanxi is operating and that it extends beyond the boundaries of the company. However, globalisation and transformation in the Chinese market are changing the nature of the relationship between leadership and guanxi and producing mixed results. Private sector businesses benefit from the leadership–guanxi dynamic, while foreign and state firms are deriving fewer benefits. The research identifies three models of the internal guanxi–leadership relationship: (i) internal, (ii) inter-firm and (iii) inter-regulatory hybrid, providing examples of prominence and behaviours. Leadership approaches that ignore the role of guanxi limit the potential of the firm, which impacts on innovation, the recruitment, and retention of staff. Foreign and state-owned firms are less likely to resolve problems through relationships and typically apply more formal structures. This research has implications for culturally different companies entering this market and those transforming companies that need to maintain harmony in times of revolutionary change.

Ce travail s'inscrit dans une veine de recherche en intelligence économique. Un mot clé est souvent associé à l'activité d'intelligence économique au quotidien: c'est celui de réseau. Le réseau est présent à toutes les étapes du cycle du renseignement. Dans ce travail, le concept de réseau va nous intéresser dans une perspective interculturelle. Nous allons plus précisément nous attacher au concept chinois de Guanxi, orientation de l'esprit qui conduit à mobiliser les réseaux de relations dès lors qu'on se trouve face à un problème décisionnel et ce à tous les niveaux de la vie sociale.Pour comprendre les mécanismes du Guanxi, il est nécessaire d'en décrire les mécanismes en utilisant des concepts nécessaires à sa compréhension. La complexité du travail vient du fait que les concepts sous-jacents ne sont pas traduisibles en français autrement que par des périphrases et qu'ils se définissent de façon emboitée. Impossible de comprendre la notion de Guanxi sans s'immerger dans le système social chinois. Afin d'éclairer le lecteur, il nous a paru également utile de mettre en parallèle le concept de Guanxi de concepts voisins qui ont pu être utilisés dans d'autres sociétés. Le Guanxi joue sans doute un rôle de facilitateur dans le développement de l'entreprise chinoise. Il aide les entrepreneurs chinois à réussir. Quel rôle le Guanxi joue-t-il dans la réussite de l'entrepreneur français en Chine? Le Guanxi est-il aussi un élément favorable au développement des entreprises à capitaux étrangers (français) en Chine?Pour répondre à ces questions, nous sommes partis en Chine rencontrer des entrepreneurs français, écouter leur expérience personnelle ainsi que leur pratique professionnelle.La seconde partie rend compte de ce travail de terrain et montre toute la difficulté d'une compréhension fine du concept de Guanxi par ces chefs d'entreprise alors même qu'ils évoluent dans un environnement asiatique. / This work is part of a vein of research intelligence. A keyword is often associated with the activity of intelligence in everyday life: this is the réseau. The network is present at all stages of the intelligence cycle. In this work, the network concept will interest us in an intercultural perspective. We will specifically bind us to the Chinese concept of Guanxi orientation of the mind which leads to mobilize networks of relations as soon as we are faced with a decision problem and at all levels of social life.To understand the mechanisms of Guanxi, it is necessary to describe mechanisms using concepts needed to understand. Complexity of the work is that the underlying concepts are not translatable in French except by circumlocution and how they define nested. Impossible to understand the concept of Guanxi without immerse themselves in the Chinese social system. To inform the reader, we thought it useful to also parallel the concept of Guanxi of related concepts that could be used in other companies.Guanxi undoubtedly plays a facilitating role in the development of the Chinese company. It helps Chinese entrepreneurs to succeed. Guanxi plays what role he in the success of the French entrepreneur in China? Guanxi is it also a favorable factor for the development of foreign-invested enterprises (French) China? To answer these questions, we went to China to meet French entrepreneurs, listen to their personal experience and their professional practice.The second part gives an account of this fieldwork and demonstrates the difficulty of a thorough understanding of the concept of Guanxi by these business leaders even though they operate in an Asian environment

Conditions that underlie contracts and cooperative agreements in business take different forms in different parts of the world. This research investigates the nature, structure and content of those informal relations that lie outside the formal contractual relations in the business community in contemporary China. Specifically, it addresses the role of gift giving in business relations, including the practical and cultural implications. This is a worldwide phenomenon, but my focus is on the relationships known in China as guanxi. Building and managing guanxi includes the exchange of gifts, therefore, discerning whether these exchanges are artefacts of the past or are rational and logical today is crucial. I argue that offering a gift symbolizes the desire to have cooperation within a close trusting relationship. Using an historical anthropological approach I present a systematic examination of pre collected data. The analysis looks for patterns to answer the following questions: What role, if any, does gift exchange play in creating guanxi relationships of trust that include reciprocal obligations? What role does guanxi play in China’s growing economy? I hypothesize that in the context of uncertainty in business it is important to be able to trust the person with whom one has business relationships. The research shows that gift exchanges create an atmosphere of trust that is time-and cost-efficient. Therefore, gift exchange has a rational motivation and facilitates advantageous business transactions within a guanxi relationship. Guanxi management is an important part of business strategy. This research will lead to a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities in contemporary business as it is practiced, both globally and locally, by people with different cultural backgrounds. / Graduate

Globalizationhas lead to a condition of an ever increasing role of the Multinational Corporations(MNCs) acting on the global arena. This development has further resulted in thecreation and wide recognition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). WhileCSR is thought to enhance quality of life and promote human rights, at timesthe norms which is often referred to as universal and that are building up thefoundation of CSR clashes with culturally manifested practices. This study aimsat providing a discussion of how we can address CSR and thus norms consideredas universal when they clashes with practices regarded as culturally embedded.This study will conduct the practice of guanxi – a Chinese custom oftenconfused with corruption – and explore the possibility to think outside the boxby making use of postcolonial theory when approaching the problem of culturalrelativism, ethnocentrism and moral dilemmas.

The studies of employee referral have shown that employee referral is one of the most cost-effective recruiting methods. However, few studies focused on the background and cause of its occurrence; and the guanxi between the introducer and referral could also provide as a good resource to referral and result in a great effect to both of the introducer and referral. Therefore, this research aimed at the cause of employee referral; the effects of employee referral on introducer, referral and organization; relationship development between introducer and referral after employee referral; and the effects of guanxi on referral¡¦s job performance, job satisfaction, organization commitment and resignation. The major conclusions of this research are as following: 1. If introducer voluntarily recommends referral and pedals his/her influence, the referral can have a good chance to get the job offer. 2. Positive influences which results from employee referral on introducer, referral and organization are more effective in comparison with negative influences. 3. Both of the introducer and referral take psychological pressures of employee referral, including guarantee of referral¡¦s performance and return introducer¡¦s favor. 4. To avoid being classed as the same type or group without an appropriate understanding, the introducer and referral would decrease the personal contact with each other in the office.

Numerous popular business publications and academic literature have highlighted that the Chinese cultural phenomenon of guanxi has made noticeable impacts on the economic efficiency in China’s economic transition. Despite the pervasive belief of the significance of guanxi for facilitating Chinese business transaction, few empirical efforts have been dedicated to comprehensively investigate the dynamics of guanxi in the mainland Chinese business context. Specifically, there is a dearth of empirical evidence to support the anecdotal claims that the guanxi construct and the business strategy orientations are strategically collaborated with the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network, and these operations are influenced by the attributes of organizations and individuals. Consequently, the purpose of this research was to investigate the interactions between the guanxi construct and the business strategy orientation with the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network, as well as the moderating effects that the organizational properties and individual attributes have on the posited interactions. / A cross cultural study was conducted in six large coastal and inland cities of Guangzhou, Foshan, Xiamen, Kunming, Hefei and Dalian of mainland China. These six research cities are located in the five large provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan, Anhui and Liaoning, which are geographically dispersed from southeastern, southwestern, northeastern to southern China. The six research cities, which were purposely selected across the ‘early’ to ‘late’ open economic regions, are the major centers of the five provinces that have embarked on a modernization policy and market liberalization of the Chinese economy while maintaining traditional values. This study was undertaken with 1033 Chinese business executives who were positioned at the top five senior managerial levels of 480 Chinese organizations across four major industrial fields in the six study cities. The four major industrial fields that were selected in this study were 1) Trading, 2) Building/Construction, 3) Manufacturing, and 4) Service. Although there has been extensive attention on the relevance of guanxi in a relationship based society of China (Gold et al. 2002), few empirical studies that have been conducted in the industrial sectors and across several regional locations that are enmeshed in the revitalization of the Chinese economy. Hence, it is claimed that this study is the first project of its kind that was implemented to empirically investigate the dynamics of guanxi amongst four industrial fields across six cities of mainland China. / The study respondents were senior business executives who have overall successful business and managerial careers in directing and developing businesses in mainland China. Many of them have traveled to Western countries frequently, and they possess extensive experience and proven records in global business dealings. More than half of the business executives had at least five years experience in their current industrial fields while nearly half had no less than five years experience in senior managerial levels. One third of the study organizations had existed for five to 10 years, while more than 30 percent of the study organizations had a longer history of more than ten years. And almost one third of the study organizations employed 100 to 500 people, while nearly 20 percent of the organizations have cadres of more than 500 employees. All of the study business executives completed a complex questionnaire for examining a model of the dynamics of guanxi in the business context. The questionnaire was comprised a total of 83 items. Demographic information was sought from the first 12 items of the questionnaire, and a further 72 items that were comprised in three interval instruments that were used to capture the perceptual data of the study. / The three interval instruments that were employed in this study included the guanxi construct, the business strategy orientation, and the guanxi network. The instrument of the guanxi construct was developed by two of the guanxi leading scholars (Wong & Leung 2001), and the scale of the guanxi network was developed by several well known guanxi researchers (Davies, Leung, Luk & Wong 1995). These instruments were deliberately chosen because they have shown acceptable psychometric properties (i.e. validity and reliability) in similar assessments, and thus, they were considered appropriated to be adapted and modified for the present study. The modification of these two instruments were undertaken after a systematically study of numerous leading publications pertaining Chinese culture and Chinese Values (e.g., Hofstede 1988; Redding 1990; Luo 2000; Seng & Lim 2004; Xin & Pearce 1996), and thorough consultations with several Chinese Professors of Economics as well as some prominent business people in mainland China. The instrument, which was employed to assess the business strategy orientation in this study, was developed by the researcher. This approach was carried out after a careful study of reputable academic journals and relevant literature (e.g., Aaker 1992; Barnett & Wilsted 1988; Digman 1986; Miles & Snow 1978; Porter 1980; 1985; Pearce & Robinson 1991; Rajagopalan 1997). The development of the instrument involved two separate empirical studies engaging 314 indigenous Chinese managers, who were exclusive of the 1033 study business executives of the main study, in a number of industrial domains in seven large cities of mainland China. In general, the inaugural established instrument of the business strategy orientation and the two adapted scales of guanxi construct and guanxi network were found to have acceptable internal consistencies. / A comprehensive pluralist methodology was applied to evaluate the hypotheses of this study. Relevant literature pertaining to the examined variables was reviewed. In light of the literature review, a number of hypotheses and a conceptual model were developed. A quantitative methodology was employed to assess the postulations and qualitative methodology was sought to provide explanations and clarifications of the results. This pluralist methodology is gaining currency in contemporary cross country research. A number of commentators (De Ruyter Moorman & Lemmink 2001; Pearson & Entrekin 1998; Zotteri & Verganti 2001) have contended that a richer and more trustworthy result is likely to be gained by simultaneously pursuing both a quantitative and a qualitative methodology. In total of 1313 questionnaires, which were administrated for completion over six weeks, a total of 1071 questionnaires were returned. However, 38 questionnaires were discarded due to incomplete information provided. The remaining 1033 useful questionnaires generated an overall response rate of 78.67 percent for the six research cities. Comparatively, the response rate of this survey is considerably higher than most of the earlier studies in guanxi research area. More importantly, the high response rate avoids the non response bias in results. / Several statistical analyses were employed to evaluate the data. For instance, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were used to assess the psychometric properties of the instruments. The results of psychometric assessments indicated that the scales had good validities and reliabilities, which had potential for robust results. In addition, correlation analysis was applied to evaluate the hypothesized bivariate correlations of the conceptual model. Path analysis was then utilized to test the hypotheses, which were postulated in Chapter Two. The results of path analysis demonstrated that certain facets of the guanxi construct had strong influence on the application of both of the vertical and the horizontal network, whereas particular business strategic approaches had intense interactions with the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network. Moreover, regression analysis was applied to further examine the hypothesized relationships of the conceptual model. The results of the regress analysis illustrated a substantial convergence with the results of path analysis. Furthermore, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was undertaken to determine the moderating effects that the organizational properties and personal attributes have on the hypothesized interactions between the guanxi construct and the business strategy orientation and the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network. The results of these analyses indicated that the attributes of organization and individual played significant moderating roles on a number of the tested correlations. Lastly, the analyses of T-test and ANOVA were employed to evaluate the extent of difference in the demographic elements and structure properties. / The results of these tests depicted that there was a considerable degree of consensus for all the tested variables of the study model across the demographic elements and structure properties. A salient feature of this study is the application of qualitative analysis to enhance the understanding of quantitative results. The researcher visited each of the six researched cities again to conduct focus group meetings, which were mainly held in the languages of Mandarin and Cantonese. Most of the meetings were approximately 90 to 120 minutes in duration. Focus group meetings that were conducted in the cities of Kunming, Foshan, Xiamen, Hefei and Dalian were videotaped and subsequently replicated into DVD plates, whilst feedback sections that were carried out in Guangzhou were completed recorded by written notes. A total of 90 business executives participated in 20 focus group meetings, which were recorded in Chinese and accredited English translations were subsequently arranged. The Chinese meeting record contains almost 160,000 words in 240 pages, and the English translation had 248 pages with approximately 100,000 words. General details of the focus group meetings are reported in Chapter Four. / The subjects that were discussed in the qualitative feedback sessions mainly encompassed six aspects. First, respondents’ comprehension of the instruments and the suitability of the scales employed in this study were discussed. Second, the results of factor and reliability analyses, particularly relating to some certain emerged patterns and the dimensionalities of instruments were elucidated. Third, extensive comments about the empirical findings in relation to the correlations that were predicted in the studied model and the unexpected relationships were sought, and clarifications to the phenomena caused were also documented. Fourth, the outputs of the analyses of T-test, ANOVA, path analysis, and regression for descriptive statistic and correlation were discussed. Finally, opinions on the discovery of the moderating effects that the moderating variables had on the tested relationships were attained and elucidation to the results were clarified. In general, the qualitative analytical results have broadly enriched the comprehension to the quantitative findings. With extensive reference to the contribution of the 90 business executives in the qualitative analytical sections, a lengthy discussion of the results of the study is elucidated. Following the discussion of results, an outline of the key findings of this research is presented in Chapter Five. / A number of theoretical and practical contributions have constructed in this study. The first theoretical contribution of this study is an advancement of the currently available knowledge relating to the operations amongst the guanxi construct with the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network, as well as the interactions between the business strategy orientation with the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network in the business context. A second theoretical contribution of the study is to evaluate Western based theoretical notions in a non Western context. Next, evaluation of the study model has the potential to make further theoretical contribution in terms of enhancing the understanding of Multi National Companies (MNCs) and overseas investors on the imperativeness of the cultural phenomenon of guanxi. The first practical contribution is the investigation of the moderating effects that the attributes of organizations and individuals have on the relationships between the guanxi construct and the business strategy orientation with the vertical and the horizontal guanxi network has significant potential to make contribution to international management in an Asian context. Moreover, the inaugural developed seven point Likert scale instrument for assessing the business strategy orientation in the Chinese business organization is likely to facilitate practical contribution to the development of an universal scale. A further practical contribution is to provide a greater comprehensive insight of the dynamics of guanxi in the business context, which would be beneficial to overseas investors and MNCs when they explore their possible Chinese business ventures. Implications of the findings for business practitioners and the theory developments are comprehensively documented in Chapter Six. / This research has merged two salient concluding observations. Firstly, it highlighted the importance of the application of a pluralist methodology in implementing cross cultural studies. The findings of this study suggested that the qualitative investigation technique is essential to capture information that was not attainable through the quantitative assessments and that the qualitative dimension complements the quantitative results. In addition, an extended remark in relation to sampling method was offered for further research in mainland China. Preferably, the guanxi ideology is more practical than the Western traditional ‘mail out’ system when conducting a comprehensive survey in China. Especially, guanxi plays a significant role in attaining genuine and liberated comments for qualitative analysis. Secondly, the results of this study suggested that the global environment has reshaped the quality and mindset of Chinese people and this has resulted in the substantial consensus in conceptualizing the theories of the present study. The salient observations and suggestions for future research are discussed in Chapter Six.