This research examines guanxi's influence on attitudes of the Chinese negotiators during international joint venture negotiations by applying the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). / Before establishing international joint ventures, foreign and Chinese investors go through series of negotiations to settle or resolve any disagreements. However, the unique Chinese culture and the business environment in the transitional China often impose problems on these cross-cultural negotiations. To cope with these difficulties, foreign investors often use “guanxi” as a negotiation strategy to influence the attitude of the Chinese negotiators. / Guanxi is a cultural element inherent in the Confucian ideology. Being a collectivistic, high-contextual and hierarchical society, China places strong emphasis on guanxi between individuals which does not only represent the identification of individuals but is often used as a means to accomplish tasks. This makes guanxi a powerful tool to overcome many cultural and environmental problems. / By applying the influence of guanxi on the attitude of Chinese negotiators to the Elaboration Likelihood Model in this research, it is proposed that guanxi can motivate Chinese negotiators to think and influence the attitude of the Chinese negotiators under high and low elaboration. Under high elaboration, the attitude change is more predictive, stable, enduring and permanent while attitude change under low elaboration is less predictive, vulnerable, susceptible to counter-persuasion and temporary. / The research adopted the quantitative paradigm using hypothesis testing. A survey was carried out with one hundred and fifty-two questionnaires distributed by the snowball sampling technique. Eighty-three completed questionnaires were returned, accounting for 54.6% response rate. Frequency tables were used to analyse the distribution of the results. Chi-square tests were employed to test the representativeness of the samples to the population and the association between variables. / The results indicate that foreign investors' guanxi with the Chinese investors (GFC), the government (GFG) and other businesses (GFO) can motivate the Chinese negotiators to think (MOT) and influence the attitude of the Chinese negotiators to think (MOT) and influence the attitude of the Chinese negotiators under high (VAL) and low elaboration (ATT). GFC can influence VAL because the investors are bound by insider relationships and reciprocal obligations and influence ATT because it implies renqing between the investors. GFG can influence VAL because the government can update the investors with political changes and influence ATT because Chinese show high respect for the government. GFO can influence VAL because the Chinese investors value highly the relationship with the suppliers to secure necessary inputs for production and allow flexible credit payment. GFO can also influence ATT because it implies social validation of trustworthiness of the foreign investors. / This research has significant contributions to the area of study of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the influences of guanxi on attitude of negotiators and practical suggestions to the Chinese and foreign negotiators who intend to form international joint ventures in China. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267323 |
| Creators | Lau, Anna. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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