Do western management practices and beliefs and Chinese business practices complement or substitute each other in the emerging world of Chinese business? This thesis explores the interaction between two central ideas in western and Chinese thinking about the way business should be done ??? between the western emphasis on market orientation as the key to profitable growth, and the Chinese reliance on traditional networks embodied in the concept of guanxi. These two variables are embedded in a broader model of strategic decision making in order to identify moderating factors that may influence performance outcomes. Following pretests and in-depth interviews, in 2003 a sample of 152 businesses was drawn in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang area from two industries, the electronics industry and the textile/garment industry. Low response rates and a small sample were two important limiting factors. Two broad analytical approaches were used. The first made use of graphical smoothing methodology, an approach that facilitates the identification of complex non-linear interactions among the variables. The second used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) where a linear structure is imposed on the relationships among the variables, allowing simultaneous consideration of the full variable set together with an analysis of fit and measurement error, while the graphical smoothing non-linear method was effectively limited to three variables at a time. The graphical analysis suggested the existence of nonlinearities in many relationships, and found a positive interaction between guanxi and market orientation in influencing performance, and that both were in that sense complements rather than substitutes. The SEM analysis suggested that while there were some indirect links between guanxi, market orientation and performance, these were relatively weak, (although the use of guanxi with other managers was a factor in market orientation), and that the primary driver of performance was the strength of the competitive advantage possessed by the firm. This factor directly impacted market orientation, indirectly affected guanxi and accounted for much of the observed correlation between the two cultural variables, guanxi and market orientation, and performance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/188154 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Chen, Shu, Marketing, Australian School of Business, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Marketing |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Shu Chen, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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