This book examines a topic of paramount importance to those doing business with China: the impact of personal relationships (guanxi) on business affairs. It shows that the commercial utilization of guanxi with suppliers, customers, competitors and authorities yields significant sustainable competitive advantages. Coverage also assesses guanxi-based business strategies in terms of compliance with legal and ethical standards.

Guanxi (interpersonal relationship) is one of the major dynamics of Chinese society. It has been a pervasive part of the Chinese business world for the last few centuries. It binds literally millions of Chinese firms into a social and business web. It is widely recognized to be a key determinant of business performance, because the life-blood of the macro economy and micro business conduct in the society, including local firms as well as foreign investors and marketers, inevitably faces guanxi dynamics. No company can go far unless it has extensive guanxi in this setting. In China's new, fast-paced business environment, guanxi has been more entrenched than ever, heavily influencing Chinese social behavior and business practice. Despite the current academic and practical interest in guanxi, there is no book-length treatment systematically and vigorously exploring the concept and practice from the business perspective. This book fills that gap by exploring the various social economic cultural, and business issues relating to the complex concept and practice of guanxi.

This insightful book provides a much-needed explanation of Guanxi - a system of Chinese business relationships often described but rarely understood - integrating various disciplines into a coherent and concise explanation.

Interpersonal relationship (guanxi) is one of the major dynamics of Chinese society. Guanxi has been a pervasive part of the Chinese business world for the last few centuries. It binds literally millions of Chinese firms into a social and business web. In China's new, fast-paced business environment, guanxi has become more entrenched than ever, heavily influencing Chinese political landscapes, social behavior, and business practice.This book delineates social and cultural principles and philosophies underlying guanxi dynamics, along with guanxi's social norms that have been long embedded in the Chinese society. Although guanxi is embedded in almost every part of social life in China, companies demonstrate different needs and capacity toward guanxi cultivation. Chinese firms develop guanxi as a strategic mechanism to overcome competitive and resource disadvantages by cooperating and exchanging favors with government authorities and other stakeholders. This book presents an integrative framework about guanxi development according to institutional, strategic, and organizational factors. It further articulates how foreign firms adaptively develop their own legitimate and effective guanxi in China's highly dynamic and complex environment.Guanxi is really dynamic that its practices have been constantly changing and its normative and cognitive legitimacy is shifting as the social and economic structures in the society are drastically transforming. For this reason, this third edition of the book has added numerous new and emergent issues such as moral degradation and guanxi, qualitative and quantitative review of guanxi studies, and guanxi ties between organizations.

Develop a network of successful business relationships in China!This systematic study of the Chinese concept of guanxi--broadly translated, ”personal relationship” or ”connections”--offers a comprehensive social and professional model for doing business in China. In addition to a clear analysis of the origins and meanings of this vital concept, Guanxi: Relationship Marketing in a Chinese Context empowers you with practical tools for establishing guanxi in order to facilitate successful business relationships. Guanxi is based on an original research study as well as the authors’twenty years of experience of doing business in China. Their understanding of the implications of face, favor, reciprocity, honor, and interconnectedness--all vital parts of guanxi--will enable you to understand the unstated assumptions of Chinese business culture. Moreover, the book discusses the legal implications of guanxi as well as cultural expectations.This valuable handbook offers a wealth of information on guanxi: case studies of guanxi in action managerial implications of saving face and reciprocity measuring guanxi quality and performance indicators step-by-step instructions for building guanxi detailed strategies for penetrating the Chinese market Guanxi is an indispensable tool for anyone wanting to do business in China, for students of international business or Chinese culture, and for scholars interested in international business culture.

How do social relations, or guanxi, matter in China today and how can this distinctive form of personal connection be better understood? In Guanxi: How China Works, Yanjie Bian analyzes the forms, dynamics, and impacts of guanxi relations in reform-era China, and shows them to be a crucial part of the puzzle of how Chinese society operates. Rich in original studies and insightful analyses, this concise book offers a critical synthesis of guanxi research, including its empirical controversies and theoretical debates. Bian skillfully illustrates the growing importance of guanxi in diverse areas such as personal network building, employment and labor markets, informal business relationships, and the broader political sphere, highlighting guanxi’s central value in China's contemporary social structure. A definitive statement on the topic from a top authority on the sociology of guanxi, this book is an excellent classroom introduction for courses on China, a useful reference for guanxi researchers, and ideal reading for anyone interested in Chinese culture and society.

This volume assesses the evolving role of guanxi (social networks) in China's transforming society.