文档介绍：Flora F. Gu, a Hung, & David K. Tse
When Does Guanxi Matter? Issues of
Capitalization and Its Dark Sides
Guanxi refers to the durable social connections works a firm uses to exchange favors anizational
purposes. This study examines how and when guanxi operates as a governance mechanism that influences firm
petence and performance in the transitional economy of China. Drawing on social capital theory, the
authors propose an integrative framework that unbundles the benefits and risks of guanxi and delineates the
organizational processes to internalize guanxi as a corporate petence. The authors surveyed senior
executives in 282 firms in China’s consumer products industries. The findings confirm guanxi’s direct effects on
market performance and its indirect effects mediated through channel capability and responsive capability. The
authors also confirm that technological turbulence petition intensity can be effective structure-loosening
forces, thus reducing the governance effects of guanxi. The findings suggest that firms can improve market access
and growth through works, but managers need to capitalize on them from the personal to the corporate
level. In addition, managers should be aware of guanxi’s dark sides, which include reciprocal obligations and
collective blindness. This study shows that works are popular universally, but in China, they have
unique, distinct ways of operation.
Keywords: guanxi, personal connections, transitional economy, social capital theory, China market
n unavoidable challenge for firms entering China to in supply chains (Wathne and Heide 2004) and export mar-
capitalize on its enormous market potential is to kets (Zhang, Cavusgil, and Roath 2003). In China, guanxi
Adetermine how to navigate within the confines of goes deeper as a governance mechanism; it is a direct out-
China’s powerful institutions (Child and Tse 2001; Davies growth of the Chinese collectivist culture (Hwang 1987;
and Walters 2004). The institutio