<Emphasis Type="Italic">Guanxi</Emphasis> circle and organizational citizenship behavior: Context of a Chinese workplace

According to leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, good vertical working relations encourage organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that benefits organizations. But how does supervisor-subordinate guanxi influence employees’ extra-role behaviors in relation to organizational interests? To answer this question, this paper examines a particular structural phenomenon in the context of the Chinese workplace. Guanxi circles (the phenomenon under investigation) are ego-centered guanxi networks with a powerful person at the center. Although a circle leader and his or her group members exchange favors for private goals, they need to actively balance their own interests with the interests of people/groups outside the guanxi circle; so as to maintain a harmonious relationship with the larger network. For this reason, extra-role performance benefiting the larger network is encouraged in the management of a guanxi circle. By studying survey data from China, we demonstrate how a wide variety of circle roles facilitate extra-role performance, and ultimately benefit the organization as a whole. Circle bridges have higher OCB toward organizations (OCB-O) than peripheral members of a circle, who in turn have higher OCB-O than core members of the same circle.     

Disaggregating the group effect: Vertical and horizontal <Emphasis Type="Italic">keiretsu</Emphasis> in changing economic times

This paper examines the evolution of keiretsu group affiliation among members of horizontal and vertical keiretsu in Japan over two time periods: 1992–1997, and 1997–2002. We found that ties were more stable in the later time period and therefore restricted our empirical analysis to the 1992–1997 period. We also found differences in the response of vertically and horizontally linked groups to economic downturn and capital market change—vertically linked groups weakened their ties while horizontally linked groups showed more stability.     

Japanese <Emphasis Type="Italic">keiretsu</Emphasis>: Past,present, future

This article reviews major theoretical and empirical work on vertical and horizontal Japanese keiretsu. We first outline the history, characteristics, and strategic and performance implications of each type of business group. We then discuss changes in the Japanese economy during the post-1992 Japanese economic decline and their implications for the persistence and continued benefits of each form of inter-corporate grouping followed by a discussion of empirical findings regarding the continued role of keiretsu in the Japanese economy. The review concludes by exploring areas of future research into the evolution of keiretsu ties and their implications.

A pedagogic approach to enhance creative <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ideation</Emphasis> in classroom practice

The real intent for technology education is to prepare young people so that they may fully participate and function in human society. To achieve this aim, learners are guided towards the development of attributes that include perceptive, critical, creative and informed decision making. Although effective teaching strives to inspire the creative spark in every learner, there is little guidance to inform actual classroom practice. The selection of strategies and implementation methods that engender creative responses in students, is usually left to an individual teacher’s interpretation. A working knowledge of design processing provides a most advantageous methodology to guide teaching and learning as students develop ways “of knowing through thinking and doing,” Sharma and Poole (Des Manag Inst 20(4):64–74, 2010) within classroom design and technological practice. This article looks at the broad stage of Ideation in creative design practice, where designers instigate and generate ideas within their own practice. Insight and transferable skills are observed to inform classroom practice. One event from the ideation stage of design practice processing is selected to enhance student visual communication skills. A pedagogic approach is then shared to inform the implimentation of a teaching and learning strategy that has been trialled with design (aged from 12 to 18 years) and Initial Teacher Education adult students.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tian-ren-he-yi</Emphasis> strategy: An Eastern perspective

Research on the business-environment dilemma has traditionally focused on strategies based on isolated, either/or mindsets, such as economically-oriented and environmentally-oriented strategies. Drawing on the cultural, philosophical, and intellectual traditions of China, we sketch the contours of a new holism-based strategic mindset, which results in a tian-ren-he-yi strategy. As an Eastern perspective, tian-ren-he-yi means “nature and mankind combined as one” or “nature-human harmony.” We leverage both qualitative and quantitative investigations to first identify the underlying mechanisms connecting tian-ren-he-yi strategy and firm performance, and then to compare the performance-enhancing potential of tian-ren-he-yi strategy with the two strategies based on the isolated mindset. Our analysis shows that when managing the business-environment dilemma, tian-ren-he-yi strategy has stronger performance-enhancing potential than either economically-oriented or environmentally-oriented strategies.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Leegin</Emphasis> and the Economics of Resale Price Maintenance

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its century-old precedent that treated resale price maintenance (RPM) as a per se violation of the antitrust laws, it signaled approval for the vertical restraint’s widespread use. But the increased use of RPM occurred under a pre-existing rule that permitted RPM as long as no formal agreement over price was reached. This paper documents not only the increased use of RPM post Leegin but also the importance of avoiding the appearance of agreements to control resale prices. The paper then discusses how plaintiffs, previously enamored of claims of RPM, are now recasting vertical RPM arrangements as ancillary to horizontal agreements among distributors that are made effective though enforcement by producers.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">GTE Sylvania</Emphasis> and Interbrand Competition as the Primary Concern of Antitrust Law

Footnote 19 of the landmark U.S. antitrust decision in Continental T.V. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. 433 U.S. 36 (1977) declares that “Interbrand competition … is the primary concern of antitrust law.” We trace the antecedents and influence of this declaration, argue that it is inappropriate, and conclude that it should be abandoned.     

Mobility norms,risk aversion,and career satisfaction of Chinese employees

Drawing on Turner’s (American Sociological Review, 25:855–867, 1960) framework of contest and sponsored mobility norms, this study investigated factors that affect employees’ career satisfaction in the Chinese setting. Using two organization-referenced variables, procedural justice and perceived organizational support (POS), to represent contest mobility norm and sponsored mobility norm, we evaluated their effects on career satisfaction. We also explored the moderating role of risk aversion on these relationships. Several hypotheses were developed and tested on a sample of 239 employees working in a foreign-invested enterprise in China. The results of regression analysis showed that procedural justice and POS contributed to career satisfaction in a cumulative manner. Further, among the risk-averse employees, the relationship between POS and career satisfaction was stronger.     

An Examination of Procedural Justice Principles in China and the U.S.

This paper examines procedural justice principles from a cultural perspective, and examines the relationships between three dimensions of national culture (uncertainty avoidance, societal emphasis on collectivism, and gender egalitarianism), three principles of procedural justice (consistency, social sensitivity, and account-giving), and judgments of fairness. The results suggest that culture can influence employees' perceptions of the fairness of procedural justice principles; different dimensions of national culture influence different principles of procedural justice. The principle of social sensitivity was perceived as fairer in collectivistic China than in individualistic U.S. In addition, differences between men and women in perceived fairness of account-giving were exaggerated in China (a culture low in gender egalitarianism) and attenuated in the U.S. (a culture high in gender egalitarianism).     

Interpersonal guanxi and partner extra-role behavior: Mediating role of relational and transactional governance strategy

This paper identifies interpersonal guanxi between boundary spanners as an individual-level antecedent of partner firms' extra-role behavior (ERB) in interfirm relationships. Drawing on interfirm governance and the guanxi literature, we propose that guanxi between boundary spanners at the operational level may promote partner firms' ERB through two governance strategies: interfirm trust and relationship-specific investment. We analyze 268 pairs of sales managers and salespeople in a variety of industries in China, and we find that guanxi between boundary spanners positively affects partner firms' ERB and that this positive relationship is strengthened by interfirm ownership homogeneity. Moreover, the relationship is mediated by interfirm trust and relationship-specific investment, and the mediation effect of interfirm trust is stronger than that of relationship-specific investment. These findings provide new insights into the relationship marketing and guanxi literature by highlighting the effects of guanxi between operational-level boundary spanners on partner firms' ERB.     

Firm Growth Under Sample Selection: Conditional <Emphasis>σ</Emphasis>-Convergence in Firm Size?

This paper tests the second, widely neglected implication of Gibrat’s law stating that the variance of firm size distribution increases over time. In contrast, learning models imply conditional σ-convergence in firm size. A unique data set of Austrian firms especially suited to account for sample selection effects is used to analyze the growth/size nexus of firms. The estimation results suggest that the predicted variance in firm size decreases only for firms of age 30 or below. For older age cohorts the hypothesis of a constant variance either cannot be rejected or increasing variances are found.     

Guanxi practice and Chinese buyer-supplier relationships: The buyer's perspective

This study explores the different effects of guanxi practice on Chinese buyer-supplier relationships in the initiation and the maintenance stages during the buyer-supplier relationship lifecycle. Using survey data collected from the retail industry in China, we find that retailers perceive varying buyer-supplier relationship behaviors in these two relationship stages and, accordingly, guanxi practice exerts opposite effects on retailer satisfaction. Specifically, during the relationship initiation stage, guanxi practice is negatively related to retailer social satisfaction and commitment. However, during the relationship maintenance stage, guanxi practice is positively related to retailer economic satisfaction. The results from this study provide suppliers with managerial implications on when to and when not to practice guanxi in China.     

Managerial ties,absorptive capacity,and innovation

Managerial ties—the boundary-spanning ties and interpersonal connections of top managers—contribute to a corporation’s innovativeness in emerging economies because of the absence of market supporting institutions, transparent laws, and clear regulations. Moreover, managerial ties are apt to interact with absorptive capacity to facilitate knowledge sharing and innovation. This paper examines the joint influence of managerial ties and absorptive capacity in two communities in China, one characterized by a high level of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the other consisting mainly of local corporations. We find that absorptive capacity moderates the effect of managerial ties on a corporation’s innovativeness. Furthermore, when examining the two communities separately, we find that business ties and university ties have opposite effects.

Managing contracts for fairness in buyer–supplier exchanges

Despite the centrality of fairness in the moral and social fabric of governance, few studies relate fairness to contracting research. This paper assesses whether fairness accounts for the effects of contractual complexity and contractual recurrence on exchange performance. Based on a sample of 283 buyer–supplier dyads, we find that procedural fairness partially mediates the effect of contractual complexity, whereas distributive fairness partially mediates the effect of contractual recurrence in fostering exchange performance. Moreover, monitoring better supports the use of contractual complexity, whereas socializing better supports the use of contractual recurrence in enhancing fairness perceptions. These results suggest that contractual design must go beyond its safeguarding function to establish a fair frame of reference, and managers should complement contracts with appropriate practices (e.g., monitoring or socializing). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investing in guanxi: An analysis of interpersonal relation-specific investment (RSI) in China

This study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of relation-specific investment (RSI) in interfirm exchanges by introducing a construct for interpersonal RSI. Drawing on economic sociology and qualitative findings, we examine interorganizational RSI and interpersonal RSI as distinct constructs and uncover their roles in relationship performance. In particular, our study focuses on the Chinese interfirm context, in which interpersonal RSI, based on the indigenous practice of guanxi (cultivating social connections), is known as guanxi investment. We adopt a qualitative approach to explore the elements of guanxi investment, and then develop a behavioral measurement scale as a tool for further research. We employ an empirical survey to test and affirm the validity of the scale. The results confirm that in addition to their respective effects, interorganizational and interpersonal RSIs exert an interactive effect on interfirm relationship performance. We offer managerial implications for firms that operate in China.     

“If I was going to design a chair,the last thing I would look at is a chair”: product analysis and the causes of fixation in students’ design work 11–16 years

Creativity is acknowledged to be important for economic growth and as an everyday life-skill, however several influential reports have suggested that education could do more to harness creative talent. Creative cognition literature suggests the lack of creativity is at least partly the result of ‘fixation’ (difficulty in generating novel ideas due to imagination being ‘structured’ by existing knowledge). This paper focuses on the secondary (students aged 11–16 years) design and technology (D&T) context in the UK. Here we examine whether teacher practice can contribute to fixation by focusing on one specific facet of teacher practice in D&T; the use of product analysis to inform the generation of creative design ideas. Data is drawn from the preliminary phase of a research and intervention project from interviews with D&T teachers (N = 14), students (N = 126) and lesson observations (N = 10) and an analysis of documents and student work. Product analysis is widely used at different points in design projects but, as is shown, in all cases current practice can lead to fixation, as thinking is constrained down specific paths and tasks are at best at procedural rather than comprehension level. The implications of these findings and tentative ways forward for practitioners are discussed.     

Impact of personal and cultural factors on knowledge sharing in China

Knowledge sharing has been the focus of research for more than a decade and it is widely recognized that it can contribute to the success of an organisation. However, in comparison with other countries, relatively little work on this topic has been done in the Chinese context. Knowledge sharing is particularly interesting to study in the Chinese context at the individual level, given the unique social and cultural characteristics of this environment. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model to explain how personal factors would affect people’s intention to share their knowledge. The Theory of Reasoned Action and Social Exchange Theory are used in this paper, as are the time dimension of national culture, face, and guanxi. A survey methodology is used to test the model. Face and guanxi orientation both exert a significant effect on the intention to share knowledge. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.