Culturally Embedded Mechanism, Guanxi in Marketing

Meiling Wong¹, Ping-Chieh Huang²

¹National Taiwan Chinyi University of Technology, Taichung, Chinese Taipei.
²Suzhou University, Taipei, Taiwan.

DOI: 10.4236/jss.2015.37025                

Abstract

While it is emphasized in Western on “what you know”, which refers to technological expertise, including the price and quality of tendered product or service, it is emphasized in Confucian societies on “who you know”, which refers to personal connections with the appropriate authorities or individuals. These connections are known in Chinese as guanxi. The present paper attempts to explore the underlying mechanism of guanxi which is culturally embedded onto added value of service quality by examining the construct equivalence of the two concepts between Western relationship marketing and Chinese guanxi. This paper provides an inner view of cultural value which offers insights that should prove helpful to academics in management and related disciplines as well as to practitioners engaged in Chinese business.

Keywords

China, Guanxi, Relationship Marketing

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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