Institutional Reform and the Changing Face of ＂Guanxi＂

10.6702/ijbi.2014.9.2.3

Antony Drew；Anton Kriz

Guanxi ； reciprocal altruism ； institutional economics ； development

International Journal of Business and Information

9卷2期（2014 / 06 / 01）

187 - 216

英文

History illustrates that different polities adopt different development models in order to achieve modernity. In the case of successful socio-economic and sociopolitical development, the models that have been adopted have conformed to the paradigms held by the majority of the citizenry, to their cultural values, and to the informal institutions that underpin the sense-making of the citizenry. This paper develops a theoretical framework to better identify potential trajectories of economic development in emerging countries. It draws on Trivers's theory of reciprocal altruism from evolutionary biology, Berry's eco-cultural framework from cross-cultural psychology, and North's framework for analyzing economic and institutional change from new institutional economics. The framework is used in the current study to guide an exploratory empirical examination into how the development models adopted in eight Asian polities influence the reliance by Chinese business people on ＂guanxi＂ (relationships) to manage opportunism and to reduce search and transaction costs and environmental uncertainty. The findings indicate that the nature and practice of ＂guanxi＂ varies from polity to polity, depending on the type of development model adopted.

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