ABSTRACT
In consideration of the present structure and possible challenge to globalized knowledge flows, this chapter provides a case study of approaches to and treatments of the Chinese concept of guanxi in social science and management literatures over the past decade. The chapter begins by reporting a review of 214 journal articles concerning the concept guanxi published during an eleven-year period from January 1999 to December 2009. Consideration in this chapter of the extensive discussion of the Chinese concept of guanxi in articles appearing in a large number of social science and management journals published in America and Europe is directed to these concerns. The chapter examines that aspects of the concept of guanxi have not only local Chinese resonance, but also general relevance for understanding otherwise neglected aspects of social and economic relationships that are not recognized and addressed by analogous terms that are current in social theory today, including those of social capital, trust and related concepts.
