Making sense of business-to-government guanxi amidst the northern-southern and rural-urban divides in China: The institutional vs. the cultural perspective

Abstract

This study examines Chinese managers’ ethical evaluations of business-to-government guanxi in three regions of China. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 senior Chinese managers in Beijing, Shanghai, and a county of Hebei, representing the urban northern, urban Southern, and rural northern regions of China, respectively. Based on the content analysis of these interviews, we found that the ethical evaluations of the managers in Beijing and Shanghai were more negative than those of the managers in Hebei. Our findings suggest that institutions play a more important role in shaping attitudes toward business-to-government guanxi than culture.