Resumen de Business is business? Stakeholders and power distributions in guanxi-related practices in the Chinese public relations profession: A comparative study of Beijing and Hong Kong

Fang Wu, Zhuo Chen, Di Cui

• Abstract As a special type of relationship exercised at the level of the individual in Chinese culture, guanxi has been claimed to pervasively affect business practices in China. Using a contextual perspective, this study compared guanxi-related practices in Beijing and Hong Kong, two Chinese societies with a similar Confucian heritage but different institutional and cultural traits. Four group interviews were conducted to identify the characteristics of guanxi-related practices, their main stakeholders, and the power relationships that exist between them. Public relations practitioners from Hong Kong and Beijing engage in guanxi-related practices with similar main stakeholders, except that only practitioners from Beijing valued guanxi with the government. Findings from the group interviews demonstrate regional differences in the closeness components, source of connections, and basic principles governing guanxi-related practices.