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Full-Text Articles in Business
Global Companies And Global Society: The Evolving Social Contract, Ann Florini
Global Companies And Global Society: The Evolving Social Contract, Ann Florini
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Globalization, privatization, and CHANging ideas about the roles of business and government are transforming the social contract under which business is allowed to operate. Global companies are also policy-makers and public goods providers, governments seek profits through state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, and everyone is trying to figure out how to partner with everyone else. As a result of global economic and social integration, more and more of the business-society interaction has played out at a transnational rather than purely national level, involving transnational corporations, transnational civil society networks and organizations, and inter-governmental organizations. Experiments with codes of conduct, …
Social Logic As Business Logic: Guanxi, Trustworthiness And The Embeddedness Of Chinese Business Practices, Wai Keung Chung, Gary Hamilton
Social Logic As Business Logic: Guanxi, Trustworthiness And The Embeddedness Of Chinese Business Practices, Wai Keung Chung, Gary Hamilton
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This chapter explores the nature of Chinese business practices by looking at their social foundations. We argue that the use of an inter-subjective logic based on the norms of social relationships provides an institutional foundation for economic transactions in Chinese business settings. The logic of social relationships-or what we call guanxi logic-is embedded in daily practices of the Chinese business community. Rather than making economic decisions less "economic", relational rules embedded in guanxi places interpersonal business transactions within a prescriptive framework, thereby increasing the calculability of economic outcomes. Guanxi logic is, therefore, a socially meaningful way to enhance economic rationality. …