Toward A Yin-Yang Perspective of Relational (Guanxi) Gatekeeping in China
Seminar
Date: Thursday 27 July, 2017, 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: RHMZ03, Mezzanine Floor, Rutherford House, Victoria University
China is an extremely complex and ‘insider-controlled’ market for foreign businesses. This study investigates how Western companies engage with local market insiders through relational gatekeepers.
In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 Chinese and Western business managers based in China,Australia and New Zealand. Guided by the Yin-Yang balancing logic, we develop keyconstructs in gatekeeping. These are: (1) insider personal (guanxi) power andoutsider organizational power that coexist as gatekeeping antecedents; (2)gatekeeper resources of status (Mianzi) and favours (Renqing) and gatekeepercapabilities of balancing favourable with unfavourable network momentums (YingShi vs. Zao Shi).
The Yin-Yang balancing logic adds an important new dimension to the understandings of business relationshipsin international business. Both the holistic nature of the insider-outsiderbusiness relationship and the balancing function of relational gatekeepers areclearly established in our study. Our study finally offers managerialimplications for an international company to engage a relational gatekeeperstrategy to break into guanxi-controlled local business networks and manage thelevels of embeddedness in the local networked market.
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About the speaker
Dr Hongzhi Gao is Senior Lecturer in the School of Market and International Business at Victoria University and a Senior Fellow at the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre. Before coming to New Zealand, Dr Gao was chief analyst of foreign loans and risk management for Jilin Provincial Government in China. He was responsible for a number of international projects funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and governments of different countries. Dr Gao received a New Zealand Postgraduate Study Abroad Award in 2005 and the Early Career Researcher award from the Marketing Department of Otago University in 2007. He was the recipient of the Emerging Researcher Grant from the Asia New Zealand Foundation in 2008.
Dr Gao’s publications appear in a number of highly-regarded business journals including Long Range Planning, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, European Management Journal. His current interests regarding China include guanxi gatekeeping in Chinese-Western business relationships, corporate response strategies in food safety crises in China, branding and value co-creation in social media in China.
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If you are interested in attending this seminar, please email Lai Ching at laiching.tan@vuw.ac.nz or call 04 463 9549 to register.
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About Dr Hongzhi Gao
Dr Hongzhi Gao received his MCom in Marketing with distinction in 2004 and PhD in Marketing in 2009 from Otago University. He was a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Marketing Department of Otago University 2008-2009.
Before coming to New Zealand, Honghzhi was as a chief analyst of foreign loans and risk management for Jilin Provincial Government in China. He was responsible for a number of international projects funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and governments of different countries. He received a New Zealand Postgraduate Study Abroad Award in 2005 and the Early Career Researcher award from the Marketing Department of Otago University in 2007.
Hongzhi was the recipient of the Emerging Researcher Grant from the Asia New Zealand Foundation in 2008, and, together with Associate Professor John Knight, an Otago University Out-Of-Season Research Grant in 2008. The most recent grant Dr Gao received was the VUW Faculty of Commerce and Administration (FCA) Research Grant in November 2009.
Dr Hongzhi Gao’s publications appear in journals such as Journal of World Business, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of International Marketing, Long Range Planning, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, European Management Journal, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Appetite, the British Food Journal, and Journal of Business Communication. He has been on the editorial review board of Industrial Marketing Management since 2012 and Journal of International Marketing since 2015. His teaching covers a wide range of marketing and international business subjects.
Apart from his current role in the School, Hongzhi is now holding a senior research fellow position (former Associate Director 2009-2012) at the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, a multi-university program based at Victoria University of Wellington involving Otago, Canterbury, AUT, Waikato and Auckland as partners.
Hongzhi has devoted the last ten years to researching New Zealand firms' marketing and business strategies in China. He has provided consulting service and academic advice for many New Zealand firms with regard to China, including New Zealand Post, Ata Rangi and Obiqo