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This research aims to explore how outsider entrepreneurs maintain harmonious guanxi with stakeholders (especially the government) in an ethnic minority area of less-developed western China.

This paper is derived from an ethnographic study undertaken by the first author who lived for 12 consecutive months in the case area.

This research indicates that outsider entrepreneurs need to balance between standards required by industry associations and sound “guanxi”, between bureaucratic arrangements and business practice, between economic profit and lifestyle within a guanxi-dominated society. It may be argued that the continuance of relationships represents the continuance of resources and benefits and the maintenance of social and political capital.

One issue in the relationship with local governments is the question to what degree politicians can influence enterprises’ business? Political guanxi is thus an important key to any understanding of the local political scene. In China, the Chinese philosophy that Harmony is the most precious is a strategy often adopted in mediation and operation.

Factors including guanxi, entrepreneurs’ operation motivations, government-directed political system, indigenous people and culture and Butler’s tourism area life cycle (TALC) model are considered in the discussion. This study expands the knowledge pertaining to hostels in China in relation to their interaction with local governments and locals to maintain a good guanxi. It highlights the multiple dimensions of guanxi in terms of micro-and macro-perspectives with reference to functionality and cultural requirements.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Results showed men were more likely to receive positive peer assessments than women. Even when women presented themselves as “actively” as men, they received less favorable evaluations. The results also showed women’s failures were more likely to be exaggerated.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Drawing upon the social cognitive and customer engagement theories, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how individuals’ simple follow, purely aiming for information but with little contribution, could affect fans behavior and make them engage in company social network (CSN). The study identifies the impact of personal motivators (follower participation motivation), environmental antecedents (perception of information quality) and individual behavior (fan engagement behavior and stickiness) on CSNs and examines the interaction relationship between the follower participation motivation and perception of information quality.

Data collected from 392 valid questionnaires from WeChat Official Account users were analyzed by structural equation modeling.

Personal factor such as follower participation motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic motivator) was found to be significant predictor of fan engagement behavior. Environmental factor (perception of information quality: perceived usefulness as well as perceived entertainment) was a significant factor in determining followers’ proclivity to engage in CNSs. One significant interaction effect was found: the effect of perceived entertainment on fan engagement behavior was manifested to a greater extent when followers’ participation aimed for intrinsic motivator. The second interaction effect, between the extrinsic motivator and perceived usefulness, was also found to be statistically significant.

This study enriches and extends the studies on the theories of customer engagement and social cognitive theory. It applies the above theories to CSNs and advances CSNs research by taking into consideration both personal and environmental factors (follower participation motivation and perception of information quality), and the interaction effects of the two on individual behavior.

Thriving brand communities are inseparable from engaged members and their word-of-mouth behavior. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which customer experience elevates customer engagement and consequent word-of-mouth intention in online brand communities, and how.

From the perspective of service ecosystem theory, a framework with several hypotheses was proposed. The model was verified with structural equation modeling based on questionnaire data collected from smartphone communities in China.

Empirical results indicate that customer experience promotes community engagement, and further enhances word-of-mouth intention. Furthermore, the mediating effect of community engagement in the relation between customer experience (social support and flow) and word-of-mouth intention has been verified.

This paper informs practitioners about the importance of experience co-creation with community members in brand and community promotion, and provides several implications to encourage more engaged customers with fostering pleasant customer experiences.

This study contributes to the theory of service ecosystem by empirical examination of its several propositions in a brand community context. The paper extends the present theory with the discussion of the mediation effect of community engagement in the continuing value co-creation process.