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This study incorporates two Chinese cultural variables guanxi (personal relationship) and xinyong (personal trust) with other relational variables that are well defined in the west, i.e. supplier competence, commitment, conflict handling and satisfaction to see how they generate partnership relationship in a sino‐western relationship marketing context.

Research objectives are achieved through a combination of model building, quantitative design, testing of hypotheses using AMOS and analysis of findings. The subject scope is imbedded within cultural impact on relationship marketing in a sino‐western context.

This study finds that Western suppliers must be competent in product knowledge, market development, and adaptation to buyers' requirements to resolve conflicts in order to establish their xinyong with the buyers. Competence allows suppliers to show psychological commitment and establish guanxi with the buyers. It also shows that guanxi has a stronger influence on xinyong than on satisfaction. Suppliers should use guanxi to generate buyer's perception on xinyong whilst maintaining a reasonable level of buyer satisfaction with their products and services. Also, relationship between xinyong and satisfaction is not significant. A buyer's satisfaction on the supplier's product and services does not necessarily mean that this buyer perceives the supplier having xinyong because Chinese mix (up) business with personal relationships together and sometimes they make trade‐off between them!

This relationship study was conducted in a single‐product relationship context within the clothing industry in the PRC environment and therefore, its findings may not be generalised to other industry. Future Chinese relationship study should increase the sample size so as to cover more industries to allow comparison across industries. This is especially valid between a manufacturing and a service‐based industry. A service‐based industry may even emphasize more on guanxi and xinyong because of its intangible aspects! Future research should include the xinyong constructs, the concepts of face and reciprocity. To what extent these important Chinese cultural values affect satisfaction and xinyong have not been determined.

Effective conflict handling skills and guanxi are vital to formulate a xinyong positioning strategy. A supplier must be competent in product knowledge, market development skills, and adapt to a buyer's requirements to resolve conflicts with the buyer to establish xinyong.

This research is an initial attempt to establish the relationship between guanxi, xinyong and partnership relationship and generates a new research area in Chinese relationship marketing.

Examines the extent to which social policy adopted by the colonial government in Hong Kong (prior to its hand‐over China in 1997) has set the agenda for the government of the newly formed Special Administrative Region (SAR). Chronicles the historical development of social policy in Hong Kong since the inception of the colonial government in 1842; identifies that, with the exception of a short‐lived period of expansionism (stimulated by social unrest in the mid‐1960’s) social welfare provision appears to have been low on the government’s agenda and incremental in nature ‐ the emphasis being on economic growth, rather than public spending on welfare programmes. Examines the strengths and weaknesses of this incremental approach; outlines the commitment of the SAR government to the market economy and its proposals for a modest increase in welfare provision, essentially building on the legacy left behind by the colonial government.

This study is an initial attempt to look at the relationships among “inducement factors”, “face work” and “favour” from a Hong Kong‐China intra‐cultural negotiation environment. The model in this paper was modified from Hwang's paper on the same subject that has not been followed up in the past 13 years. The findings suggest that “face work” has four dimensions, namely “reciprocity”, “response”, “respect”, and “reputation”. Hong Kong negotiators, because of their similar ethnical background, manipulate these four dimensions to align themselves with powerful Chinese parties so as to help them negotiate through the complex Chinese relational society. They have three positions in the Chinese market, i.e. the impresser, smoother and cruel. By positioning themselves as “impressers”, the Hong Kong negotiators have the least psychic distance and transaction cost with their Chinese counterparts. Foreign negotiators are advised to use “face work” as a cultural strategy to help them negotiate through the complex business network in China. Also, they remember to practice this strategy widely because a not‐so‐important person may become a very important person in the future and therefore foreign negotiators will benefit on a longer term basis. They should also position themselves as “impresser” to give a modest image in the eyes of their Chinese counterparts. Modesty is highly valued in the Chinese society.

The purpose of this paper is to determine a model of how a foreign businessman obtains and maintains cronyism from his Chinese counterpart that emphasizes on an insider perspective to convert him from a new friend to an old friend of his Chinese counterpart through a guanxi adaptation mechanism.

A vigorous analysis of extant literature and an investigation of insider dynamics within a new friend/old friend perspective.

Gift‐giving is strategic and a foreign businessman must manage its monetary value very cautiously in order to alleviate the “face” and provide renqing so as to generate ganging and to obtain cronyism from his Chinese counterpart. In saying that, relativism prevails. A foreign company must establish a zone of ethical tolerance so that its executive knows the limits when practicing gift‐giving. In China, an old friend is a supporter and therefore a foreign business should not openly criticize his Chinese counterpart. Frequent visits to China must be maintained.

A foreign businessman needs to understand the guanxi dynamics of renqing and ganging and their sequential arrangement in the adaptation mechanism. He should use gift‐giving to offer renqing so as to establish ganging with his Chinese counterparts.

Provides a depth analysis of two emotional aspects in the guanxi adaptation mechanism, i.e. renqing and ganging which is a definitive device to convert a foreign businessman from a new friend to an old friend of his counterpart in the Chinese market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of two Chinese cultural constructs, guanxi (networks) and xinyong (interpersonal trust) in the burgeoning vegetable supply chains.

Data were collected using a validated survey instrument and 520 usable responses were obtained from vegetable farmers in three main vegetable producing provinces of China.

The findings revealed that farmers' guanxi promotes xinyong and collaboration of buyers. It was also determined that xinyong is the key mediator between guanxi and the two outcomes, loyalty and financial performance of farmers. Additionally, xinyong influences collaboration of the buyer.

This paper offers strategic insights into both academicians and practitioners associated with the vegetable industry regarding enhancement of inter-organisational relationships (loyalty) and financial performance of farmers in China through the embedded concepts of guanxi and xinyong.

Despite its potential importance, relatively little is known about these two concepts especially with respect to supply chains of fresh produce.

Guanxi has been a popular research topic but commentators do not have consensus on its ethical and positioning aspects. Attempts to tackle these two aspects and the problem of guanxi and favor according to a survey in a Sino‐Hong Kong business negotiation environment. Respondents perceived that there are four dimensions within the guanxi concept, i.e. opportunism, dynamism, business interaction, and protectionism. According to these four dimensions, they can be segmented into three clusters, i.e. the preserver, the wiser, and the braver. Different clusters have different psychological approaches to Sino‐foreign negotiation but there is no difference in their perceptions towards the relationship between guanxi and favor. Concludes that guanxi is basically ethical and it can be used as a positioning strategy in China. However, there is some evidence to suggest that guanxi and favor are sensitive and situation‐specific, but further research is needed to confirm these claims.

Based on a review of the Chinese ethic of bao (reciprocity), this paper aims to study the issue of reciprocity of trust at firm level by analyzing multiple-source data while controlling for the effects of several contextual variables.

The authors collected data from the supplier–buyer partnerships in China’s automotive industry. Hierarchical linear regression approach is adopted to test the hypotheses.

The data show that reciprocity of trust between parties involved has a significantly positive effect on the stability of the supplier–buyer partnership, and that this reciprocity also moderates the relationship between trust itself and stability. In addition, several contextual variables, i.e. the suppliers’ sensitiveness to their buyer’s need, personal contact of top managers, motivation to develop symbiotic partnership and firm location, can also have significant and positive effects on the stability of the supplier–buyer partnership.

This study presents empirical evidence on how the Chinese ethic of bao may influence the stability of the supplier–buyer partnerships, suggesting that examining this Chinese cultural element is a useful exercise. Related to this issue, the data show that the level of trust between the parties in business transactions differs, and that this difference influences the stability of the partnership. In addition, the study suggests that several other factors have significant and positive effects on the stability of the partnership. Interestingly, the data suggest that these effects are more likely to be observed when the reciprocity of trust or bao between the partners is taken into account. By demonstrating empirically the significant direct and moderating effect of bao or reciprocal trust, this study makes an important contribution to the literature on trust and the stability of the supplier–buyer partnership.

In construction, the involvement of complex human interactions and incompatible interests among negotiating parties would pose as an obstacle in any negotiation process. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of face in governing the behaviour of negotiating parties.

This paper identified the generic types of face-saving tactics used by construction negotiators, investigated the tactic-outcome relationships and examined the effects of face-inducement factors on these relationships with the use of moderated multiple regression (MMR).

A taxonomy of face-saving tactics has been developed by employing the technique of principal component of factor analysis. The results suggest that the use of face-saving tactics in construction negotiation would statistically result in an achievement of mutual agreement, maintenance of harmony and avoidance of offending situations. The MMR models finally affirm that some tactic-outcome relationships would significantly depend on the face-inducement factors.

This research highlights the usefulness of face-saving tactics in construction negotiation.

The findings revealed that these tactics can help facilitate the achievement of mutual agreement, maintain harmony and avoid offending situations. In this connection, an awareness of the proper use of face-saving tactics is worth-noticing in order to have successful dealings in negotiating project disputes.

In construction, there are some distinct features which may influence the use of face-saving tactics and the behaviour of project dispute negotiators. The findings of this research would provide an insight into promoting proactive and collaborative project dispute resolution.

Guanxi is the foundation of business success in Chinese and other Eastern cultures, but little is known about the extent to which guanxi influences brand outcomes in channel relationships. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel theoretical framework of interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi relationships in a sales channel context and how these relationships influence brand outcomes.

The authors conceptualize, develop and validate new scales measuring interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi and test the proposed model with a field study to validate the effects of guanxi on brand loyalty. The causal relationships between interpersonal guanxi and brand attitudes and affect are confirmed in a separate field experiment.

Findings show that interpersonal guanxi is antecedent to interorganizational guanxi, and these two constructs have significant and differential direct and indirect effects on brand attitudes, brand affect and brand loyalty.

New multidimensional scales measuring both interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi were developed. Both interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi are conceptualized as second-order reflective constructs measured by the reflective first-order guanxi elements of personal and firm trust, personal and firm long-term orientation, xinyong (integrity), reciprocity, interaction and face.

This work aims to improve upon the linearity of integrated CMOS current sensors used in switch mode power supply topologies, using a low-cost and low-voltage (less than 1.2 V) CMOS technology node. Improved sensor accuracy contributes to efficiency in switched supplies by reducing measurement errors when it is integrated with closed-loop control.

Integrated current-sensing methods were investigated and CMOS solutions were prioritized. These solutions were implemented and characterized in the desired process and shortcomings were identified. A theoretical analysis accompanied by simulated tests was used to refine improvements which were prototyped. The current sensor prototypes were fabricated and tested.

Measured and simulated results are presented which show improved linearity in current sensor outputs. Techniques borrowed from analog amplifier design can be used to improve the dynamic range and linearity of current-steered CMOS pairs for measuring current. A current sensor with a gain of 5 V/A operating in a 10 MHz switch mode supply environment is demonstrated.

This paper proposes an alternative approach to creating suitable bias conditions for linearity in a SenseFET topology. The proposed method is compact and architecturally simple in comparison to other techniques.