HIGH POINT, N.C., July 14, 2015 – An article co-authored by Dr. Patricia Swafford, associate professor of management at High Point University, won Outstanding Paper of 2014 in the Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management. The paper discusses similarities and differences in business networking in Chinese and Western cultures, an important topic for U.S. firms seeking to increase worldwide sales by expanding into China.
Swafford and her co-authors explain the distinctions between building social capital through goodwill in Western cultures, and guanxi, the Chinese system of social networks and relationships, in their paper titled, “Contextualizing or decontextualizing? The peril of using Western social capital scales in China.”
Results of surveying Chinese professionals found that while there are similarities in the way Chinese and Western cultures navigate business relationships, there are also key differences.
“While developing close relationships and sharing common values are important in Western culture, it is the building of trust and cultivating a long-term commitment to the relationship that truly enhances the quality of business transactions in China,” Swafford explains. “Thus, U.S. businesses working with Chinese suppliers need to focus on building trust as opposed to sharing common values. They must do this while making long-term commitments for future business with the supplier.”
Swafford discusses these strategies with students she teaches in the Master of Business Administration program in HPU’s Phillips School of Business. She says cultural awareness is critical to building business relationships worldwide.
“Given the global nature of today’s industries, it is important that buyers in multinational corporations understand the concept of social capital and how it may vary in different cultures.”
Swafford collaborated with Dr. Sherry Jackson from the University of Texas at Tyler and Dr. Edmund Prater from the University of Texas at Arlington in publishing this research.