Entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, network ties, and performance: Study of entrepreneurial firms in a developing economy

The changing role of guanxi in influencing the development of entrepreneurial companies: a case study of the emergence of pharmaceutical companies in China

“…Guanxi can guide entrepreneurial companies in terms of: choosing suitable partners, obtaining useful information and complementary resources and capabilities (Pun et al 2000;, recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities, accurately positioning themselves with regards to the needs of market development , and reducing uncertainty and risk in an unstable institutional environment Liao and Sohmen 2001;. Moreover, guanxi also serves as a governance function, which can reduce the negative influence on firm performance exerted by factors such as weak market-supporting institutions, the absence or imperfection of contractual property rights agreements and so on Boso et al 2013). …”

“…This result, too, has been called into doubt, however. Boso et al (2013) proposed that entrepreneurial companies should build strong ties with government agencies and managers in other business organizations to help them achieve greater profits through both entrepreneurial and market-oriented efforts. It is thus evident that whether or not strong guanxi will positively influence the development of entrepreneurial companies, success is ambiguous and decided by various factors.…”

“…Guanxi networks are usually manifested in multidivisional structures, as shown by Lin (1999) and Boso et al (2013). Therefore, members engaged in guanxi of entrepreneurial companies are at different level of hierarchy and have different positions in the guanxi structure.…”

“…Empirically, prior studies that addressed the issue of how guanxi influences entrepreneurial companies' performance either adopted a qualitative case study methodology McNally 2011) or used structural equation modes (Yang and Jiang 2010) or regression models Zolin et al 2011;Boso et al 2013;Arribas et al 2012). Although these researchers explored the effects of guanxi on entrepreneurial companies' development, they failed to depict how guanxi changes over time or how it dynamically influences development through its different attributes.…”

“…It is uncertain whether entrepreneurial companies can achieve success if they depend solely on market information and formal contracts, and they must therefore rely on guanxi to compensate for institutional paucities (De Clercq et al 2010;Boso et al 2013) and improve entrepreneurial efficiency. But guanxi is not a panacea for entrepreneurial activities in China, and for it to function well, it needs to be paired with institutional, strategic and organizational attributes .…”