Brazilian Jeitinho Versus Chinese Guanxi: Investigating their Informal Influence for International Business
Keywords:
Cross-cultural management. Informal influence. Corruptibility. International business. Brazilian jeitinho.Abstract
The Brazilian jeitinho and the Chinese guanxi are considered indigenous forms of informal influence. The first can be described as behavior tactics aimed at resolving social problems. The latter is broadly described as achieving goals through the use of social networks. These influence processes were chosen because they are commonly used in business negotiations in Brazil and China. Thus, understand their peculiarity is fundamental for the management of organizations involved in business in those two cultures. Therefore, we seek to determine whether such influence processes differ, as it is possible that a process said to be indigenous to a particular cultural context is in fact also to be found elsewhere. To investigate their uniqueness and the relationship between them, we conducted two studies. In both studies, participants rated representativeness, typicality and positivity of social scenarios, completed a 21-item version of the Schwartz’s Portrait Value Survey and a scale regarding attitudes towards corruption. Data were analyzed by a series of mean differences tests and stepwise regressions, separately for each nation, and the results are presented by sample. There were two samples: university students’ sample (with 266 Brazilian and 220 Chinese) and managers sample (with 101 Singapore Chinese and 246 Brazilian). Brazil scored significantly higher on Conservation and Self-Enhancement values when compared to China. Chinese respondents perceived the guanxi scenarios as more typical of what happens in China than the jeitinho scenarios, with a reverse pattern being observed for Brazilians. Although Brazilian respondents evaluated jeitinho less positively than Chinese respondents evaluated guanxi scenarios, Brazilians did not perceive jeitinho as more positive than guanxi. For the managers’ samples, it was observed that Brazilians had a significantly lower score on attitudes toward business corruptibility when compared to Chinese managers. Stepwise regressions suggest that positivity was linked with business corruptibility for the respective scenario type by nation.
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