A long-standing debate has taken place in the organizational sociology and social network literatures about the relative advantages of network closure versus structural holes in the generation of social capital. There is recent evidence that these advantages differ across cultures and between East Asia and the West in particular, but existing network models are unable to explain why or address cultural variation in general. This paper seeks to provide a solution by integrating a culture-embedded rational model of action into the social network model of structure, using this not only to re-examine the closure versus structural hole debate, but also to tie it to the literature on Confucian capitalism and the ‘East Asian Model’ of the firm. We argue that this integrated approach allows us to systematically analyse the relationship between culture and behaviour in networks and, more specifically, to explain why closure has been a more powerful source of productivity in East Asia than the West.

This study compares East Asians' evaluations of task and maintenance inputs in reward allocation decisions and examines the effects that inequity in various types of inputs and rewards have on fairness judgements. Based on a sample of 587 employees from various organizations in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea, we find that Hong Kong Chinese and South Korean employees are more likely to want their organizations and supervisors to emphasize maintenance inputs, while Japanese employees value task inputs in reward allocation. Results also show that there are significant country differences in fairness judgements associated with various types of inputs. For example, the positive relationship between pay level and perceived fairness of pay is significantly stronger when task contributions are high rather than low among Japanese employees but not among Hong Kong and South Korean employees. The concept of independent self-construal (similar to individualism at the societal level) seems to provide an adequate account of the country differences in choice of input preferences but not fairness judgements.

What is the relationship between individual members' organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) and team-level performance? Using a social cognitive perspective, the current study proposes that the relationship is mediated by a team's cohesion and collective efficacy. We collected data at two points in time from three sources with a sample of 462 salespersons representing 62 teams (62 branches) of a financial institute in Taiwan. The results support the theoretical argument that OCB positively influences organizational performance. Furthermore, group cohesion and collective efficacy fully mediated the direct effects of OCB towards individuals and the organization on team performance. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Drawing on institutional theory, this study empirically examines the relationship between a firm's levels of ownership concentration and product innovation and the mediating effect of learning orientation, using a sample of 351 Chinese firms. Does ownership concentration hinder or promote firm innovation? Perspectives on this relationship are divergent. This study examines the link between ownership concentration and product innovation and further examines whether and how ownership influences firm innovation through organizational learning. The results suggest that ownership concentration has an inverse U-shaped relationship to product innovation and to learning orientation. In addition, learning orientation mediates the curvilinear relationship between ownership concentration and product innovation. We discuss the study's contributions, managerial implications and directions for future research.

This article explores the dynamic interactions between entrepreneurs and politicians in transitional China through the lens of management buyouts. Specifically, we identify two contrasting outcomes of entrepreneur–politician alliances: privatization buyouts by entrepreneurs implying sustainable original alliances and failed management buyouts implying the collapse of the original alliances. Drawing on the rent appropriation literature, we treat Chinese management buyouts as bargaining, clarification, and redistribution of organizational rent between entrepreneurs and the government agencies represented by local politicians. We further develop a model of entrepreneur–politician bargaining that identifies the determinants of varying rent bargaining and management buyout outcomes.

This article discusses how organizations exchange with one another in China, focusing on the type of organizational ownership and the form of governance mechanism. The theoretical foundation builds on institutional theory, resource dependence theory, agency theory, and evolutionary theory. Given the three main forms of organizations in China – state-owned enterprises, privately owned enterprises, and foreign-invested enterprises - we show how these organizations choose between two types of governance mechanisms, contracts and guanxi, to manage interorganizational exchanges. We then analyze the possible modes of interaction between organizational forms. We argue that the relative importance of guanxi is likely to decline or that guanxi will shift from being primary in some organizations to complementary in all organizations with the progress of market transition. This conceptual framework is expected to help provide the momentum for further theoretical exploration and empirical study in this area.