Building Relationships for Business in Taiwanese Hostess Clubs: the Psychological and Social Processes of Guanxi Development

Abstract

Guanxi refers to personal ties between individuals as well as to an individual's whole network of personal relationships. Most studies of business guanxi have focused on how guanxi may be used to achieve business goals and little attention has been paid to the process of guanxi development. We examined this process in a particular context commonly believed to be important for building business relationships in Taiwan: hostess clubs. We used an indigenous psychological framework to conduct a qualitative study in order to fully capture the participants' own perspectives of these processes. The participants were 43 Taiwanese men (mean age = 38.5) with a range of occupations. The results highlight the psychological and social processes associated with building guanxi for business in hostess clubs. The main purpose of socializing was to bond with and test other men by demonstrating a facility with the social etiquette and exchanging mianzi (face) and renqing (favours). Most participants said that the practice was helpful to their jobs or was part of their job description. The implications for women of the results are discussed.