Jun-zi orientation: unique aspects of Asian business practices
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Jun-zi orientation: unique aspects of Asian business practices Vane-Ing Tian 1
& Alan
C. B. Tse 2 & Samart Powpaka 3
Received: 6 December 2019 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 / Published online: 4 December 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract With the growing importance of China and other Asian economies in international business, both executives and academic researchers are eager to understand the unique aspects of Asian business practices. Extant literature suggests that market orientation has a positive effect on firm performance in China. However, the moral and social norms in China are very different from those in Western societies; a business orientation developed based on Confucius ethics, a core Chinese philosophy that affects China and many Asian economies, should provide an alternative, or even better, explanation of Chinese companies’ business practices and successes than market orientation, which is developed in the West. On the basis of content analysis of ancient Chinese literature and case studies of recent events in Asian, this paper aims to propose Jun-zi orientation as a more cultural-specific organizational orientation alternative to market orientation for use in East Asian business context. Specifically, this paper provides extensive literature review on Jun-zi concept, a major concept in Confucianism and its five virtues. The effects of Jun-zi orientation and its five virtues on different aspects of business performance are also discussed. Keywords Chinese philosophy . Confucius . Corporate social responsibility . Strategic
orientation
* Vane-Ing Tian [email protected] Alan C. B. Tse [email protected] Samart Powpaka [email protected]
1
Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR
2
Department of Marketing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR
3
Department of Marketing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
396
V.-I. Tian et al.
Introduction During the last two decades, the term “market orientation” has received much attention in the marketing and strategic management literature. Research so far has generally supported that market orientation is positively associated with business performance (e.g., Cano et al. 2004; Ellis 2006; Kirca et al. 2005). There is also evidence suggesting that market orientation strongly improves employees’ job attitudes (Zhou et al. 2005) and enhances firm performance (Li and Zhou 2010) in China. With the growing importance of China and other Asian economies in international business, it is important to understand how traditional Chinese philosophies affect the business practices of firms operating in China. According to institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Luk et al. 2008; North 1990), the institutional context specifies the formal and informal “rules of the game” (North 1990), and determines what strategies work best and induce firms to choose a certain set of effective strategies. Since the cultural institution is an important el
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