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A Rejoinder to: ‘Questioning the Appropriateness of Examining Guanxi in a Wasta Environment: Why Context Should Be Front and Center in Informal Network Research – A Commentary on “De-Linking from Western Epistemologies: Using Guanxi-Type Relationships to Attract and Retain Hotel Guests in the Middle East”’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2023

Ahmed Shaalan ,
Riyad Eid Open the ORCID record for Riyad Eid [Opens in a new window]  and
Marwa E. Tourky
Ahmed Shaalan
Affiliation:
Birmingham University, Birmingham Business School, Birmingham, UK
Riyad Eid*
Affiliation:
United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE
Marwa E. Tourky
Affiliation:
Cranfield University, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield, UK
*
Corresponding author: Riyad Eid (riyad.aly@uaeu.ac.ae)
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Extract

This rejoinder responds to a commentary (Horak et al., 2023) on our article ‘De-Linking from Western Epistemologies: Using Guanxi-Type Relationships to Attract and Retain Hotel Guests in the Middle East' (2022). We thank the authors for engaging with our work and are grateful to the editor for the chance to respond. Firstly, we do not accept the central assertion that we imposed the Chinese concept of guanxi on a Middle Eastern context. Some aspects of guanxi extend beyond China, and we consider it part of our role as researchers to explore universal behavioral aspects that transcend specific cultural settings. While we described guanxi to introduce the variables, we drew a clear distinction between guanxi itself and guanxi-type relationships, and provided on page 859 an explicit statement about what we meant by the term ‘guanxi-type relationships’, i.e. the networks of interpersonal ties found in the Middle East. While this distinction could have been more clearly emphasized in places, we consider that the article as a whole made it abundantly clear.

Keywords

customer retentionguanxi-type relationshipshotel guestsMiddle East
Type
Dialogue, Debate, and Discussion
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 19 , Issue 5 , October 2023 , pp. 1046 - 1048
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Association for Chinese Management Research

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