This article addresses corruption as a negative practice displaying the ‘darker side’ of social capital in Chinese guanxi and Russian blat/svyazi networks. It presents a conceptual framework integrating several research streams to establish a conceptual linkage between social network characteristics and three forms of corruption between business persons and public officials: cronyism, bribery, and extortion. We argue that the forms of corruption in a society are determined by the nature of social network ties and their underlying morality, with particularistic and general trust being key factors. Our framework depicts networks as three concentric circles representing three types of corruption resulting from their corresponding types of reciprocity: open, closed, and negative. We then apply the framework to the practice of guanxi in China and blat/svyazi in Russia. We propose that different network characteristics and different forms of corruption may help explain what we label the ‘China-Russia paradox’ of why corruption and high economic growth have co-existed in China, at least in the short term, but less so in Russia. We conclude with ethical and legal implications for doing business in those two transforming economies and offer suggestions for future research.

This study concerns balance in exchange relationships as described in the psychological contract literature about employees’ and employers’ promises and fulfilment of these promises. Balance is investigated, firstly, in relation to temporary versus permanent employment and, secondly, in relation to employees’ attitudes (fairness, job satisfaction, and intention to quit). Analyses were based on a Dutch sample of 290 temporary and 489 permanent workers. Regarding balance in mutual promises, we found that temporary workers were more likely to have psychological contracts with few mutual promises than permanent workers, while permanent workers were more likely to have psychological contracts with many mutual promises compared to temporary workers. Regarding balance in the fulfilment of promises, we found the opposite pattern, namely, that fulfilment was higher in temporary workers compared to permanent workers. Furthermore, only mutual high fulfilment of promises was associated with higher job satisfaction and fairness and with lower intentions to quit.

We examine the influence of social distance on levels of trust and reciprocity in China. Social distance, reflected in the indigenous concept of guanxi, is of central importance to Chinese culture. In Study 1, some participants participated in two financially salient trust games to measure behaviour, one with an anonymous classmate and the other with an anonymous, demographically identical non-classmate. Other participants, drawn from the same population, completed hypothetical surveys to gauge both hypothetical behaviour and expectations of others. Social distance effects on actual and hypothetical behaviour were statistically consistent. The results together corroborated the hypothesized negative relationship between trust and social distance. However, reciprocity was not responsive to social distance. Study 2 found that affect-based trust, but not cognition-based trust, played a mediating role in the relationship between social distance and interpersonal trust in a hypothetical scenario. We conclude that close guanxi ties in China engender affect-based trust, which is extended to shouren classmates. This is true despite the fact that no more cognition-based trust is placed nor reciprocity received or expected from classmates compared to demographically identical shengren non-classmates.

To add greater theoretical precision to a fundamental construct in social exchange theory - namely, Gouldner's ‘norm of reciprocity’, this study developed a measure of Sahlins' generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity types and validated its psychometric quality in China. For a comprehensive construct validation of the new scale, we carried out three studies. After generating a pool of items, we used a panel of experts to classify items according to conceptual definitions of the three reciprocity types. Using factor analysis, the first study revealed a factor structure consistent with Sahlins' reciprocity typology. In the second study, confirmatory factor analysis replicated this factor structure as well as demonstrated that the reciprocity factors are distinct from each other and other social-exchange constructs. In line with extant theories, the third study corroborated a nomological network relating reciprocity types to external constructs. Given this broad array of evidence for its construct validity, future researchers can employ this validated scale to investigate various forms of social exchange in Chinese work settings.