At the beginning of 2017, I had a tremendous privilege to interview Melinda Gates at her private office near Seattle. And it is precious for me to get inspired by a powerful woman like her, from whom I understood better about what charitable organization can do, as well as how Bill & Melinda Gates foundation works towards making real changes and progress in the world. Below...

This case study research has examined the public relations practice of LinkedIn China and its sub-brand Chitu to determine whether the stakeholder and relationship theories from the Western perspective apply to organizations in China. This research went beyond examining previous studies on the applicability of stakeholder relationship management because it added more relate...

                                                       Issues Management

Issues management is “an anticipatory, strategic management process that helps organizations detect and respond appropriately to emerging trends or changes in the socio-...

I created this section by applying a combination of three approaches: interviews, observation of and user experience on the Chitu app, as well as participation in Chitu’s featured activities. Regarding how Guanxi influences Chitu’s relationship cultivation strategy, there are several important discoveries that are worth noticing:  

Making Use of Reciprocity in Guanxi Cultur...

As analyzed above, the most important stakeholders for Chitu are those consumers, who comprise the largest population of users, and as well, because of their huge numbers, they are a significant source of revenue and profit, without which Chitu, or any other business can survive. Noticeably, Chitu’s public relations personnel cooperate actively and closely with its marketin...

It became clear during the interviews and document analysis that Chitu is a type of mobile internet product created by LinkedIn China to meet the demands of the developing business world. Among many other factors that establish its positive and long-term development strategies, maintaining good relationships with two key groups of stakeholders—employees and users has been v...

Although LinkedIn, a social networking giant is a well-recognized brand worldwide, it has encountered potentially daunting challenges doing business in the Chinese market because of the fact that many foreign internet companies had failed. From its very inception, LinkedIn China and Chitu have been enthusiastically developing creative and strategic ways to cultivate relatio...

As has been mentioned in the former blog, many internet companies fail in China because of not establishing relationship cultivation strategies based on a clear understanding of the Chinese market, and essential cultural phenomena. Of those cultural dimensions, Guanxi is one of the most important, for it is predicated upon “network, connection, and personal relationships.”...

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China, with the world’s largest Internet population, and the second largest economy, is an emerging market with a rapidly growing number of SNS users and a booming public relations industry. Its numeric and economic power is not to be neglected. According to Yeo and Li (2012), the Chinese internet is “one of the most vibrant economic and social cyberspace in the...

That LinkedIn China and Chitu have prospered in China, where other tech companies have failed, is predicated upon their developing a well-rounded relationship cultivation plan to meet the needs of local stakeholders. Fundamental to this plan is that LinkedIn China and Chitu understand the value of relationship cultivation, and, therefore, implement various strategies conduc...