The Impact of Yingchou on Females and Their Guanxi Building in Taiwan.

Abstract

This qualitative exploratory study sought to determine females’ opinions of yingchou, which refers to social interactions involving heavy alcohol consumption and womanizing; investigate if yingchou was a key means to building helper guanxi and business guanxi, which could be important for instrumental benefits in organizational and business settings respectively; and establish whether females were disadvantaged in yingchou. Participants were 9 Taiwanese females from various occupations. Results showed that females believed yingchou was important to guanxi building in Taiwan and regarded yingchou as the best means to cultivating guanxi. While females were disadvantaged in using yingchou to build guanxi, they had alternative means to overcome this. The issue of an yingchou culture and its implications emerged as important considerations.