The Darker Side of Social Networks in Transforming Economies: Corrupt Exchange in ChineseGuanxiand RussianBlat/Svyazi
研究中国关系和俄罗斯Blat/Svyazi网络中腐败的阴暗面，提出一个概念框架，将社会网络特征与三种腐败形式（裙带关系、贿赂、敲诈）联系起来，并解释中俄腐败与经济增长并存的悖论。
ABSTRACT 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.