The Strength of Strong Ties in Job Searching in China: An Overview

The roles and influences of social networks in job markets is a heated topic. China is a unique object of research that contributes to revealing how these dynamics can differ between contexts. Though the Strength of Weak Ties Theory has been widely accepted to be depicting the job markets in the Western world, many researchers hypothesized that job seekers in China receive more benefit from strong ties because of the collectivist characteristics of Chinese culture, the existence of institutional holes, and mechanism of influence peddling. Moreover, China, which transited from planned economy to a more marketized one, provides clues about how marketization influences the dynamics of using strong ties. This article reviews previous studies and evidence that support and explain the strength of strong ties in Chinese job market, as well as counterarguments which claim the former ones to be overestimating such strength. This article also discusses potential topics for further investigations.