How can an indigenous concept enter the international academic circle: the case of guanxi

As an indigenous concept of China, guanxi has gained broad acceptance by the west without further translation or interpretation during the past 30 years, which is a fascinating topic to investigate. In order to discover the dissemination mechanism of the concept of guanxi, this study employs co-citation analysis and citation analysis to visualize the intellectual base and the evolution of guanxi studies; also it pinpoints the most productive authors, institutions and journals. The findings may provide some guidance for the scientific knowledge dissemination.