Research On Shanxi Merchants' Families And The Management Of Shanxi Piaoha

Shanxi Banks have many similarities with modern family enterprise in management.Therefore,the study of Shanxi Banks has an important enlightening value for modern family business management.Compared with the general business organizations,family-run business organization contains many unique aspects in management style,corporate culture and social relations.Many scholars have also done a lot of qualitative and quantitative studies on family enterprises,aiming to provide more scientific guidance for modern management practice.However,there are different opinions among scholars on the influence of family on business organizations.In the history of Chinese enterprises,family-run business organizations are very common,Shanxi Banks is one of typical and well-known family-owned business organization.Population,economy and culture of its family have profoundly affects on the prosperity and decline of the organization.Historical data have confirmed this point.In the view of geography,the family built a set of acquaintances society punishment mechanism based on population,this mechanism can effectively prevent moral hazard of the staff,make the shareholders can safely absorb talents,delegate powers to lower levels and ultimately promote the shareholding system,which finally became a unique advantage in Shanxi Banks.Not only that,but this kind of trust relationship also make Shanxi Banks expand their business empires from Shanxi to Beijing,Sichuan,Shanghai and Mongolia without convenient traffic condition.Therefore,from the aspects of talent,the family will not necessarily hinder the development of business.With the reasonable utilization of the characteristics of family,Shanxi Banks can also obtain social capital.In other places,the Shanxi Banks merchants gradually established a trust relationship with foreigners and played an important social function in the local area.It can be seen that the trust relationship between merchants at that time began to break through the restrictions of blood and geography.From the aspects of economy,families expanded their wealth through transformation,marriage and business cooperation,laying a solid economic foundation for the operation of Shanxi bank,which meet the demand for exchange and resist the risk At the same time,the family also used these economic funds to launch a new round of relationship investment,which made the social capital of Shanxi bank grow and grow.Moreover,families also liked to use family funds to build houses,which leaves many architectural arts for the modern era,such as Qiao courtyard,Wang Courtyard and Qu courtyard.On the one hand,economy is the foundation for the development of commercial organizations,on the other hand,it will bring the disadvantages of laziness and conservatism to commercial organizations.With the continuous wars,the collapse of the Qing government and the extravagance of the merchants’ children,the social and economic capital accumulated by the family for generations gradually collapsed,leaving only the silent houses as a warning legacy.It can be seen that the key factor for the sustainable development of family-run business organizations is the inter generational inheritance,which is also very important for modern family enterprises.In terms of culture,the ideal of traditional Confucian scholars has gradually changed from official career to "human ethics" and "daily use",which is related to the deteriorating political environment and the culture of filial piety.In the harsh living environment,people had to choose to abandon Confucianism and start business in order to shoulder their family responsibilities,which led to a large number of Confucian merchants represented by Qiao Zhiyong,Qu Benqiao and Ji Dingguo.These people had the spirit of Confucian merchants who were loyal and aware of the overall situation,and played a vital role in regional governance,educational inheritance and donation by the imperial court.In terms of regional governance,they contributed and presided over the construction of temples,city walls,guild halls and charitable institutions,improving the local living environment.In terms of educational inheritance,they not only taught their children to abide by the moral code of Confucianism,but also established the school of Righteousness in the region and preserved many precious cultural resources.In the imperial donation,families always played a vanguard role,contributing a lot of money and materials to the war.These behaviors not only improved the social prestige of families,but also built a good image of Shanxi Banks’ honest management,which help them absorb more customers and financial resources,and then broadened its business scope.In terms of power,the family expanded its influence by means of scientific investigation,official donation and marriage,which can realize the ideal family model integrating government and business.Family officials can take advantage of their authority to provide convenience and opportunities for the operation of Shanxi banks,and improve the social influence of the family by taking advantage of their social status.In turn,those businessmen in the family can provide financial support to the children with the talent to read and help them enter the political career.However,with the emergence of the official donation system,children increasingly rely on wealth rather than ability to enter the official field,which is not only bad for the cultivation of children,but also makes the family be involved in the deadly political vortex.In addition,due to the widespread of business ideas,the number of people taking part in the imperial examinations in The Whole Shanxi region plummeted during the Qing Dynasty,which was not only the loss of a certain family,but also bad for the long-term development of Shanxi society.To sum up,we can see that families have a long-term and profound impact on the operation and management of Shanxi Banks,which is reflected in the aspects of capital,system,culture and inheritance.This enlighten that the modern family business in the development process: first,must separate funds of the organization and the family for preventing the family to transfer the organization’s operating funds.Second,must constantly innovate the organization’s system to prevent the appearance of parental dictatorship.Third,pay attention to inheritance and choose suitable successors to take over the family industry.Fourth,we should put an end to laziness,extravagance and corruption,advocate the principle of making profits based on justice and pioneering and innovative management,and avoid using unreasonable means to obtain family wealth.