HCP’s Zhenzhong Si coauthors paper that examines the community building process of successful alternative food networks in China with Yanyan Li, Yuxin Miao and Li Zhou. The paper entitled “How Does the Concept of Guanxi-circle Contribute to Community Building in Alternative Food Networks? Six Case Studies from China” is published in the journal Behavioral Sciences. It reveals how alternative food networks utilize personal relationships (guanxi in Chinese) between funders and customers and among customers to establish and retain a strong customer base. The study identifies a three-stage framework for understanding the community building process of alternative food networks. It argues that to strengthen the community, operators of these initiatives should inspire key members to form secondary guanxi-circles by enhancing their cognitive trust and emotional trust.
