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From above discussion, it would be clear that three core Confucianism tenets, which lie in the heart of Chinese behaviour, are consistent with stakeholder theory.
4.3 Another Confucianism Influence: Family Structure and Stakeholder Theory
In China, families remain the basic survival unities, that they are largely self-sufficient, that their members are largely motivated by the pragmatic exigencies of protecting and enhancing the family resources on which they in turn are highly dependent. Therefore, a person is not purely the person himself. While he is interdependent and interconnected among related persons, which seems more like a system. Confucius'' ideas about family were not abstract, but pragmatic, which meant a family was not determined by absolutes as much as it was by circumstances and relationships. The goal was to ensure a person performed his key roles and obligations well. The main relationships in a family were: 1. Father—son, 2. Husband—wife, 3. Elder brother--younger brother. All the relationships were between a superior and inferior, which will be discussed later. In respect to Confucius'' ideas, there was a clear attempt of family members to keep families as big as possible, in ancient time. Thus, separation of a family would be deemed as the most inhumane way to treat ancestors.
In order to ensure to effectively operate a big family, the person of the oldest generation in a family normally had unchallengeable power of decision-making, which also lies on the instruction of Li. As mentioned above, all the relationships among a family are a superior and inferior. Depending on where one stood, a person needed to learn proper behavior for one''s role. A son should obey his father and uphold his family. A younger brother should obey his older brother for the same reason. So, too, wives must obey their husband. Through obedience, all upheld the proper distribution of power and authority. Even now, lots of Chinese families in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas still maintain conservative attitudes and roots of authoritarian paternalism.
At that time, members of a family had not individual property other than personal belongings. Family property was the property of the whole family, officially belonged to head of the family, Jiazhang. For instance, if a family member broke up with his family, he was legally deprived any property. Although there were lots of sad examples, the rule made family identities remarkably important to Chinese. Therefore, relationships between CFFs and families are considered as single entities. It is commonly accepted that Chinese businessmen usually look after their firms as personal property. Thus, they would be more sensitive to economic return than Western managers, since they have material relations with firms. It is fully understood by Chinese that, reputation and social behaviour of corporations are important elements to enhance economic performance. Moreover, Because of this great close relation, performance of CFFs is substantially related with holding family, not only economically but also socially. For example, if a CFF damages environment, not only the firm but also the family itself would lose its reputation under Chinese culture. Clearly, this situation pushes CFFs more likely to care stakeholders’ interests.
4.4 Changes and Limits of Confucianism
After the First Opium War, the Chinese were forced to agree to peace under the Treaty of Nanking. The treaty imposed on the Chinese was weighted entirely to the British side. Its first and fundamental demand was for British "extraterritoriality" all British citizens would be subjected to British, not Chinese, law if they committed any crime on Chinese soil. No restrictions were placed on British trade, and, as a consequence, opium trade more than doubled in the three decades following the Treaty of Nanking. Then, lots of countries came to China to seek any benefits as they could. Under those circumstances, Chinese culture was mixed with western styles. Gradually, Confucianism lost its dominant place in Chinese lives.
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