| Summary: | Gratitude research sees gratitude primarily as a positive emotion or a positive character. This direction ignores a more traditional focus on the role of affects in social experiences taken by this study. The social experience of interest was reciprocity. As reciprocation was suggested to be the sole gratitude expression, I argued that gratitude expression is socio-culturally shaped. This led me to exploring what and how socio-cultural factors shape gratitude expression. The study was exploratory and the context of inquiry was Chinese. Reciprocity and gratitude were argued to be under business guanxi, a Chinese indigenous concept. A model of business guanxi was built. The results partially supported the model and strongly suggested that gratitude expression is socio-culturally shaped.
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