Transforming into the new era

Public Relations Review 39 (2013) 575–577

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Public Relations Review

Research in Brief

Transforming into the new era: public relations industry in

Hong Kong and China

Cindy S.B. Ngai ∗, Patrick P.K. Ng

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 9 August 2013

Received in revised form

23 September 2013

Accepted 1 October 2013

Keywords:

Public relations

Hong Kong and China

Role and function

Communication strategy

Code of practices

a b s t r a c t

The public relations industry as one ofthe key industries in Hong Kong has metamorphosed

into a new phase after the resumption of sovereignty to China. Based on in-depth interviews

with eight experienced corporate communication practitioners from multi-national and

sizeable local corporations inHongKong andChina,the study traces the recentdevelopment

of public relations and/or corporate communication (hereafter PR/CC) highlighting issues

of role and function, language and communication strategy, and ethics and professionalism.

© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Moving into the globalized era, the Public Relations (PR) industry in Greater China, particularly Hong Kong and China,

has to re-engineer in form and nature to keep up with the dynamic development in their counterparts. Such a structural

change has begun in PR industry in leading countries including US and European countries.

In this connection, quite a number of multi-national corporations in Europe and US have deliberately integrated the

PR into Corporate Communication (CC), in which the role and responsibilities of CC has been transforming. The Corporate

Communication Practices and Trends: United States (2001, 2003 and 2005) conducted by Corporate Communication Inter￾national (CCI) and the European Communication Monitor (2008, 2009) have confirmed that PR/CC nowadays plays a major

role in planning and decision making processes for most organizations in the west.

Several studies on the development of PR/CC affirmed the above view in Hong Kong and China as well (e.g. Wang, 2008;

Feng & Goodman, 2010). The findings of 2010 CCI study in China concluded that managing and improving corporate image

and reputation are more emphasized than the marketing and publicity needs (Feng & Goodman, 2010). Also, the Hong Kong

Chapter of CCI (CCI – HK) has published two survey studies to explore the strategic role and functions in Hong Kong (So,

Ngai, Wu, & Ng, 2013). However, there is a lack of empirically based practitioners’ interviews documenting the changes of

the PR/CC industry in Hong Kong and China (Li, Cropp, Sims, & Jin, 2012, p.708)

This paper is therefore set out to investigate the PR industry in Hong Kong and China in a qualitative approach to unfold

(1) the change of role and function, (2) use of social media, language and communication strategies, and (3) the necessity of

establishing a professional code and body.

∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Tel.: +852 27667465.

E-mail address: [email protected] (C.S.B. Ngai).

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.10.001