手机是移动的电话。在西方社会,手机的引入是在电话已经充分融入社会几十年以后发生的。手机与电话是一个序贯过程。而中国手机现象与发达国家极不相同——它与电话的普及几乎是一个同步过程。手机的使用扩散进程几乎与固话同步;在许多地区,手机使用甚至早于固话网的铺设。对许多中国人来说,手机(而不是电话)是他们拥有的第一部通话工具。而在西方发达国家,电话的普及早于20世纪70年代便实现了。手机作为一个人际交流的工具,它与现代化是如何相互影响相互作用的?在这方面西方文献鲜有论述,因为对西方社会来说,现代化问题在手机出现以前的几十年前就已经实现了。西方面对的是手机与后现代社会(或信息化社会)的影响与问题。然而对于应用手机来推行现代化的中国和其他第三世界国家来说,如何研究分析手机的现代性意义与影响至关重要。手机发展一个显著特征是,生意人是手机最初的使用者。商人,尤其是中小企业家是手机的一个最重要的用户群。中国市场上有大量面向商务使用者的手机和服务计划。很明显,生意人的使用习惯已经对手机的设计发展带来了影响;另一方面,手机的使用也影响着生意人的商业运作。尽管如此,从传播技术和传播学角度来探讨中国手机商务使用社会意义的研究至今仍然是凤毛麟角。本文作者认为,电话最本质的现代意义是赋予了从事传统生产的人们(农民、小手工业者等)做生意的自由,是经商活动的加速器。它的使用,降低了商业活动中的通讯、交通和交易成本,扩大了商业信息交流网络,在很大程度上降低了人们从事经商活动的门槛,使他们得以从事商业贸易经营活动,甚至进入国际贸易市场。也只有从这个意义上,才能更深刻地理解手机作为电话的第二代人际通讯工具,对中国和第三世界国家所产生的深刻影响。手机首先是人民摆脱贫困的一个钥匙,它赋予广大人民更大自由从事经商活动,从而改变自身的贫困状态。也只有从这个角度,才能认识到我们所做的这个手机使用与企业家活动研究的意义。基于这种理论思路,本文探讨手机在中国社会中的现代化意义,即手机在中国大众经商活动中的社会意义和影响的问题,聚焦于手机使用与中小企业者商务活动的关系。研究的具体案例城市是福建省泉州市——中国最具活力的商业城市之一。研究的核心是福建泉州的私营企业家是如何使用手机的,以及这种手机使用如何影响了商业运作、客户联系、市场拓展、企业管理、个人生活安排等的关系,以及更深层的社会含义等。本研究综合运用三种理论——技术的社会塑造理论(social shaping of technology)、赋予理论(affordance theory)和驯化理论(domestication theory),通过对中国福建企业者的日常手机使用的采访和质化分析,来探讨中国企业者的手机使用与生意运作的关系,特别是在他们手机使用过程中所展现出来的手机的社会功能与角色。在当今全球化的社会中,福建商人以自己一贯的勤奋和拼搏,成为一个较为突出的商业群体。本文着眼于考察福建企业家的商业运作特征是如何反映在手机使用上以及手机技术特性所带来的企业家对手机的创新使用。研究成果表明,手机大大增强了福建企业者的进取性商业文化特征。手机使24小时不间断的商业运作成为可能;手机带给了企业者不受地域限制的“移动办公室”;手机成为一个演绎商业技巧与策略的平台;手机演变成了福建企业者生活的中心轴,手机成了生意人手中的“神杖”。 The phone is a mobile phone. In Western societies, the introduction of cell phones took place decades after the phone had been fully integrated into society. Cell phones and phones are a sequential process. The phenomenon of China’s mobile phone and developed countries very different - it is almost universal with the phone is a synchronization process. The proliferation of mobile phones is almost in sync with fixed-line deployment; in many areas, handsets are used even earlier than fixed-line networks. For many Chinese, cell phones (rather than phones) are the first calling tool they have. In western developed countries, the popularity of telephony was realized as early as the 1970s. How mobile phones interact with each other as an interpersonal communication tool? There is little discussion in this regard in Western literature as the issue of modernization has been realized in the decades before the advent of mobile phones . The West is facing the impact of mobile phones and post-modern society (or information society) and problems. However, for the application of mobile phones to modernize China and other Third World countries, it is of crucial importance to study and analyze the significance and impact of the modernity of mobile phones. A notable feature of mobile phone development is that the business owner is the first user of the phone. Traders, especially SMEs, are one of the most important user groups in mobile phones. There are a large number of mobile phones and service plans for business users in the Chinese market. Obviously, the habits of businessmen have had an impact on the design and development of mobile phones; on the other hand, the use of mobile phones has also affected the business operations of businessmen. In spite of this, the research on the social significance of using mobile phones in China from the perspective of communication technology and communication is still rare. According to the author, the most essential and modern significance of telephony is the freedom to do business with people engaged in traditional production (farmers, handicraftsmen, etc.) and accelerators of business activities. Its use has reduced the costs of communications, transportation and transactions in commercial activities and expanded the network of commercial information exchanges, to a large extent, has lowered the threshold for people to engage in business activities, enabled them to engage in business and trade operations and even entered the international Trade market. Only in this sense can we have a deeper understanding of the profound impact mobile phones as the second generation of interpersonal communication tools for telephony have on China and the third world countries. Mobile phones are, above all, a key to the people’s escape from poverty. They give the general public more freedom to engage in business activities and thereby change their own poverty status. It is only from this perspective that we can recognize the significance of the research on mobile phone use and entrepreneurship that we have done. Based on this theoretical train of thought, this article explores the modern significance of mobile phones in Chinese society, namely the social significance and impact of handsets in China’s mass business activities and focuses on the relationship between mobile phone use and the business activities of SMEs. The specific case study city is Quanzhou, Fujian Province - one of China’s most dynamic commercial city. At the heart of the study is how private-owned entrepreneurs in Quanzhou, Fujian, use mobile phones and how this use of mobile phones affects the relationship between business operations, customer relations, market expansion, business management, personal living arrangements, and deeper social implications . In this study, we use three theories - the social shaping of technology, the affordance theory and the domestication theory. Through the interviews and qualifications of the daily mobile phone use of Fujian enterprises in China, Analysis to explore the relationship between mobile phone use and business operation of Chinese businesspeople, especially the social functions and roles of mobile phones that are revealed during the use of their mobile phones. In today’s globalized society, Fujian businessmen, with their usual diligence and hard work, have become a prominent business group. This article examines how the entrepreneurial business operation characteristics of Fujian entrepreneurs are reflected in the innovative use of handsets by entrepreneurs as well as the technological features of handsets. The research results show that mobile phones greatly enhance the entrepreneurial entrepreneurial aggressive business culture in Fujian Province. Mobile phones enable 24-hour business operations; mobile phones bring “mobile offices” without geographical restrictions; mobile phones become a platform for interpreting business skills and tactics; and mobile phones have evolved into enterprises living in Fujian Central axis, cell phone has become a businessman “Scepter ”.