本文旨在以上海永安公司為例，探討民國時期上海企業文化的形成與轉變的過程。研究中國企業史的學者均十分強調影響企業運作的文化因素；儘管他們對此有不同的評價，但他們似乎暗示運用文化因素的模式並沒有太大的改變，以致並未注意到這些文化因素本身及其影響的變化。本文針對永安的兩代企業家作三方面的比較：社會關係網絡的運用、人事管理的方式、對企業的定位與認同。從比較發現，這些文化因素對兩代企業家有不同的意義：例如，對第一代企業家而言，社會關係網絡可能是創辦事業不可或缺的資源；但對第二代企業家來說，它可能是削弱領導權威的包袱。因此，問題並不只在評價文化因素在中國企業中的功能，而更要探討企業家們以何種方式運用文化因素來經營企業。

This paper uses the case of the Wing On Company to discuss how business culture was shaped and transformed in Republican Shanghai. Scholars of Chinese business enterprises have often emphasized cultural effects on business operations. Despite their different assessments, these scholars seem to suggest a time-honored pattern of articulating cultural traits, without noting how cultural impacts could change. By comparing how two generations of Wing On managers maintained, manipulated, and expanded social networks; how they recruited, trained, and managed employees; and how they perceived their roles in the Wing On Conglomerate, this article shows that cultural elements in fact meant different things to these entrepreneurs. Social networks, for instance, might mean indispensable resources in creating the enterprise for the first generation, while they could be burdens that weakened authority of the second generation. Thus the issue is not simply the existence of cultural traits in Chinese business, but exactly in what ways and to what extent they were articulated and manipulated.