ABSTRACT. Does Christian faith matter in business? If so, how does it affect the way executives handle managerial issues, especially the ones that are ethically controversial? This paper reports a study of Chinese Christian executives in Hong Kong. The researchers followed an approach known as the Critical Incident Technique and conducted in-depth interviews with 119 Chinese Christian executives over a two year period from 1999 to 2001. Each interview covered four broad areas consisting of the interviewee’s description of his or her Christian faith, business experience, reported critical incidents and general remarks on faith and work. For each reported critical incident, the interviewee deliberated on the incident and its background, his or her response, the rationale behind the response and its consequences. Each interview was tape recorded for transcription and analysis. The major contribution of this study is to propose and document a typology of the executives’ responses to ethical challenges in business. The typology is based on earlier work on Christ and culture (Niebuhr, 1951; Siker, 1989) and styles of negotiation (Lewicki et al., 2001; Rubin et al., 1994). Preliminary research findings indicate that the proposed typology is an effective paradigm. It has the promise of enabling Christian executives to reflect critically on their ethical behavior and to guide their thought towards more effective responses to ethical challenges. KEY WORDS: business culture, Christ, Christian executives, Hong Kong Introduction This paper reports a study of Chinese Christian executives in Hong Kong. The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of Christian witness in the marketplace. It is an exploratory study that adopts an inductive approach to understanding some of what has been happening in the marketplace. The reflec- tion is based on interviews with 119 Chinese Christian executives who provided their personal experiences as a database for reflection and theorizing. There were two criteria for inclusion. First, those invited to participate are known to uphold a serious Christian commitment. This qualifies them as “Christian.” Secondly, those participating have in-depth business and man- agement experience. This qualifies them as “executives.” The research methodology is the Critical Christ and Business Culture: A Study of Christian Executives in Hong Kong Journal of Business Ethics 43: 103–110, 2003. © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Kam-hon Lee is Professor of Marketing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research areas include business negotiation, cross-cultural marketing, marketing ethics, social marketing and tourism marketing. He obtained his Ph.D. in Marketing at Northwestern University. Professor Lee has published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Management , Journal of Business Ethics, and other refereed journals. He also serves on the editorial boards of various international and regional journals. Dennis P. McCann is the Wallace M. Alston Professor of Bible and Religion at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. McCann’s research interests include compar- ative religious ethics, business and economic ethics, and Christian social thought. McCann received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1976. The author of several books and numerous articles, he is a former member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Religious Ethics (1981–1996). MaryAnn Ching is Special Project Staff of Hong Kong Professional & Educational Service, Ltd., a non-profit organization that sponsors business ethics projects among other professional and educational programs in Asia. She obtained her MBA in Management at California State University, Sacramento. Kam-hon Lee Dennis P. McCann MaryAnn Ching