IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v69y2016i9p3398-3405.html

The impact of guanxi positioning on the quality of manufacturer–retailer channel relationships: Evidence from Taiwanese SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Wen-Kuei
  • Wang Chiu, Singa

Abstract

Our study aims to provide and empirically test channel relationship positions based on the Chinese guanxi perspectives. By using cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of variance, we found 4 channel relationship position clusters, namely, instrumentality-based wai-ren (outsider/stranger), reciprocity-based shou-ren (acquaintance), obligation-based zi-ji-ren (insider), and resource-based zi-ji-ren, each of which revealed different channel relationship qualities. Respondents exhibited significantly higher interfirm trust and commitment toward obligation-based and resource-based zi-ji-ren partners. However, they also revealed the highest level of relationship risk perception toward obligation-based zi-ji-ren partners, whereas the highest level of relationship satisfaction was attributed to partners in the resource-based zi-ji-ren cluster. Our findings suggest ways to construct and consolidate interfirm relationship with partners in the guanxi network. Managers should consider the relationship risk caused by guanxi investments and should ensure a mutually trustworthy and satisfactory channel relationship through reciprocal ganqing and favor exchange with the leaders of counterparties.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Wen-Kuei & Wang Chiu, Singa, 2016. "The impact of guanxi positioning on the quality of manufacturer–retailer channel relationships: Evidence from Taiwanese SMEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3398-3405.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:9:p:3398-3405
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296316000758
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Björkman, Ingmar & Kock, Sören, 1995. "Social relationships and business networks: The case of Western companies in China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 519-535.
    2. Chen, Ming-Huei & Chang, Yu-Yu & Lee, Chia-Yu, 2015. "Creative entrepreneurs' guanxi networks and success: Information and resource," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 900-905.
    3. Ping Ping Fu & Anne S. Tsui & Gregory G. Dess, 2006. "The dynamics of guanxi in Chinese hightech firms: Implications for knowledge management and decision making," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 277-305, June.
    4. Yau, Oliver H. M. & Lee, Jenny S. Y. & Chow, Raymond P. M. & Sin, Leo Y. M. & Tse, Alan C. B., 2000. "Relationship marketing the Chinese way," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 16-24.
    5. Sheth, Jagdish N. & Parvatiyar, Atul, 1995. "The evolution of relationship marketing," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 397-418.
    6. Mavondo, Felix T. & Rodrigo, Elaine M., 2001. "The effect of relationship dimensions on interpersonal and interorganizational commitment in organizations conducting business between Australia and China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 111-121, May.
    7. Seung Ho Park & Yadong Luo, 2001. "Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 455-477, May.
    8. Jiing-Lih Farh & Anne S. Tsui & Katherine Xin & Bor-Shiuan Cheng, 1998. "The Influence of Relational Demography and Guanxi: The Chinese Case," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 471-488, August.
    9. Chao C. Chen & Ya-Ru Chen & Katherine Xin, 2004. "Guanxi Practices and Trust in Management: A Procedural Justice Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(2), pages 200-209, April.
    10. Lianxi Zhou & Wei-ping Wu & Xueming Luo, 2007. "Internationalization and the performance of born-global SMEs: the mediating role of social networks," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 673-690, July.
    11. Ramasamy, Bala & Goh, K.W. & Yeung, Matthew C.H., 2006. "Is Guanxi (relationship) a bridge to knowledge transfer?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 130-139, January.
    12. Lee, Peter K.C. & Humphreys, Paul K., 2007. "The role of Guanxi in supply management practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 450-467, April.
    13. Standifird, Stephen S. & Marshall, R. Scott, 2000. "The transaction cost advantage of guanxi-based business practices," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 21-42, April.
    14. Chung, Henry F.L. & Yang, Zhilin & Huang, Pei-How, 2015. "How does organizational learning matter in strategic business performance? The contingency role of guanxi networking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1216-1224.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tsu-Ming Yeh & Fan-Yun Pai & Liang-Chuan Wu, 2020. "Relationship Stability and Supply Chain Performance for SMEs: From Internal, Supplier, and Customer Integration Perspectives," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Tsung-Yu Hsieh & Tsai-Yin Lin & Fangjhy Li & Jhen-Ni Kuo, 2024. "CEO Duality and Corporation Innovation," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(1), pages 21582440231, February.
    3. Dong, Xueyan & Wang, Tienan, 2018. "Social tie formation in Chinese online social commerce: The role of IT affordances," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 49-64.
    4. Huang, Yi-Fen & Lin, Hung-Chun & Lee, Hsu-Mei, 2023. "Innovation in manufacturing SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic: How does environmental dynamism reinforce employee proactive behavior?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    5. Lee, Liane W.Y. & Tang, Yiming & Yip, Leslie S.C. & Sharma, Piyush, 2018. "Managing customer relationships in the emerging markets – guanxi as a driver of Chinese customer loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 356-365.
    6. Eric Yaw Naminse & Jincai Zhuang, 2018. "Does farmer entrepreneurship alleviate rural poverty in China? Evidence from Guangxi Province," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gao, Hongzhi & Knight, John G. & Yang, Zhilin & Ballantyne, David, 2014. "Toward a gatekeeping perspective of insider–outsider relationship development in China," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 312-320.
    2. Lee, Liane W.Y. & Tang, Yiming & Yip, Leslie S.C. & Sharma, Piyush, 2018. "Managing customer relationships in the emerging markets – guanxi as a driver of Chinese customer loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 356-365.
    3. Yi Zhang & Zigang Zhang, 2006. "Guanxi and organizational dynamics in China: a link between individual and organizational levels," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 375-392, September.
    4. Guo, Ying & Rammal, Hussain G. & Benson, John & Zhu, Ying & Dowling, Peter J., 2018. "Interpersonal relations in China: Expatriates’ perspective on the development and use of guanxi," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 455-464.
    5. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2015. "How can an indigenous concept enter the international academic circle: the case of guanxi," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 645-663, October.
    6. Chu, Zhaofang & Wang, Qiang & Lai, Fujun & Collins, Brian J., 2019. "Managing interdependence: Using Guanxi to cope with supply chain dependency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 620-631.
    7. Chun-Hao Cheng & Chi-Jung Hsieh & Yen-Hui Ouyang, 2010. "The Study Of The Guanxi Transferring Process From Individual To The Organization By Genetic Algorithm," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(1), pages 85-95.
    8. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    9. Chu, Zhaofang & Feng, Bo & Lai, Fujun, 2018. "Logistics service innovation by third party logistics providers in China: Aligning guanxi and organizational structure," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 291-307.
    10. Rosalie Tung & Henry Chung, 2010. "Diaspora and trade facilitation: The case of ethnic Chinese in Australia," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 371-392, September.
    11. Zhong Qin & Xin Deng, 2016. "Government and family Guanxi in Chinese private firms: perceptions and preference," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 35-60, January.
    12. Dejin Su & Qixia Du & Dongwon Sohn & Libo Xu, 2017. "Can High-Tech Ventures Benefit from Government Guanxi and Business Guanxi ? The Moderating Effects of Environmental Turbulence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, January.
    13. Hongjuan Zhang & Rong Han & Liang Wang & Runhui Lin, 2021. "Social capital in China: a systematic literature review," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 32-77, February.
    14. Hongjuan Zhang & Rong Han & Liang Wang & Runhui Lin, 0. "Social capital in China: a systematic literature review," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 0, pages 1-46.
    15. Ciravegna, Luciano & Majano, Sara B. & Zhan, Ge, 2014. "The inception of internationalization of small and medium enterprises: The role of activeness and networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1081-1089.
    16. Jean, Ruey-Jer Bryan & Tan, Danchi & Sinkovics, Rudolf R., 2011. "Ethnic ties, location choice, and firm performance in foreign direct investment: A study of Taiwanese business groups FDI in China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 627-635.
    17. Yingmiao Qian & Mengjun Wang & Yang Zou & Ruoyu Jin & Ruijia Yuan & Qinge Wang, 2019. "Understanding the Double-Level Influence of Guanxi on Construction Innovation in China: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Knowledge Sharing and the Cross-Level Moderating Role of Inter-Organizationa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, March.
    18. Fu, Wenying & Revilla Diez, Javier & Schiller, Daniel, 2013. "Interactive learning, informal networks and innovation: Evidence from electronics firm survey in the Pearl River Delta, China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 635-646.
    19. Bat Batjargal, 2005. "Internet Entrepreneurship: Networks and Performance of Internet Ventures In China," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp753, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    20. Dirk Holtbrügge, 2013. "Indigenous Management Research," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 1-11, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:9:p:3398-3405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.