Document Type

Journal Article

Department/Unit

Department of Marketing

Title

Interpersonal factors as drivers of quality and performance in western–Hong Kong interorganizational business relationships

Language

English

Abstract

The authors report the findings of a study conducted among a sample of 202 Hong Kong–based Chinese importing companies regarding their working relationships with Western export manufacturers. In particular, the study emphasizes the effect of interpersonal factors on financial performance through the intervening roles of intercompany trust and relationship quality. Using structural equation modeling, the authors confirm that (1) several interpersonal relational dimensions—namely, personal communication (sijiao), personal credibility (xinyong), and personal affection (ganqing)—positively influence interfirm trust; (2) trust plays an instrumental role in enhancing the components of the interfirm relationship quality (i.e., cooperation, commitment, and satisfaction); (3) interfirm relationship quality is positively related to superior financial performance; and (4) most of the associations between each of the interpersonal factors and interfirm trust were moderated by the importer's size and foreign supplier's origin as well as by the length of the relationship and which party initiated the relationship. The authors extract several conclusions and implications from the findings and provide directions for further research.

Keywords

buyer–seller relationships, exporting/importing, guanxi, trust, performance

Publication Date

2015

Source Publication Title

Journal of International Marketing

Volume

23

Issue

1

Start Page

23

End Page

49

Publisher

American Marketing Association

DOI

10.1509/jim.14.0008

Link to Publisher's Edition

http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jim.14.0008

ISSN (print)

1069031X

ISSN (electronic)

15477215

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