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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Paul LiuORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
This study aims to explore the development of business relationships from an interactional perspective which challenges the conventional time-based view in Western contexts. Twenty in-depth interviews with Chinese SMEs managers emerge the uniqueness and importance of how the operationalization of Confucius virtues, the guiding principle and mechanisms for social interactions and trading practice, in developing Chinese business to business (B2B) relationship stages (i.e., discernment, authentication, stabilization, and decoupling). Given the role of Confucius virtues and their dynamics for the development of business relationships, we further argue that evolution of a relationship depends on the shifts in concerns of transactional and relational governances among business partners. We advance the literature by showing that distinct constructions of Confucius virtues are required to achieve desired outcomes in different relationship stages. Our propositions also mark a vantage point to offer an alternative perspective for practitioners in formulating effective B2B relationship strategies in China.
Author(s): Liu PCY, Yuan R, Luo J, Balaji MS
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Industrial Marketing Management
Year: 2021
Volume: 96
Pages: 1-17
Print publication date: 01/07/2021
Online publication date: 28/04/2021
Acceptance date: 14/04/2021
Date deposited: 13/12/2021
ISSN (print): 0019-8501
ISSN (electronic): 1873-2062
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.04.008
DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.04.008
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