Executive Summary
With the significant increase in outsourcing and offshoring activities, multinational enterprise customers engage in numerous international customer–supplier relationships. Because of geographic, cultural, and psychic distance, the strategic value of these cross-border relationships is associated with risks and opportunistic behavior potentials. In this study, Jean, Sinkovics, and Kim draw on learning theory, relational governance, and communication culture theory to develop a model that examines antecedents and consequences of relationship learning for suppliers in international customer–supplier relationships. The proposed research framework includes a firm’s innovativeness orientation, trust, information technology (IT) advancement, and technological uncertainty as determinants of relationship learning. The authors introduce the communication cultures of the supplier and buyer as a moderator in the framework.
Using data from 246 international customer–supplier relationships between Taiwanese suppliers and their international original equipment manufacturer customer, the authors provide empirical support for the importance of relationship learning as a viable strategy for suppliers to enhance their performance outcomes. In addition, the findings demonstrate that innovativeness orientation, trust, and technological uncertainty affect relationship learning positively. Cultural distance amplifies barriers to effective relationship learning. For managers, it is important to recognize that trust between exchange partners serves as a key foundation for stimulating effective relationship learning. In addition, supplier innovativeness orientation plays a crucial role in facilitating relationship learning. In terms of IT, the study reveals that investments in advanced supply chain management systems may not necessarily enhance relationship learning for exchange partners. Managers should pay more attention to IT integration issues than to IT advancement alone.
The findings also point to the moderating effect of communication culture. This can shape the conditions that affect relationship learning for suppliers significantly. For example, relationship learning can be cultivated more effectively for an innovative supplier from a high-context culture that deals with a partner from the same culture. Furthermore, the influence of technological uncertainty on relationship learning is stronger when high-context culture suppliers and customers are concerned.
Overall, the authors examine the conditions and performance implications of developing a successful relationship learning strategy for suppliers. Managers should be careful in dealing with cultural differences in the development of cross-border relationship learning.
Biography
Ruey-Jer (Bryan) Jean is Assistant Professor of International Business at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He received his PhD from Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK where he also worked as a post-doctoral research fellow. His research focuses on inter-organisational relationship management, with particular focus on online and international contexts. His work has appeared in Journal of International Business Studies, Critical Perspectives of International Business, International Marketing Review and Journal of International Marketing.
Rudolf R. Sinkovics is Professor of International Business at Manchester Business School, U.K. His research centres on inter-organisational governance, the role of ICT, and research methods in international business. He received his PhD from Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU-Wien), Austria. His work has been published in International Business and International Marketing journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, Journal of World Business, International Business Review, International Marketing Review.
Daekwan Kim is Associate Professor of Marketing in the College of Business at Florida State University. His research interests include the impact of IT on firm marketing strategies and activities, marketing strategies, multinational brand management, customer equity, and franchising marketing. His research has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of International Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, and other journals.
Journal International Marketing, Volume 18, Number 1, March 2010
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