Cultural adaptation between western buyers and chinese suppliers
There are undoubtedly multiple factors that may contribute to the failure of arelationship, such as product quality or supplier reliability; however, when Westernbuyers source from China and attempt to build partnerships with Chinese suppliers, it ishighly likely that they and their Chinese partners will encounter relational difficultiesrooted in cultural differences between China and the West. Cultural adaptation isproposed as a solution to this problem; however the process of how each partner in aChina-West partnership adapts to each other over time is not clear. Furthermore, thecausal relationship between cultural adaptation and the mutual benefits of partnershiphas not previously been tested, nor have the contextual factors influencing the culturaladaptation process been identified.A multiple case study method was selected to answer three research questionsdeveloped from the three gaps identified above. Four China-US/UK cross culturalpartnerships were selected for case analysis, which involved the retrospective evaluationof how both parties in each partnership adapt. The main instrument of data collectionwas the semi-structured interview supplemented with questionnaires and observations.The research concludes that as a result of cultural adaptation by both parties, a hybridculture forms at the interface between Western buyers and their Chinese suppliers and isa combination of Guanxi and Western rules and procedures. Organizations as a wholedo not adapt culturally, but rather those individuals working closely with each other atthe interface of the two organizations including those working for Western buyer IPOs(International Purchasing Offices) in China and those who are top or middle levelmanagement in the Chinese suppliers. Two emerging contextual variables including theownership of Chinese suppliers and the structure of IPOs have been identified fromcross case analysis. The research also concludes that the higher the level of culturaladaptation the greater the mutual benefits perceived by both parties of the relationship.
Year of publication: |
2009-12
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Authors: | Jia, Fu |
Other Persons: | Rutherford, Christine (contributor) |
Publisher: |
Cranfield University |
Saved in:
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