| As a form of strategic alliance, Supply chain alliance's appearance has marked firms transformed management model from the traditional "vertical integration" to the "horizontal integration". As an important means of gaining and maintaining competitive advantage, supply chain alliance is not a stable organization form, which increases operating costs of supply chain firms. How can we guarantee the stability of supply chain alliance has become the hot study issues in the theory of horizon and business community. Fowling the route of "manufacturers relational investments→suppliers trust→supply chain alliance maintenance", the paper discusses supply chain alliance stability based on the perspective of manufacturers relational investments.This paper is mainly divided into two parts: theory analysis and empirical research. The theory analyzing part has synthesized relevant literatures, and given the definition and classification of investments in relationships. The research hypotheses that relationship between manufactures relational investment and supplier trusts, and relationship between supplier trust and supply chain alliance maintenance, have been proposed. The theoretic model on the relationship between manufactures relationship investments and supply chain alliance maintenance has been constructed. In addition, the study puts forward the research hypotheses of relational investment's discriminative influence on supplier trust and supply chain alliance maintenance through analyzing the moderating effects of supply chain alliance relationship lifecycle to relationship investment. The empirical part mainly examines the research hypotheses and commitment models by the means of enterpriser and expert interviews together with questionnaires. From the results of empirical research, the initial structural model is revised to disclose the effect mechanism of manufactures relational investment to supply chain alliance maintenance. In addition, the study identifies the different influence of relationship investment to trust and trust to alliance maintenance by the means of empirical research.Through the study we find that: firstly, supply chain alliance members need to invest resource in alliance if supply chain alliance remain continuance. The investment in the study is referred as a variety of tangible and intangible resources that manufacturers paid in order to maintain a strategic partnership with its suppliers. Through the literatures review, the paper defines relational investment as a construct characterized by three dimensions based on its component, which includes economic investment, structural investment and guanxi investment". Through the empirical analysis, three-dimensional measurement scale of manufacturer relational investment is developed. The test results show that the scale is reliable and valid.Secondly, there is different influence effect that manufacturer relational investment to the supplier trust. The supplier trust is divided into two dimensions: calculus-based trust and emotion-based trust. Manufacturer's relational investment can prompt suppliers trust, but the impact that the different dimensions of relational investment effect on different types of trust is different. Through empirical research, the study finds that the impact of economic investment and structural investment to calculus-based is larger than guanxi investment, and the impact of guanxi to emotion-based trust is larger than economic investment and structural investment.Thirdly, manufacturer's relational investment not only has a indirect positive impact but also a direct positive impact on supply chain alliance maintenance. During the different relationship stage of supply chain alliance, the effect trend of various dimensions of relational investment to alliance maintenance is different. By testing the differences of the path coefficients in different relationship stages, we find that from exploration stage to maturity stage, manufacturer's economic investment and structural investment have less and less positive effect on alliance maintenance, while manufacturer's guanxi investment has more and more effect on alliance maintenance.Finally, during the different relationship stage of supply chain alliance, the effect trend of supplier trust to alliance maintenance is different. From the empirical analysis result we find that as for their effects on alliance maintenance, supplier calculus-based trust has less and less positive effect, while affect-based trust has more and more positive effect.Compared with former research, innovational features are as fellows in this paper:(1) The study explores the supply chain alliance maintenance from a new perspective, and enriches the theoretic research in this field. The paper also discusses the manufacturer's relational investment influence mechanism on supply chain maintenance from manufacturer in supply chain alliance. Different relationship investment strategies are studied in the paper together with, which makes the research more prefect based on relationship investment and enrich the theoretic study of supply chain alliance maintenance.(2) The guanxi under the context of Confucian culture is researched on supply chain alliance, which reflects the study of regional characteristics. The study is fully aware of the elements of Chinese "guanxi" in the course of research, and views it as one of manufacturer relationship investment dimensions. According to the investigation of interpersonal relationship of boundary management persons between manufacturer and its supplier, the paper explores and validates the important role of Chinese "guanxi" in the supply chain alliance maintenance and reflects the study national characteristics.(3) The study uses the moderating variables of relationship stages, which makes the research more to be in line with the actual. On the basis of the previous study, the paper specifies the stages of the relationship stages in the supply chain alliance relationship lifecycle, and examines the moderating effects of relationship lifecycle to the relationship between manufacturer relationship investment, supplier trust and supply chain alliance maintenance. The paper proves the validity of the theoretical model in different relationship stages, which makes scholars understand the effects of relationship value of relationship investment on the supply chain alliance maintenance more deeply from a dynamic perspective and provides reference for manufacturer to supplier management strategies.
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