Research On Boundary Spanners’ Guanxi,Inter-firm’s Dependence And Opportunistic Behavior

China has a long tradition of using ties(i.e.interpersonal relationship,also called guanxi)to do business.Guanxi is often compared to a "second currency" in business context hence is the key and "secret" to corporate success in China.However,such kind of interpersonal relationship based on interpersonal trust has a double-edged effect on business-to-business transactions.On one hand,it may promote mutual trust and commitment among enterprises,which in turn can effectively inhibit the opportunistic behavior of trading partners.On the other hand,the close guanxi between the boundary spanners can also induce corruption and self-interested seeking behavior of trading partners.What are the mediating mechanisms of the role of the boundary spanner’s guanxi and what are the boundary conditions of these mechanisms?How should firms take advantage of and manage the personal relationships of their boundary spanners?This study explores the role of boundary spanners’ interpersonal relationships/guanxi on business-to-business relationships,the mideating mechanism and the boundary conditions(within the marketing channel context?),and discuss further of how should firms utilize and manage the boundary spanners’ guanxi.At first,this study reviews and criticizes the existing literatures on guanxi,inter-firm dependence,opportunistic behavior,trust and commitment,monitoring and controlling,and introduces and summarizes the related literatures on principal-agent theory,power-dependency theory and institutional theory.Then a qualitative case study(study 1)and a quantitative survey study(study 2)are put forward based on the previous literature review.Since the research on the mechanism and boundary conditions of guanxi’s role is still exploratory,case study method is appropriate and we use a multi-case study.We choose a total of four companies,one state-owned and one private from eastern coastal area of Jiangsu and west inland area of Ningxia,and use multi-method to collect data.We conduct within-case and cross-case analysis by using pattern-matching model.On the basis of study 1,study 2 raises theoretical framework.Through theoretical derivation,research hypotheses are raised on guanxi’s moderating effect on the relationships between dependence and the opportunistic behavior,and the role of unfairness perceptions and legal enforceability on the moderating effect.Then through investigating the suppliers from the Chinese construction decoration industry,effective samples of 380 respondents are collected.Based on the collected data,statistical software of SPSS is employed to test the conceptual framework and related research hypotheses.Finally,the main conclusions,theoretical contributions,and practical implications are discussed.And future research directions are put forward based on the limitations of this study.Through the above theoretical analysis and empirical tests,the main conclusions are as follows:Firstly,the medium mechanism of the boundary spanner’s guanxi is "trust and commitment" or the relaxation of "supervision and control" which respectively inhibit or promote the opportunistic behavior of the other party.Secondly,guanxi is virtually personal.Whether it brings positive or negative effects to the enterprise is influenced by the boundary spanner’s unfairness perceptions of the internal incentives,inter-firm dependence,and legal enforceability.Thirdly,in Chinese marketing channel,the close guanxi formed through daily communication between both sides not only creates a tight relationship with more confidence in "zijiren" and "haogemen",but also motivates them to help each other and offer a preferential treatment.Therefore,in order to survive or acquire the necessary resources,the weaker party would encourage their spanners to develop guanxi with their partners for firm’s benefit.Meanwhile,close guanxi can weaken the opportunistic behavior of the powerful party.Hence,guanxi is the weapon of the weak.Fourthly,guanxi of the boundary spanners has a moderating effect on the relationship between dependence and opportunistic behavior.Close guanxi means stronger trust in each other.On one hand,through developing boundary spanners’guanxi,the weaker party can strengthen mutual trust and commitment,hence inhibit the opportunistic behavior of the stronger party.On the other hand,too much guanxi would induce collusion whereby the stronger party’s spanner may pursue personal interest at the cost of the firm and indulge the weaker party’s opportunistic behavior.Therefore,because of the moderating role of guanxi on the relationship between dependence and opportunism in Chinese context,the weaker party tends to engage in more opportunistic behavior than the stronger one.Fifthly,the moderating effect of guanxi has a contigent context.When the perception of unfair is high,the weakening effect of guanxi on the strong channel member’s opportunism is weakened,and the strengthening effect of guanxi on the weak channel member’s opportunism is strengthened.It is the same when the legal enforceability is low.Sixthly,it is consistent to the classic opinion from the dependency theory of particular phenomena of guanxi in China.This is because in the western traditional theory,it has not consider the boundary spanner’s behavior of pursuing personal interests at the cost of the enterprise.