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CULTURAL SENSITIVITY, INFORMATION EXCHANGE, AND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY: THE CASE OF VIETNAMESE EXPORTERS AND THEIR ASIAN VS EUROPEAN IMPORTERS

Nguyen D. Tho, Nguyen T. M. Trang and Nigel J. Barrett

The paper was published at the 20th IMP-conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2004.

Research has shown that, to achieve successful long-term business relationships, firmsshould be sensitive to foreign partners? cultures and must be willing to share informationwith their partners. Despite the importance of this issue, little research has been undertaken,firstly, to examine the relationships among these two factors and relationship quality, andsecondly, in the context of foreign partners? differing cultural backgrounds. To bridge thisgap, this research attempts to examine the relationships between cultural sensitivity,information exchange and relationship quality between Vietnamese exporters and theirforeign importers. In addition, the research investigates the strengths of these relationshipsfor two groups of importers, Asian and European. A model hypothesising the relationshipsbetween these factors and relationship quality was developed. A random sample of 288Vietnamese exporting firms, of which 134 were doing business with Asian importers and154 with European importers, were surveyed to test the model via multi-group analysis instructural equation modelling. The results show that the model has an acceptable fit to thedata and all the hypotheses were supported. The results also indicate that there is nodifference in terms of the strengths of the relationships between Asian and Europeanimporters. Implications for business firms and directions for future research are alsoaddressed.