Paper info

The Dark Side of Sino - US Business Relationships: the Role of Guanxi in Managing Opportunism, Conflicts and Switching Intention

Ibrahim Abosag and Dorothy Ai-wan Yen

The paper was published at the 32nd IMP-conference in Cape Town in 2016.

Prior studies on guanxi (??) focused on how guanxi contributes positively to business relationships, without addressing how guanxi could be employed to manage the dark side of business relationships. This study investigates guanxi’s influence on conflict, opportunism, and switch intention in Sino–U.S. business relationships. Data collected from 273 Chinese firms were used for the analysis. The findings reveal that Chinese buyers’ guanxi with U.S. suppliers significantly reduces the buyers’ switching intention, opportunistic behavior, and the perceived levels of conflict in their relationships. Thus, Chinese buyers employ guanxi as a management mechanism to reduce the dark side of business relationships.