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INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Call for Papers

When West Meets East: Cross-Cultural Relationship Management in Supply Chains

Deadline for submission: July 31, 2019

Industrial Marketing Management announces the call for papers for a special issue on Cross-Cultural Relationship Management in Supply Chains

Overview and Purpose of the special issue

Supply chain management integrates supply and demand management that coordinates and collaborates with channel partners involved in all logistic activities. Managerial ties, which connect with business partners from suppliers to customers, play an important role in channel relationship management (Chung & Kuo, 2018; Chung et al., 2016; Wang & Chung, 2013). With a growing trend of globalization in supply chains, relationship marketing and management across cultures often causes conflicts among supply chain members due to different cultural values and philosophies, management styles, institutional environments and governance mechanisms (Hofstede, 1991; Lin & Wang, 2008; Yang & Wang, 2011; Wang, 2007; Wang, Siu & Barnes, 2008). As noted by Wang (2007), while western relationship marketing and the Asian counterpart guanxi do share some basic characteristics such as mutual understanding, cooperative behavior and long-term orientation, they are governed by quite different underlying mechanisms. For instance, compared with Western relationship marketing, which is characterized by impersonal (organizational) and universalistic (generalize to members of outside social networks) relation, Asian guanxi is more relied on personal (kinship or friendship) and particularistic (network-specific) relation (Yang & Wang, 2011; Wang, 2007). Recent research have revealed significant cross-cultural differences corporate cultural and management styles in many aspects of relationship management between business partners, such as contractual vs. reciprocal obligation (Wang, et al., 2015), legal enforcement vs. relational enforcement (Lin & Wang, 2008), written codes and rules vs. morality and social norms (Arias, 1998); confrontation and forcing vs. cooperation and compromise (Wang, et al., 2005), and capital investment vs affect investment (Wang, Siu and Barnes, 2008).

Given the ongoing conceptual debates and important managerial implications in relationship management in the supply chains, the objective of this special issue is to further advance theoretical development that integrates and extends the extant literature with comprehensive theoretical frameworks based on empirical evidence in cross-nation B2B supply chain context. With a focus on the cross-nation and cross-cultural theme of this special issue, specific topics may include, but are NOT limited to the following:

• The role of relationship marketing, guanxi and managerial ties in supply chains
• Relational quality management in business-to-business network
• Relationship marketing, firm innovation and business performance
• The shared goals, interdepended and value co-creation
• The role of affective investment in channel relationships
• The influence of institutional environment and corporate culture
• Long-term orientation and opportunistic behavior among channel members
• The impact of cultural distance and cultural dimensions (e.g., power distance, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, indulgence/restraint and long-term/short-term orientation)
• The double-edged sword effect of networks relations
• Organizational learning and network management strategies
• Incentive structure that encourage and reward long-term cooperation
• The mechanism that provides safeguards to prevent opportunism
• The effectiveness of legalism and trust in relationship management
• Contractual obligation and relational obligation as governance strategies
• The interaction of trust and legalism in B2B channel relationship management
• The benefits of financial, informational, social and emotional support in managerial ties and relationship management
• Corporate responsibility in business-to-business relationships
• Corporate culture, management styles and conflict solutions
• The emerging role of digital marketing and social media in contemporary supply chain relations

We will give preference to empirical papers with solid methodologies —both qualitative and quantitative—although state of art review and theoretical papers that examine fundamental issues in, or offer comprehensive frameworks of, value in business and industrial marketing also are welcomed. As Industrial Marketing Management is widely read by an academic and business audience, all submissions should include implications for practitioners.

Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be about 6,000-8,000 words in length. Copies should be uploaded on Industrial Marketing Management’s homepage through the EVISE system. You need to upload your paper using the dropdown box for the special issue on value in business and industrial marketing. For guidelines, visit

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Papers not complying with the notes for contributors (cf. homepage) or poorly written will be desk rejected. Suitable papers will be subjected to a double-blind review; hence, authors must not identify themselves in the body of their paper. (Please do not submit a Word file with “track changes” active or a PDF file.)

Please address all questions to the guest editor(s):

Professor Cheng Lu Wang, University of New haven, cwang@newhaven.edu

Associate Professor Henry Chung, Massey University, h.chung@massey.ac.nz.

References

Arias, J. T. G. (1998), “A relationship marketing approach to guanxi”, European Journal of Marketing, 32(1/2): 145– 156.

Chung, H. & Kuo, T. (2018), “When and how managerial ties matter in international competitive strategy, export financial and strategic performance framework”, European Journal of Marketing, 52(1/2): 260-278.

Chung, H., Wang, C.L. Huang, P. & Yang, Z. (2016), “Organizational capabilities and business performance: When and how the darkside of managerial ties matter?” Industrial Marketing Management, 55 (May): 70-82,

Hofstede, G. (1991), Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, London: McGraw-Hill.

Lin, X. & Wang, C.L. (2008), Enforcement and performance: The role of ownership, legalism and trust in international joint ventures”, Journal of World Business, 43(3): 340-351.

Yang, Z. and Wang, Cheng L. (2011), “Guanxi as a governance mechanism in business markets: Its characteristics, relevant theories, and future research directions”, Industrial Marketing Management, 40(4): 492-495.

Wang, C.L. (2007) “Guanxi vs. relationship marketing: Exploring underlying differences,” Industrial Marketing Management, 36 (1): 81-86.

Wang, C.L., Lin, X., Chan K.K. & Shi, Y. (2005) “Conflict handling styles in international joint ventures: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-national Comparison”, Management International Review, 45(1): 3-21.

Wang, C. L. & Chung, H. (2013), “The moderating role of managerial ties in market orientation and innovation: An Asian perspective, Journal of Business Research, 66(12): 2431–2437.

Wang, C.L., Shi, Y. & Barnes, B. (2015), “The role of satisfaction, trust and contractual obligation on long-term orientation among Chinese and Western managers, Journal of Business Research, 68(3): 473-479,

Wang, C.L, Siu, N.Y.M. & Bradley, R. B (2008), “The significance of trust and renqing in the long-term orientation of Chinese business-to-business relationships”, Industrial Marketing Management, 37(7): 819-824.

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