How boundary spanners' guanxi matters: managing supply chain dependence in China
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 15 February 2022
Issue publication date: 10 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Interorganizational dependence is considered as a liability for each firm and needs to be managed properly. Rather than exploring the opportunistic outcome of dependence, the authors focus on the moderating role of supply chain boundary spanners' guanxi. This study tends to uncover the way and the conditions under which boundary spanners' guanxi influences dependence-opportunism relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey of 380 buyer–supplier exchanges in China, this study first examines the relationship between dependence and opportunism, then assesses the contingent role of boundary spanners' guanxi and further tests how unfairness perception and legal inefficiency alter the role of guanxi in managing dependence.
Findings
This study finds that buyer dependence increases supplier opportunism while supplier dependence lowers supplier opportunism. Boundary spanners' guanxi weakens the opportunism-facilitating impact of buyer dependence and mitigates the opportunism-restricting effect of supplier dependence. However, unfairness perception would attenuate the value of guanxi in restricting depended sides' opportunism but strengthen the value of guanxi in motivating depending sides' opportunism; legal inefficiency would amplify the value of guanxi in facilitating depending suppliers' opportunism.
Originality/value
First, the study enriches supply chain dependence studies by incorporating interpersonal guanxi into the investigation of dependence-opportunism relationships. Second, the study adds to the supply chain management literature by uncovering a contrasting role of guanxi in influencing the dependence-opportunism relationship. Third, the study incorporates an agency view to uncover two boundary conditions under which guanxi is mobilized for personal interest seeking or for organizational purposes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, (NSFC71872133, 71602173, 71821002) and the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (18YJA630093).
Citation
Shou, Z., Gong, Y. and Zhang, Q. (2022), "How boundary spanners'
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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