توسعه فرم های خاص با روابط B2B: بررسی نقش علاقه فردی در روابط در حال توسعه Guanxi و ET-Moone

The paper examines the driving factors of two of the special forms of relationships that exist in Eastern countries namely Guanxi (China) and Et-Moone (Saudi Arabia). The paper argues that these special forms of relationships that have been found to significantly influence business-to-business relationships in these countries are primarily motivated by the presence of strong interpersonal liking. To do this, a conceptual model has been developed within which interpersonal liking is placed as the key mediating variable. The key outcomes of interpersonal liking are trust and Guanxi (in the Chinese sample) and Et-Moone (in the Saudi sample). Because Guanxi has received significant attention both conceptually and empirically, the research started by conducting in-depth interviews in Saudi Arabia to further explore the concept of Et-Moone. Survey data was collected from 401 businesses in China and Saudi Arabia. Using structural equation modelling, the model has been supported in both samples. The findings show that interpersonal liking plays a crucial role in the development of Guanxi and Et-Moone. Managerial implications and future research are discussed.

In recent years, different forms of relationships that are culturally bound have emerged such as ‘Guanxi’ in China (Liu et al., 2008 and Luo, 2007) and ‘Et-Moone’ in Saudi Arabia (Abosag & Lee, 2012). These forms of relationships are found not only to significantly influence how B2B relationships are developed and managed, but also to provide strong competitive advantage in the marketplace (Abosag and Lee, 2012 and Liu et al., 2008). While these special forms of relationships emerged largely from Eastern countries, they are essentially culturally determined and based on similar interpersonal motives. Regardless of the terminologies used to describe them or the type of culture within which these relationships exist, there is no study that has examined the drivers of these special relationships, especially the role of interpersonal liking as their core driver (Abosag & Lee, 2012). Interpersonal liking is found to be a much stronger form of bonding that can act as a driving force of interpersonal relationship development (Hawke and Heffernan, 2006 and Nicholson et al., 2001). According to Nicholson et al. (2001, p.4), “the inclusion of liking may offer greater explanatory power beyond models that rely solely on the more cognitive aspects of the relationship.” Thus we argue that interpersonal liking in business relationships is a key driver of these special forms of relationships such as Guanxi and Et-Moone. According to Bruun (1993), Guanxi involves the use of close friendships and associations to assist business activities. Guanxi has been defined by Yeung and Tung (1996, p. 55) as “the establishment of a connection between two independent individuals to enable a bilateral flow of personal or social transactions.” On the other hand, Et-Moone is also based on strong close intimate friendships that provide greater flexibility in business relationships and allow for unilateral decisions in business relationships without causing any uneasiness or division between partners (Abosag & Lee, 2012). Both Guanxi and Et-Moone are characterised by high self-disclosure, significant interaction outside work, open sharing of knowledge and information, strong emotional attachment, mutual commitment and personal loyalty. In a Western context, Wilson (1995) refers to this type of relationship, which is more than just ‘close’ as being a ‘deep relationship,’ whereas in the Chinese context it is referred to as ‘Xinren’ or ‘deep trust’ which constitutes an important part of Guanxi (Kriz & Fang, 2003). In the Saudi Arabian context, this type of relationship is referred to as ‘deep Et-Moone’ in which partners allow for unilateral business decision-making as well as much stronger solidarity and personal loyalty. Table 1 provides a brief comparison of key similarities and differences between Guanxi and Et-Moone. While relational elements such as social reputation, doing favours, social interaction, interpersonal liking, trust and commitment exist in both Guanxi and Et-Moone, differences exist in relation to connection to others, mutual benefits, unilateral decisions, the degree of friendship, loyalty, solidarity and the return of favours.

Overall, interpersonal liking is an important construct in developing Guanxi and Et-Moone relationships in China and Saudi Arabia. The estimation of the model and the support of all of the hypotheses reinforce the importance of interpersonal liking in business relationships. In particular, interpersonal liking is an important prerequisite for the establishment and maintenance of the highly valuable Guanxi and Et-Moone relationships. This study has indeed found that special forms of relationships that are known to exist in Eastern countries are largely influenced by the ability to develop interpersonal liking. While the findings add to our theoretical understanding about these forms of relationship in Eastern collectivist countries, there are several managerial implications for firms. Managers need to be able to develop and manage the following: Firstly, managers should develop their ability to develop interpersonal liking in their business relationship. Secondly, to do so, managers need to create and rely on their own social reputation within these societies. Good reputation helps the development of interpersonal liking. Two important aspects related to reputation are the ability to develop a perception of similarity with the others and make the others familiar with your social status, background, etc. Thirdly, to be able and comfortable with doing favours that has an impact on the interpersonal liking of the counterpart. The management of these favours is crucial, where favours must be returned with Chinese partners but not necessarily with Saudi partners. The ability to add to these favours ‘small’ touches can significantly influence the level of interpersonal liking as found by Abosag and Lee (2012) in Saudi Arabia. Fourthly, once interpersonal liking exists in the relationship, managers need to manage it carefully in order to reach a special form of relationship as they will, as a result, be trusted. The combination of trust and interpersonal liking allows for the development of a more personal relationship to Guanxi or Et-Moone. Both forms of special relationships lead to some competitive benefits in the market place (Abosag & Lee, 2012). Future research should look at replicating our model in other special forms of relationship not included in this study (e.g. Blat or Ningen kankei). In addition, since this study has looked at two antecedents of interpersonal liking, future research may explore the possibility to identify other shared constructs between these culture/countries where special forms of relationships exist. Furthermore, future research should look at the sub-dimensions of trust, namely affective trust and cognitive trust, to further examine the relationship between trust and Guanxi/Et-Moone. Finally, since this study has focused solely on Eastern collectivist cultures (China and Saudi Arabia), these findings need to be treated with care and are only generalizable within these cultures as demonstrated by this study.