Relationship Management of Multinational Enterprises and its Performance: An Empirical Study of Foreign and Japanese Multinationals

다국적기업의 관계관리와 효과에 관한 실증연구 - 재일외자기업(在日外資企業)과 일계다국적기업(日系多國籍企業)을 대상으로 -

Emphasis on relationship management might be found out from Williamson (1975), who tried to elucidate why an organization exists. According to his transaction cost theory, an organization is established to evade opportunistic actions of the market and build up a hierarchy of value chain. However, judged from the perspective of exchange relationship in a trade, the transaction cost theory was likely to approach to buyer-seller relationship by the mechanism of competition. Therefore, an organization exists to control the competition of the market. Relationship management suggested by relationship marketing focuses on cooperation between buyers and sellers, rather than competition against each other. Relationship management aims to provide a framework for making a market relationship that might become an asset or a resource of the firm. In the process of maintaining and strengthening long-term and cooperative relationship with all stakeholders included customers, suppliers and staff, they continue to create new values. The purpose of this empirical research, by investigating how relationship management of multinational enterprises influences on their competitive advantages and performances, is to suggest that a cooperative relationship established for a long time in the market, so-called quasi-market relationship, substitutes for an organization.