• Proceedings of the Korean DIstribution Association Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.53-83
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• 2005

This study focuses on finding out the determinants of relational quality between the supplier and the retailer in the Chinese cosmetics market. A total of 72 questionnaires were collected by surveying beauty shops which mainly do business with the foreign cosmetics suppliers in Shanghai area. The findings support the premise that a retailer's trust in a supplier is positively related to the retailer's commitment. Supplier's ability, guanxi and cultural sensitivity have positive impacts on trust. Formalization, supplier's specific investment and cultural sensitivity affect commitment positively. But the formalization is not significantly related to the retailer's trust. The guanxi is not found to be significantly related to the retailer's commitment yet.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1-32
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• 2011

I. Introduction: In Chinese electronics industry, the local wholesalers are still dominant but power is rapidly swifting from wholesalers to retailers because in recent foreign big retailers and local mass merchandisers are growing fast. During such transient period, conflicts among channel members emerge important issues. For example, when wholesalers who have more power exercise influence strategies to maintain status, conflicts among manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer will be intensified. Korean electronics companies in China need differentiated channel strategies by dealing with wholesalers and retailers simultaneously to sell more Korean products in competition with foreign firms. For example, Korean electronics firms should utilize 'guanxi' or relational quality to form long-term relationships with whloesalers instead of power and conflict issues. The major purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of conflict, dependency, and influence strategies between local Korean-products-selling retailers and wholesalers on performance in Chinese electronics distribution channels. In particular, this paper proposes effective distribution strategies for Korean electronics companies in China by analyzing moderating effects of 'Guanxi'. II. Literature Review and Hypotheses: The specific purposes of this study are as follows. First, causes of conflicts between local Korean-products-selling retailers and wholesalers are examined from the perspectives of goal incongruence and role ambiguity and then effects of these causes are found out on perceived conflicts of local retailers. Second, the effects of dependency of local retailers upon wholesalers are investigated on local retailers' perceived conflicts. Third, the effects of non-coercive influence strategies such as information exchange and recommendation and coercive strategies such as threats and legalistic pleas exercised by wholesalers are explored on perceived conflicts by local retailers. Fourth, the effects of level of conflicts perceived by local retailers are verified on local retailers' financial performance and satisfaction. Fifth, moderating effects of relational qualities, say, 'quanxi' between wholesalers and retailers are analyzed on the impact of wholesalers' influence strategies on retailers' performances. Finally, moderating effects of relational qualities are examined on the relationship between conflicts and performance. To accomplish above-mentioned research objectives, Figure 1 and the following research hypotheses are proposed and verified. III. Measurement and Data Analysis: To verify the proposed research model and hypotheses, data were collected from 97 retailers who are selling Korean electronic products located around Central and Southern regions in China. Covariance analysis and moderated regression analysis were employed to validate hypotheses. IV. Conclusion: The following results were drawn using structural equation modeling and hierarchical moderated regression. First, goal incongruence perceived by local retailers significantly affected conflict but role ambiguity did not. Second, consistent with conflict spiral theory, the level of conflict decreased when retailers' dependency increased toward wholesalers. Third, noncoercive influence strategies such as information exchange and recommendation implemented by wholesalers had significant effects on retailers' performance such as sales and satisfaction without conflict. On the other hand, coercive influence strategies such as threat and legalistic plea had insignificant effects on performance in spite of increasing the level of conflict. Fourth, 'guanxi', namely, relational quality between local retailers and wholesalers showed unique effects on performance. In case of noncoercive influence strategies, 'guanxi' did not play a role of moderator. Rather, relational quality and noncoercive influence strategies can serve as independent variables to enhance performance. On the other hand, when 'guanxi' was well built due to mutual trust and commitment, relational quality as a moderator can positively function to improve performance even though hostile, coercive influence strategies were implemented. Fifth, 'guanxi' significantly moderated the effects of conflict on performance. Even if conflict arises, local retailers who form solid relational quality can increase performance by dealing with dysfunctional conflict synergistically compared with low 'quanxi' retailers. In conclusion, this study verified the importance of relational quality via 'quanxi' between local retailers and wholesalers in Chinese electronic industry because relational quality could cross out the adverse effects of coercive influence strategies and conflict on performance.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-29
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• 2006

This study focuses on finding out the determinants of relational quality between the supplier and the retailer in the Chinese cosmetics market. A total of 72 questionnaires were collected by surveying beauty shops which mainly do business with the foreign cosmetics suppliers in Shanghai area. The findings support the premise that a retailer's trust in a supplier is positively related to the retailer's commitment. Supplier's ability, guanxi and cultural sensitivity have positive impacts on trust. Formalization and cultural sensitivity affect commitment positively. But the formalization is not significantly related to the retailer's trust. The guanxi is not found to be significantly related to the retailer's commitment yet. Finally, the authors discuss some theoretical contributions, managerial implications. And then, they present limitations of this study and the future research directions.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.21-43
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• 2005

Since China opened its market to foreign investors, overseas Chinese firms have been the biggest foreign investors. Because of the uncertain market environment, other foreign finns incurred larger liabilities of foreignness than overseas Chinese finns. Some parts of liabilities of foreignness stem from cultural differences and last for quite long time. Therefore better understanding of Chinese culture and guanxi network can give overseas Chinese finns competitive advantages over those from other countries by offering market information and reducing transaction costs. Also better management skills, information about export markets and abundant capital allow them to maintain competitive strengths over local firms. As foreign firms accumulate market knowledge in China, they can reduce liabilities of foreignness. However, it is very difficult for foreigners to understand Chinese cultures and to utilize guanxi network as well as Chinese. It is likely that Overseas Chines firms can have competitive strengths in some industries such as banking, retailing, and foreign trade, where relationship with local contractors and exploitation of worldwide Chines networks can play important roles to make successful business deals.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.37
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• pp.361-382
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• 2014

This study aims to investigate the change of functions of duibuqi and analysis other fuctions of duibuqi apart from apology from pragmatics and conversation analysis perspectives. Duibuqi consists of dui(face) and buqi(be not capable of performing), and means 'be not capable of facing'. After that, it is assumed to have changed to 'ashamed' and finally 'sorry'. In terms of functions, duibuqi is generally regarded as meaning 'sorry' typically, so mei guanxi is considered to consist adjacency pair with it, but in this investigation, mei guanxi is very little adjacent to duibuqi contrary to expectation(n=2/28, per.=7.1/100). About half of duibuqi(n=15/28, per.=53.6/100) functions in apology action sequence, and in the sequence, duibuqi functions much more for take the lead in apology(n=11/15) but not for a reaction against scolding(n=4/15). And the other half of duibuqi(n=13/28, per.=46.4/100) functions for softening the impact of reject or direct action, or for switching situations, e.g. from favorable situation to unfavorable situation, or for expressing speaker's emotion to the other's repair etc. Consequently, duibuqi has being changed its meanings and its functions is being changed accordingly.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.133-167
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• 2010

The enforcement of commercial arbitration awards in the People's Republic of China is one the controversial obstacles faced by foreign investors in China. The foreign investor will fail to enforce the arbitration award, if the Chinese court refuses the enforcement in China, even if the arbitration tribunal rules the award in favor of foreign investor who is in dispute with Chinese partners. In Korea, we have not many researches in the enforcement of foreign related awards and awards ruled by other jurisdiction. In recent times, Professor Kyung-Ja Cha(2005) and Professor Sun-Jeong Kim(2008) analyzed the enforcement of arbitration awards in China. Professor Kyung-Ja Cha(2005) reports the details of the enforcement statistics of CIETAC during 1990s. Professor Sun-Jeong Kim(2008) analyzed the obstacles of the enforcement of foreign related awards in China. This paper extends their researches in the field of the enforcement of arbitration awards in China. First, this paper extends Professor Kyung-Ja Cha(2005)'s study by introducing the Chinese enforcement situation during the period of 2000-2007. Second, this paper extends Professor Sunjung Kim(2008) emphasizes the local protectionism and the weakness of judiciary as key factors of obstacles to enforce the foreign related awards in People's Republic of China. This paper, additionally, highlights the role of the Guanxi and the antagonism of court toward arbitration institution to enforce the foreign related awards in People's Republic of China. Third, this study provides the recent developments of Supreme People's Court(SPC)'s rules to narrow down the gap between the practices of international arbitration and those of People's Republic of China. The Implications of this study are as follows. First, it is desirable for foreign investors to appoint the CIETAC or BAC as the arbitration commission in China. Second, the local competent attorney is the best choice to solve the respondent's insolvency in China. Third, foreign investors is required to monitor the provisions on the electronic instruments such as EDI and Email in Chinese law.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.279-290
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• 2020

Informal networks between individuals are widely seen as important in East Asian business systems. However, while the performance implications of guanxi in China have been extensively studied, much less is known on how informal networks may influence business outcomes in other East Asian countries. We examine informal networks in inter-organizational research collaborations in South Korea by studying the role of pre-existing social ties and relational orientation in new product development (NPD) collaborations and university-industry research (UIR) collaborations. We conduct an interview-based, in-depth case analysis of five NPD collaborations and five UIR collaborations. Pre-existing social ties and relational orientation are prevalent in both types of research collaborations. However, they have different consequences for collaboration outcomes. Pre-existing social ties strongly vary in their types and strength, and negatively affect collaboration outcomes unless they result in the selection of competent and motivated partners. Relational orientation manifests itself in a task-related and social exchange between collaboration partners, which contributes to outcomes such as knowledge acquisition and business performance. Korean collaboration managers should rely only on pre-existing social ties that are well-aligned with task-related requirements when initiating and conducting research collaborations. However, the creation of strong relationships between collaboration team members of partnering organizations should be encouraged.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.101-120
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• 2021

Purpose - As the research of Chinese unicorn companies is still in early stages, this paper aims to investigate the factors that influence the success of Chinese IT unicorns. Design/methodology/approach - This study is conducted as a single case study and used various sources such as interviews, internal data, press releases, IR data, etc. to enhance the reliability and validity. Findings - First, the characteristics of the start-up team, social capital, and strategies as internal factors affect the success of unicorns. Among them, the more Guanxi in social capital factors, the greater the possibility of growing into an IT unicorn company. Second, the role of venture capital and geographical location have been identified that two factors affect the success of unicorns. In the role of venture capital, it has been confirmed that the world's top-level venture capital company or a company that has been invested by "BATJ" is more likely to grow into a unicorn company in China. Research implications or Originality - This paper distinguishes between internal and external factors to explain the factors that affect the growth of unicorn companies, which lays the foundation for future research, such as the exploration of the unicorns and the development of new variables.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.111-127
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• 2024

Our study investigates the impact of paternalistic leadership on organizational citizenship behavior in the Chinese context. First, we explore whether the benevolent, moral, and authoritative dimensions of paternalistic leadership positively influence organizational citizenship behavior. Second, we examine the mediating role of affective commitment. Third, we investigate whether power distance orientation and follower's age moderate the paternalistic leadership-affective commitment-organizational citizenship behavior mechanism. The results confirm the positive effects of the three sub-dimensions. We also confirm power distance orientation and follower's age moderate the effect of benevolent and moral aspects of paternalistic leadership. These underscore the importance of a dimensional analysis of paternalistic leadership. Theoretical and practical implications are also suggested.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.421-437
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• 2009

China has transformed her strategies for economic development from exogenous development founded on foreign capitals to endogenous development based on enhancing technology innovation capabilities since 2000. More specifically, Chinese business activities have coupled with new institutional settings which enable them to facilitate advanced technology and management methods. As a result, the characteristics of the spatial economy in China are likely to transfer from export-led developmental space to technology-oriented developmental space. In this context, this paper aims to identify the characteristics of technology-oriented space by investigating intra-, inter- and extra-firms relations of Korean FDI firms in Shanghai, China. In terms of intra-firm relations, Korean FDI firms adopted strategies for maximizing business efficiency and effectiveness by transforming their personal networks into formal networks. In terms of inter-firm relations, the distinction of Korean FDI firms' networks has been found in accordance with firm size, industrial sectors, ways of investment etc. Finally, Korean FDI firms has formal networks resulted from institutional involvement, as well as informal (personal) networks based on guanxi (inter-personal relations) in extra-firm relations. Therefore, two types of processes affecting the networks and institutional legacies of the Soviet system can be identified. First is the interaction of institutions and restructuring of pre-existing networks. Second is the insulated institutions and endurance of preexisting networks. And these two governance types have created regional economies which are embedded and over-embedded.