محلی سازی در چین: چگونگی مداخله گوانگسی در روابط تجاری چین و ایالات متحده  Localization in China: How guanxi moderates Sino–US business relationships

1. Introduction Globalization has attracted considerable interest over the last couple of decades (Levitt, 1983; Ramarapu, Timmerman, & Ramarapu, 1999). However, existing studies tend to agree that standardization offers limited explanation for the behavior of international firms in different markets (e.g., Czinkota & Ronkainen, 1998; Humbert, 1993; Ritzer, 2004). The recognition of such limitation encourages scholars to consider localization as a necessity for international businesses to achieve the desired success in different markets (e.g., Prahalad & Doz, 1986; Samiee, Jeong, Pae, & Tai, 2003; Vrontis, 2003). Whilst previous studies identify situations and conditions in which international businesses can localize their business approaches and marketing mix for better success in various target markets (Calantone, Kim, Schmidt, & Cavusgil, 2006; Dow, 2006; Roth, 1995), most works find the understanding of local culture to be the key force that determines the success of localization (e.g., Czinkota & Ronkainen, 1998; Roth, 1995). Over the past two decades, China as a market has received significant attention from both academics and practitioners alike for its sheer market size and economic growth. However, despite China’s open-door policy, many international firms still struggle to succeed or sustain their business presence in the Chinese market due to their lack of awareness or understanding of the specific cultural context (Buckley, Clegg, & Tan, 2006). Studies have discussed how international firms could better adapt and localize their business approaches and practices in China, adjusting to the Chinese culture in areas such as advertising (Cui & Yang, 2009; Tai & Pae, 2002), strategy (Fock & Woo, 1998), communication (Hung, 2004), services (Pheng, 1997), direct selling (Luk, Fullgrabe, & Li, 1999), retailing (Yip, 1995), and b2b activities (Yan & Gray, 1996). Nevertheless, despite extensive discussion on Chinese culture (e.g., Lovett, Simmons, & Kali, 1999; Luo, 1997) and how its cultural orientation differs from the West in different ways (Hofstede, 2001), most of the aforementioned studies have not considered utilizing the Chinese notion of ‘guanxi’ as a tool in their discussion of localization in China. Given culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the people of one country from another (Hofstede, 2001), a close examination of such cultural-specific construct is imperative to assist international firms in localizing their business approaches and practices appropriate to the local cultural context. Acknowledging this gap when studying localization in China, this paper makes the first attempt to bring guanxi literature to further enhance localization in China by asking the question as to what extent the relations between relationship constructs and outcomes in international b2b relationships are contingent to Chinese buyers’ evaluation of their US suppliers’ adaptation to guanxi? In other words, what is the moderation effect, if any, of guanxi on relationship constructs and outcomes in Sino–US business relationships?