The impact of interpersonal guanxi on exercise of power in a Chinese marketing channel

Guijun Zhuang*, Youmin Xi, Adel El-Ansary

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Taking retailers and their suppliers as the unit of analysis, this study investigated the impact of interpersonal guanxi on exercise of power in a Chinese marketing channel. By analyzing the data of 225 cases collected from the supplier side, the study found that interpersonal guanxi is composed of instrumental part and emotional part, and the emotional part, that is, the closeness in emotion between reps of channel partners, is positively related to a member's exercise of noncoercive power and negatively related to its exercise of coercive power, while the instrumental part, that is, the interactions between reps of channel partners, is positively related to a member's exercise of both noncoercive power and coercive power.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)185-210
Number of pages26
JournalJournal of Marketing Channels
Volume15
Issue number2-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Conflict
  • Guanxi
  • Marketing channel
  • Power
  • Relationship marketing

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