Value congruence of manufacturer: Distributor guanxi orientation and manufacturers relationship specific investments

Values are very important for guiding firm’s attitude, minds and behaviors. From intra- to inter-firm management, value congruence between cooperative firms is the cornerstone for relationship building. This paper focused on guanxi orientation values, popular in Chinese business context, and found the positive effect of value congruence in guanxi orientation on manufacturers’ relationship specific investments (RSIs). The authors collected dyadic data, and applied polynomial regression and response surface approach in this paper. One surprising result is that manufacturer’s RSIs keep high when manufacturer’s guanxi orientation is low but distributor’s is low. The results shed some light on the dynamic interplay between guanxi orientation and RSIs in marketing channel context. Key words: Value congruence, Guanxi orientation, relationship specific investments (RSIs), dyadic data analysis.