Cultural adaptation and socialisation between Western buyers and Chinese suppliers: The formation of a hybrid culture

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cultural adaptation and socialisation between Western buyers and Chinese suppliers

T2 - The formation of a hybrid culture

AU - Jia, Fu

AU - Rutherford, Christine

AU - Lamming, Richard

PY - 2016/12/1

Y1 - 2016/12/1

N2 - We aim to examine culturally-influenced behavioural adaptation embedded in socialisation processes at interfaces between Western buyers and Chinese suppliers in China. We conducted multiple case studies, including four cross-cultural partnerships, exploring how interface teams hosting trans-cultural boundary spanners at buyer-supplier interfaces socialise formally and informally and adapt behaviourally to three key cultural differences between Chinese Guanxi and the Anglo-Saxon form of Western culture. Data collected from 36 interviewees are used to explore the process of cultural behavioural adaptation and the emergence of a hybrid culture. We find that cultural adaptation is confined to those interface teams who interact routinely at the buyer-supplier interface and leads to the formation of a hybrid culture, which is a combination of Guanxi and western rules and procedures. The hybrid culture and cultural adaptation are two intermediary constructs between socialisation and relational capital, which enriches and explains this relationship in a cross-cultural context.

AB - We aim to examine culturally-influenced behavioural adaptation embedded in socialisation processes at interfaces between Western buyers and Chinese suppliers in China. We conducted multiple case studies, including four cross-cultural partnerships, exploring how interface teams hosting trans-cultural boundary spanners at buyer-supplier interfaces socialise formally and informally and adapt behaviourally to three key cultural differences between Chinese Guanxi and the Anglo-Saxon form of Western culture. Data collected from 36 interviewees are used to explore the process of cultural behavioural adaptation and the emergence of a hybrid culture. We find that cultural adaptation is confined to those interface teams who interact routinely at the buyer-supplier interface and leads to the formation of a hybrid culture, which is a combination of Guanxi and western rules and procedures. The hybrid culture and cultural adaptation are two intermediary constructs between socialisation and relational capital, which enriches and explains this relationship in a cross-cultural context.

KW - Buyer-supplier relationship

KW - Case study

KW - China

KW - Cultural adaptation

KW - Hybrid culture

KW - Socialisation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961932764&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2016.03.009

DO - 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2016.03.009

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84961932764

SN - 0969-5931

VL - 25

SP - 1246

EP - 1261

JO - International Business Review

JF - International Business Review

IS - 6

ER -