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

Fu Jia, Christine Rutherford and Richard Lamming

International Business Review, 2016, vol. 25, issue 6, 1246-1261

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Cultural adaptation; Socialisation; Hybrid culture; Buyer-supplier relationship; Case study; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2016.03.009

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