Abstract:
Research has shown that, to achieve successful longterm
business relationships, firms should be sensitive
to foreign partners' cultures and must be willing to
share information with their partners. Despite the
importance of this issue, little research has been
undertaken, firstly, to examine the relationships
among these two factors and relationship quality, and
secondly, in the context of foreign partners' differing
cultural backgrounds. To bridge this gap, this
research attempts to examine the relationships
between cultural sensitivity, information exchange
and relationship quality between Vietnamese
exporters and their foreign importers. In addition, the
research investigates the strengths of these
relationships for two groups of importers, Asian and
European. A model hypothesising the relationships
between these factors and relationship quality was
developed. A random sample of 288 Vietnamese
exporting firms, of which 134 were doing business
with Asian importers and 154 with European
importers, were surveyed to test the model via multigroup
analysis in structural equation modelling. The
results show that the model had an acceptable fit to
the data and all the hypotheses were supported. The
results also indicate that there was no difference in
terms of the strengths of the relationships between
Asian and European importers. Implications for
business firms and directions for future research are
also addressed.
