Conflict and contract use in cross-cultural buyer-supplier relationships: The Role of Cultural Context

Jens Roehrich, Mehrnoush Sarafan, Brian Christopher Squire, Benn Lawson, Meriem Bouazzaoui

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

Conflict is common within global supply chains, especially where the buyer and supplier span different cultures. In such settings, formal contracts assume an important role in providing a common language that specifies each party's roles, responsibilities, and liabilities. However, the primacy, use, and interpretation of contracts is subject to the cultural norms of the two parties involved. We adopt a multi-method research design to understand how cultural context affects how suppliers interpret and respond to different contract functions (control vs. coordination) adopted by a buyer firm during conflict episodes. Study 1 involves multiple, in-depth case studies of conflict between three Indian suppliers and six of their international buyers from China, Germany, and the United States. Our findings highlight how the use of contractual control or coordination is interpreted differently depending on the supplier's cultural context. In particular, a mismatch in contract function use and the supplier's culturally derived expectations can lead to strong negative emotions and damage to the relationship. In Study 2, we propose and test a set of hypotheses via a scenario-based experiment of German and Chinese managers. We find support for our hypothesized conditional effects, showing that for suppliers from high-context cultures, the buyer's use of contractual control to address conflict has a significant negative, indirect effect on relationship commitment (via the emotion of anger). We conclude with a discussion of the implications of using contracts to manage conflict in cross-cultural supply chain relationships.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages19
JournalProduction and Operations Management
Early online date26 Jul 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 26 Jul 2024

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the \u00C9lectricit\u00E9 de France (grant number RE-MN1117).

FundersFunder number
EDF FranceRE-MN1117

    Keywords

    • Conflict
    • contractual governance
    • cross-cultural relationships
    • experimental design
    • national culture

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Management Science and Operations Research
    • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
    • Management of Technology and Innovation

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Conflict and contract use in cross-cultural buyer-supplier relationships: The Role of Cultural Context'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this