Abstract
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.  
Highlights
Nowadays, firms are looking for partners or alliances who share common values and Human Resource managers are trying to find potential employees who admire firms’ business values or at least believe in basic values
By integrating research from organizational behavior and relationship marketing, we develop and test a model that explores the effect of firm-level value congruence in guanxi orientation on member’s relationship specific investments (RSIs) behavior in channel context
The focus on guanxi orientation values is narrower than the traditional business philosophy, but it is in line with research in marketing channel management especially in Chinese context
Summary
Firms are looking for partners or alliances who share common values and Human Resource managers are trying to find potential employees who admire firms’ business values or at least believe in basic values. The answers to these questions will allow us to extend our understanding of value congruence and relationship marketing in new form. It will give practitioners guidelines on how to build business values and maintain long-time inter-firm relationships with partners.
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