Influence of Guanxi and Trust on Business to Business relationships in the Chinese market

Abstract: Aim: To understand the influence of guanxi and trust on business to business relationships in the Chinese market. Method: This study was conducted based on an inductive qualitative research method with the use of primary and secondary data. A case study, with semi-structured interview questions and open-end questionnaire, were used for the collection of primary data. In total 27employees were interviewed, 13 through an online application and 14 through an online survey. Result & Conclusions: Guanxi and trust are inseparable and complement each other when building B2B relationships. Renqing and ganqing are part of guanxi which can influence guanxi directly. Trust can be divided into interpersonal and organizational trust and both can build B2B relationships. For the creation of a long-term relationship between business partners, both guanxi and trust are essential to maintain and strengthen the relationship. Suggestion for future research: Because of the limited number of interviews and circumstances, the results of this research are based in one company and three of its business partners. All the interviewed employees work in China and are specialized in the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, the results are difficult to be generalized, but further studies can be conducted in different fields and industries, such as government-owned companies and various business scopes to investigate if the different levels of guanxi and trust influence business relationships or performance. Contribution of the study: This study contributes to the understanding of how guanxi and trust influence relationships between business partners in China. No matter which starts the initial B2B relationship, both trust and guanxi are essential in building, maintain and strengthening B2B relationships.