Informal Relationships and Their Impacts on Supply Chain Management

INTRODUCTION Interpersonal contacts have been identified as performing an important role in supply chain management, especially where the cultural concept of informal relationships has a major influence on both social and business norms. Perhaps the most studied type of informal relationship is guanxi, which derives from Chinese social-cultural norms and influences human behaviour in society. Examples in the context of supply chains include Cheng et al. (2012), who examined the impact of guanxi on supply risk management, and Li and Lin (2006), who endeavoured to leverage global logistics competence by applying guanxi in Chinese manufacturer networks. However, researchers have argued that the presence of informal relationships is by no means culturally unique to China or Confucianism culture (Walder, 1986), and other similar terminologies have begun to draw researchers’ attentions in the context of supply chains. This includes wasta in Middle Eastern societies (Barnett et al., 2013) and blat in Russia (Abosag and Lee, 2013).