Global strategists emphasize leveraging capabilities developed in domestic markets when expanding into international markets, a strategy reflected in the entry of Korean startups into the Chinese market. Value appropriation refers to a company's ability to claim its share of the value created in a target market, with value appropriation factors being critical elements required for this process. Despite these strategies, many foreign companies fail to achieve expected performance in China, often attributed to their inability to secure the necessary value appropriation factors. Researchers posit that business guanxi can play a pivotal role in facilitating the acquisition of these factors in the Chinese market. This study examines the relationship between the network capabilities of global startups and value appropriation factors during the overseas expansion stage. It also explores the moderating effect of business guanxi through empirical research. The data was collected via surveys from Korean global startups targeting business operations in China. The results indicate that sub-components of network capability, specifically networking capability and international market resource securing capability, are significantly associated with the acquisition of value appropriation factors. Furthermore, business guanxi was found to positively moderate the relationship between networking capability and securing value appropriation factors. These findings suggest that Korean global startups should prioritize developing strong network capabilities and fostering business guanxi to enhance their ability to secure value appropriation factors during the overseas expansion stage. Chinese companies do not have deep trust in Korean startups. Therefore, startups should build a business guanxi based on emotional trust from the beginning of early entry. This effort will extend beyond the trust of startup products and services to corporate trust.

본 연구에서는 글로벌 전략적 제휴를 하는 중국 산동성 소재 대기업을 대상으로 꽌시, 명성, POS(perceived organizational support), PLS(perceived leader support), 해외사업경험, 해외사업조직이 파트너기업과의 지식공유성과에 미치는 영향에 대하여 실증분석을 실시하였다. 제휴파트너와의 꽌시, 명성, POS는 전략적 제휴 파트너 기업과의 지식공유성과에 유의하게 정(＋)의 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 반면 PLS는 예측한 바와 달 리 제휴파트너 기업과의 지식공유성과에 유의한 부(-)의 영향을 보여주었다. 그리고 해외사업경험은 꽌시와 명성 이 글로벌 제휴파트너 기업과의 지식공유성과에 영향을 미침에 있어 긍정적인 조절효과를 미치는 것으로 나타났 다. 한편 해외사업조직은 꽌시가 제휴파트너 기업과의 지식공유성과에 영향을 미침에 있어 긍정적인 조절효과를 보여주었다. 그러나 명성이 제휴파트너 기업과의 지식공유성과에 영향을 미침에 있어서는 긍정적인 조절효과를 보여주지 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 특히 중국 내부에 오랜 기간 글로벌 전략적 제휴를 바탕으로 크게 둥지를 튼 중국기업에 대한 조직, 인적자원관리 측면에 대한 연구와 이들 기업들에 대한 국제경영 관점의 연구, 이 두 개의 큰 줄기를 하나로 통합한 관점에서 연구했다는데 큰 의미가 있다.

The manuscript examines Guanxi’s direct influence on reducing opportunism and conflicts, and its indirect influence on increasing buyers’ satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The findings based on data collected from 273 Chinese firms reveal that Chinese buyers’ guanxi with US suppliers could significantly reduce buyers’ perception in suppliers’ opportunistic behaviour and the perceived levels of conflicts in Sino-US relationships, hence increasing their satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The results broaden existing understanding of guanxi literature by empirically examining Guanxi’s influence on supplier opportunism and conflicts. The research implications suggest guanxi could be employed as a management mechanism in reducing supplier opportunism and conflicts, hence positively increasing satisfaction, performance and long-term orientation.

Although the role of Guanxi in the Chinese business to business (B2B) market as a form of relationship marketing has received increasing attention in recent years, few empirical studies have explicitly distinguished between Guanxi and relationship marketing. Westerners typically consider Guanxi as unethical, but foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) may have some difficulty in fully practicing relationship marketing in China without considering the influence of Chinese culture. In this regard, this study is guided by the following research question: “In China, should foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) adopt Guanxi instead of relationship marketing in the B2B market?” In this study, we first provide an overview of previous research on Guanxi, focusing on the fundamental differences between Guanxi and relationship marketing. We then provide an empirical analysis of the differential effects of Guanxi and relationship marketing on firm performance by investigating 295 FIEs in the Chinese B2B market. The results suggest that Guanxi and relationship marketing are not trade-off options in today’s Chinese market. Guanxi and relationship marketing have synergetic effects on firm performance, that is, they have differential effects based on the mode of market entry and the type of competitor. Guanxi is more likely to influence firm performance for collaboration based entry firms rather than entry without collaboration firms, whereas relationship marketing is more likely to influence firm performance when FIEs’ main competitors are foreign firms than when they are local firms.