Scholars argue that trust can lead to, and is a necessary condition for, cooperative behavior among organizations. They also argue that a certain form of group based trust is linked with group membership and develops as individual organization identif ...
Scholars argue that trust can lead to, and is a necessary condition for, cooperative behavior among organizations. They also argue that a certain form of group based trust is linked with group membership and develops as individual organization identify with the goals espoused by particular organizations. In these situations, salient group identification greatly enhances the level of cooperation and provides a far better explanation than self-interest approaches for understanding cooperative behavior.
This study examines the role of cultural background of inter-firm trust in influencing the adoption of benefit-sharing program, a formal process which committed the buyers to encouraging, reviewing, and acting on suppliers ideas quickly and fairly, and to sharing the benefits of those ideas with suppliers. More specifically: Are there any differences in benefit sharing methods among supply networks in such countries as the United States, Japan, and South Korea If then, What are the most influential causes
I employed semi-structured interviews with managers from fifteen buyers, and twenty of their suppliers in the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
I found that Japanese networks have adopted a higher level of trust-demanding - instead a higher level of value-creating - methods such as 'supplier development,' and 'joint-new-product-development'. Whereas, the United States' networks have adopted low-to-middle level trust-demanding methods such as 'supplier's suggestion' and 'supplier development'. But, Korean networks have only adopted the lowest trust-demanding - also the least profitable - method, namely 'supplier's suggestion'.
In terms of work-related cultural values, I found that Japanese networks emphasize collectivism. Both buyers and suppliers in the Japanese networks are supposed to have common goals. In contrast, United States' networks emphasize individualism. Both Buyers and suppliers in the United States' networks generally do not identify that they are common group members with a common fate. Contrary to the well-known asserts, Korean networks is much closer to United States than to Japan in terms of inter-firm-relationship-related cultural values. In some sense, Korean networks emphasize individualism more strongly than those of United States.
These findings demonstrate that the cultural base of trust has a decisive influence on the adoption of benefit sharing methods for firms in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. The findings also show that benefit sharing practice is culture-specific, and are not easily transferable(re-deployable) to countries emphasizing individualism.