Hualiang Lu: "The Role of Guanxi in Buyer-Seller Relationships in China. A Survey of Vegetable Supply Chains in Jiangsu Province"

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4 Jun 2007 16:00
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr. S.W.F. Omta (Management Studies)
Co Promotor: Dr. J.H. Trienekens

 This thesis explores how vegetable supply chains should be organized so as to improve performance and welfare of the chain participants in transition economies. Quality and safety issues are the major constraints for Chinese vegetables entering into international markets. Primary producers face several bottlenecks such as small production scales, lacking of market information, and low negotiation power this leads to the exclusion by high-value market outlets such as supermarkets and international markets. Processing and exporting companies, on the other hand, experience unstable delivery and inconsistent quality supply, and therefore remain as low-cost exporters in a low-quality segment of international markets. This study demonstrates that guanxi networks in China significantly contribute to the integration of buyer-seller relationships in vegetable business, improve the compliance with channel requirements, and eventually lead to good market performance. It is also showed that guanxi networks perform differently in relationships with upstream and downstream partners and across different channels, therefore primary producers and processing and exporting companies follow different approaches to achieve performance.
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