Professor Chavi Chen’s recent published paper (Fletcher-Chen, Chavi C.-Y.): Relational resources for emerging markets’ non-technological innovation: insights from China and Taiwan in Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing is about the importance of relational resources (trust and relationship effectiveness). This research studies how the Chinese guanxi is utilized to create and develop service exploitation and exploration activities for adopting non-technological innovation (exploitation of existing ventures and exploration of new services). The study draws on the interaction approach and is based on resource-based theory’s relational view to explain how Supplier-Customer relations span firm boundaries to generate value for innovation. Within the Chinese context, the paper draws attention to relational resources as the mediator linking collaborative communication and constructive conflict to non-technological innovation. The sample criteria were Taiwanese and Chinese suppliers in medical equipment, communication tools and electronic products. The findings showed that the constructive conflict enhances trust and relationship effectiveness between firms. Yet, trust failed to mediate collaborative communication and constructive conflict positive effect on exploration. Moreover, the relationship effectiveness motivates suppliers to mobilize their guanxi network and mediates the supplier–customer interaction in broadening relationships to produce new services, as well as reinforcing networks to strengthen existing ventures. In other words, Chinese suppliers tend to draw on guanxi networks as a form of third party to enhance explorative and exploitative innovation. The notion of relationship effectiveness as being an additional relational resource in a Chinese context contributes to a relatively under-explored relational capability to enact non-technological innovation.
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Professor Chavi Chen is one member of ICoN. You can find more information about ICoN team members here: