Unpacking the cultural impacts on long-term manufacturer-supplier relationships in the Arab Middle East region: the moderating role of trust

Abstract

The specific objectives of this study are two-fold: (i) to examine the impact of cultural facets of the Arab Middle East region on long-term manufacturer-supplier relationships (LTR) and (ii) to uncover the ways trust functions as a moderator (facilitating or hindering) of the relationships. Prior research examining manufacturer-supplier relationships has largely focused on cross-country and macro-regional inter-firm relationships in Western cultural contexts, while research on the national cultural effects on LTR in non-Western cultural contexts is sparse. We test the effect of six Arab cultural values: Ta’arof (meeting someone, تعارف), Wasta (who you know, واسطة), Wa’ad (promise, وعد), HifzMa’aWajh (saving face, حفظ ماء الوجه), Qada-Qadar (fatalism, القضاء والقدر), and Shura (consultative, شورى). Data from 302 matched manufacturer-supplier dyads in the Jordanian manufacturing sector are used to analyse the hypothesised relationships through a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and multi-group (PLS-MGA) analysis. Our study supports the general consensus of the need to consider cultural and trust issues in building LTR. The PLS path estimates provides support for all hypotheses except for the impact of ta’arof (meeting someone تعارف-) on LTR. The PLS-MGA moderation analysis shows that the moderating role of theqa (i.e. trustثقة-) on LTR varies between different cultural norms and between manufacturers and suppliers. The findings contribute to the increasing shift of focus towards macro-organisational research and beyond Western-derived cross-cultural paradigm to account for context-specific cultural effects of developing societies on LTR.

Keywords:

• National culture
• long-term manufacturer-supplier relationships
• trust
• survey
• Arab Middle East region
• Jordan

Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to Mutah University, Jordan, for sponsoring the presentation of a portion of this work at the Academy of Management (AoM) conference in Boston on August 7th, 2023. Our sincere thanks are extended to Associate Editor Dr. Yang Cheng and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable assistance. Their constructive comments significantly contributed to improving the quality and clarity of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noor Al-Ma’aitah

Dr. Noor Al-Ma’aitah is an associate professor at Mutah University, Jordan. She has got her PhD degree from University of Kent, UK. She is specialises in the cultural aspects of supply chain and quality management, particularly supply chain relationships in the Middle East region and its ramifications for quality performance. Her research interests include the relationship between culture and leadership effectiveness, and the implications of supplier-buyer relationship for quality performance. Noor has extensive work experience in the shipping industry and manufacturing sector as purchasing officer. She published her research in international journals and presented her research at a number of international conferences. She has won runner up position in her PhD study time at Kent Business School in 2012, as well as the Harrington best PhD thesis award in 2015.Also, she is certified as supply chain expert (CSCE) in 2023.

Ying-ying Liao

Dr. Ying Ying Liao is an Associate Professor at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK. Prior to her current appointment, she was an assistant professor and a programme director at the University of Liverpool (China Campus). She received her PhD degree from the University of Kent (UK). She has been actively involved in several research activities internationally, including joint PhD supervision, EMBA external examiner, committee member of international conferences, and ad hoc reviewer for several peer-reviewed international journals (e.g. TQM&BE, etc.) and conferences (e.g. AMA, AoM, etc). She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, presented papers at international conferences, and contributed chapters to several edited books. Her main teaching areas include service quality, total quality management, and business excellence.

Ebrahim Soltani

Prof. Ebrahim Soltani (PhD – University of Strathclyde, UK) is a professor of Quality Management at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU), Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Prior to his appointment, he was a professor of operations management at the University of Kent Business School, UK. He has written widely on managing quality and productivity improvement initiatives in a wide range of publications including British Journal of Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of World Business and Journal of Business Ethics. Ebrahim is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and serves as an editorial review board member of several peer-reviewed international journals.

Chih-Wen Ting

Prof. Chih-Wen Ting is a Professor and serves as the director of the Department of Tourism Management at Nanhua University in Taiwan. He completed his PhD at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Dr. Ting has been involved in several research activities, published wide range of papers, and written some books such as accounting, statistics and quantitative research.

Pervaiz K. Ahmed

Prof. Pervaiz K. Ahmed currently holds the position of Professor and Director at the Institute of Global Strategy and Competitiveness at Sunway University, Malaysia, starting in 2023. Prior to this role, he served as a professor at Monash University Malaysia from 2007, where he held various significant roles including Deputy Head of School (Research), Director of the Global Asia in the 21st Century (G21) initiative, and Director of the Enterprise and Innovation Hub (eiHub). Before relocating to Malaysia, Professor Pervaiz occupied several senior academic positions in the United Kingdom. He has an extensive publication record in international journals.