Enhancing client citizenship behavior in enterprise system service of China: the role of enterprise system benefits and guanxi^*

* Xusen Cheng is the accepting Editor for this article.

ABSTRACT

The implementation of enterprise systems (ES) is an IT-enabled collaboration between vendors and clients. This collaboration contributes to the economy of developing countries by offering high added value with low resource consumption. Researchers and practitioners in the ES service industry believe that the citizenship behavior of clients is critical to the success of such a collaboration. However, despite this recognition, current knowledge on how to improve the citizenship behavior of clients through the benefits provided by ES remains unclear. The present study uses social exchange theory in proposing a model for examining the effects of ES benefits (i.e. ES task efficiency and ES coordination improvement) on client citizenship behavior in China through guanxi (i.e. renqing and ganqing). The data collected from 112 client firms of a focal ES vendor support most of the hypotheses. ES task efficiency and ES coordination improvement positively affect renqing, which in turn influences client citizenship behavior. ES coordination improvement positively influences ganqing and sequentially client citizenship behavior. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Client citizenship behavior
• enterprise system
• guanxi
• social exchange theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Yuting Wang is a master student in the School of Management at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Her research focuses on the information system, citizenship behavior and inter-organizational relationships.

Hefu Liu is a professor in School of Management at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He earned his PhD degree with the University of Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong. He has published in Journal of Operations Management, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Global Information Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and in the academic conference ICIS, PACIS and AMCIS.

Zhao Cai is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Management at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). His interest covers information systems, operations management, and inter-organizational relationships. He has published papers in International Journal of Operations & Production Management and some academic conferences such as ICIS, PACIS, and HICSS.

Notes

* Xusen Cheng is the accepting Editor for this article.

1 Data Source: http://www.miit.gov.cn/newweb/n1146312/n1146904/n1648374/index.html

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by “the National Natural Science Foundation of China” [grant number NSFC: 71622009, 71571169, and 71571177]; and supported by “Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province” [grant number 1608085MG155].