The impact of national culture and communication on exporter-distributor relations and on export performance

Interorganizational relations have been a major focus of marketing scholars in the past 2-3 decades. In this study, we explore the impact of national cultural differences, a factor that is unique to international relations, on behavior variables in exporter-foreign middleman relations. Furthermore, we argue that communication has an extended role in international channel relationships, and that it influences relationship variables in a different manner than in domestic relationships. The study supports that national cultural distance and communication have significant impact on trust and commitment, that communication may influence variables differently than in domestic relations, and that the degree of commitment toward the foreign distributor or agent is directly related to the financial performance in that market. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.