A Study On The Impact Of Relationship Marketing Orientation On Alliance Performance Of Cluster Firms

Guangdong manufacturing clusters are facing an obstacle of transformation andupgrading, and the upgrading of cluster brand is one of the important potential paths. There isa positive interaction between cluster brands and enterprise brands, especially for therelying-on cluster brands. Relying on the famous individual brand, the OEMs in the clustersmay well create their own brands because of the radiation and leading effects of the industrialcluster brand. As for firms in the cluster, building up a network of cooperation via clusterbrand to achieve upgrade of supporting industries alliance, can enhance the spillover effectof industrial cluster brand, so as to enhance the overall competitiveness of the cluster.Meanwhile, in the network economy era, the dynamic changes of competitive environmentmake firms deeply aware that their own limited internal resources are getting hard to helpthem occupy a place in the fierce market competition. They have to seek the support fromexternal organizations and build up a relationship network, from which they are able to shareheterogeneous knowledge and exchange complementary resources. And this will help firms toexpand and extend resource obtaining, so as to improve innovation and performance,achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Scholars based on network position theorymore focus on the value of resources and power benefiting from a favorable network position,while scholars of resource-based view emphasize the key role of internal absorption capacityin enhancing innovation and business performance, and a few scholars begin to concern aboutboth streams with an attemptto better clarify the enhancing mechanism of businessperformance. To further enhance the competitiveness and performance, however, what kindof management philosophy can effectively help firms to obtain the required external resourcesfor development, while helping to enhance their capacity to assimilate and apply externalknowledge? This issue remains uncovered in these studies.As a matter of fact, when relationship between firms becomes an important asset forbusiness, as a practical carrier of relationship marketing theory, relationship marketingorientation has become a strategic business philosophy, which can help firms to formrelationship ability as well as to access relationship capital. This orientation helps firms tobetter interact with customers, suppliers, distributors, competitors, governments, research andfinancial institutions as well as the other stakeholders in the same value network to obtainalliance relationship capital. Researches indicate that relationship marketing orientationpositively influence business performance. On the other hand, as an industrial cluster becomesa new unit of regional competition, cooperation relationship among cluster firms will construct an interdependent strategic network, turning competitions between individuals intocluster interest community. As a result, how to improve the joint efficiency has become anincreasing concern for more and more firms. Yet, researches on relationship betweenrelationship marketing orientation and alliance performance still remain uncovered. Hence,the impact mechanism of relationship marketing orientation on alliance performance isexplored in this paper, with an integration of social network theory and relationship marketingtheory, as well as a perspective combination of internal absorption capacity and externalnetwork resources.Based on the data survey and empirical analysis of214manufacturing firms in industrialclusters in the PRD, the conclusions are reached as follows:(1) Relationship marketingorientation has a significantly direct influence on alliance performance of cluster firms;(2)Relationship marketing orientation has a significantly positive influence on network structuralposition;(3) Relationship marketing orientation has a significantly positive influence onabsorptive capability;(4) Both network structure and absorptive capability have significantlypositive influence on alliance performance, while network structure has an impact on allianceperformance much more strong than absorptive capability does;(5) Both network structureand absorptive capability act as partial mediating effect between relationship marketingorientation and alliance performance, also absorptive capability acts as partial mediatingeffect between network structure and alliance performance;(6) Environmental dynamicspositively moderate the path that network openness impacts on alliance performance;(7)Environmental dynamics negatively moderate the paths that network centrality and networkdensity impact on absorptive capability.The impact mechanism of relationship marketing orientation on alliance performance isexamined in this paper, and management implications comes as follows: firstly, as more andmore firms take advantage of external networks to build up strategic partnerships, theimportance of relationship marketing orientation in improving alliance performance should beunderlined. Especially for firms in industrial clusters, relationship marketing orientation notonly helps to improve their joint performance, but also generatesa total effect, whichultimately improves competitiveness and promotes upgrade of the industrial cluster as awhole. Secondly, the improvement of absorption capacity and alliances performance issubject to the structural position embedded in that network. Therefore, emphasis should belaid on the building of external networks, with the aid of relationship marketing orientation tobetter seeking and building external partnerships, thus occupying a favorable network position.At the same time, firms should nurture and improve internal absorption capacity, so as to make full use of information and resources benefiting from a favorable structural position, toeffectively contribute to the improvement of innovation and alliance performance. Finally,firms should employ the right strategies at the right time in accordance with dynamicenvironmental changes. Especially in the highly dynamic market, firms are suggested tofurther increase the openness of the network. Specifically, for better respond to marketchanges, firms should make every effort to seek and accept new partners to exploit newmarket opportunities, while strengthen the existing cooperation to reduce transaction costsand risks.