Understanding the impact of national culture on firms’ benefit-seeking behaviors in international B2B relationships: A conceptual model and research propositions

Firms in an international B2B relationship often simultaneously pursue two types of benefits: Common benefit (cooperation) and private benefit competition). Past literature only examined performance implications of such behavioral tensions. Drawing on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, this study attempts to build a theoretical model to better understand firms’ behavioral intentions from a cultural perspective in international B2B relationships. Propositions were developed on five dimensions of the cultural framework: individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, long-term orientation/short-term orientation, and power distance. This model should help firms to select partners with the most compatible objectives and to establish appropriate safeguarding mechanisms based on their behavioral intentions.