Antecedents of Korean Importers’ Commitment to Overseas Exporters

Importer commitment is crucial to the performance of exporters. More committed importers contribute more to the export performance of overseas exporters than less committed importers. The purpose of the study is to examine the factors that motivate importers to be committed to the relationship with their overseas exporters. Drawing on social exchange theory, importer commitment is modeled as a function of (1) the importer’s perception of the exporter’s commitment, (2)the importer’s dependence on the exporter, (3) the importer’s transaction-specific investments, (4) the importer’s trust of the exporter, and (5) the interaction between(2) dependence on the exporter and (4) trust of the exporter. The model is tested using data collected from 120 Korean importers. The results indicate that Korean importers’ commitment to their overseas exporters is affected not only by the Korean importers’ perceived commitment of overseas exporters, but also by the Korean importers’ dependence on overseas exporters. Further, Korean importers’ transaction-specific investments have a positive effect on Korean importers’ commitment to their overseas exporters. Korean importers’ commitment to their overseas exporters is also affected by the Korean importers’ trust of the overseas exporters. Finally, dependence on the exporter and trust of the exporter turn out to affect importer commitment jointly as well as independently. The findings of the study have implications for Korean exporters as to how they can elicit foreign importers’ commitment in their relationships.