International business relationships triads: Classical-type and relational-type interactions between Chinese and western firms

China’s expanding position within the global business arena has placed focus on its role in assisting to stimulate the global economy during the current ‘global financial crisis’. This raises the importance of better understanding how the Chinese conduct their inter-firm interactions, in their exchanges between Chinese and Western firms. We report an expository study that identifies both classical-type exchange and interactions that are relational-type in the one context and how these conflate to form triadic structures within business networks. From case study evidence, we propose a typology of triadic interorganisational forms. To understand better exchange in this complex international marketing context, and the additional demands this places on relationships management, it is important that we understand the causes and nature of the fuzziness of these opaque inter-firm network structures.