Impact of Servant Leadership and Narcissism on Firm Performance: A Comparative Analysis of U.S. and Chinese International Strategic Distribution Channel Alliances

ABSTRACT

An integrative conceptual model developed tested the relative influence of servant leadership and narcissism in relation to strategic variables including adaptation and cooperation on competitive advantage and firm performance. Data were collected using structured on-site interviews conducted with 140 and 95 key respondents of randomly selected manufactuarer-export houses located in U.S. and China, respectively. Empirical results revealed that both strategic variables and leadership variables were positively related to competitive advantage, which, in turn, influenced firm performance. The influence of societal culture was evident in our results in that relationships among antecedents of firm performance were denser for U.S. than they were for Chinese firms. Based on these findings, insights for administrative guidance and implications for influencing and managing a firms ISA between manufacturers and their principal international distribution channel alliance partners were discussed. Research drawbacks are identified and directions for future studies are proffered.

Keywords:

• Strategic alliances
• firm performance
• servant leadership
• narcissism
• societal culture
• distribution channels
• performance
• channel leadership styles

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge and thank the anonymous reviewers and the Editor for their insightful comments that contributed in major improvements to the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figure 1. International strategic distribution channel alliance management practices and outcomes: a conceptual framework.