Abstract: Building on institutional theory, this paper examines the impact of distributor-supplier interpersonal guanxi and government-business guanxi on sales performance, as well as the moderating roles of government information transparency and the marketization index. Drawing on 223 paired survey responses from distributors and suppliers in a business-to-business context, as well as government information transparency, marketization index and gross sales, the authors reach following conclusions. First, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between interpersonal guanxi and sales performance, while government-business guanxi exhibits a U-shaped relationship. Second, government information transparency strengthens the inverted U-shaped relationship between interpersonal guanxi and sales performance, while the marketization index weakens this effect. Third, government information transparency enhances the U-shaped relationship between government-business guanxi and sales performance, while the marketization index weakens this effect. Additionally, we discuss the theoretical contributions, practical implications, limitations, and future research directions.

Key words: interpersonal guanxi, government-business guanxi, government information transparency, marketization index, sales performance