Small Firm Marketing in China: A Comparative Study

This paper examines the influence of Chinese cultural values on marketing practices in different socio-cultural settings and business contexts, for example the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and China. 20 Chinese small firms in China were selected and their owner-managers were interviewed. Findings of interviews undertaken by Brooksbank et al. (1992) with 20 British small firm chief marketing executives, and Siu (1997) with 26 Chinese owner-managers in Hong Kong, were collated to form a database for comparison purposes. The research results suggest that the specific marketing practices of Chinese small firms in mainland China are different from those of their counterparts, for example, British and Hong Kong Chinese small firms. A tentative model is developed explaining the factors that appear likely, on the basis of this research, to affect the marketing performance of small firms in China.     

Conceptualizing the International For-Profit Social Entrepreneur

This article looks at social entrepreneurs that operate for-profit and internationally, offering that international for-profit social entrepreneurs (IFPSE) are of a unique type. Initially, this article utilizes the entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and international entrepreneurship literatures to develop a definition of the IFPSE. Next, a proposed model of the IFPSE is built utilizing the dimensions of mindset, opportunity recognition, social networks, and outcomes. Case studies of three IFPSE are then used to examine the proposed model. In the final section, findings from the case studies are used to examine the proposed model and more fully elucidate the dimensions of the IFPSE.     

A New Internet Driven Internationalisation Framework

This paper aims to offer a new Internet driven theoretical framework that explains how a successful internationalisation process may be developed and identifies the strategic dimensions that influence the key decisions in an interrelated, performance-associated way. The extant literature is examined in international marketing, international entrepreneurship and Internet marketing and a comprehensive strategic analysis is conducted of a successful individual services business: ING Direct. It is shown how strategic constructs and risk constructs drive the internationalisation process in an interrelated and performance-associated way. In the framework, the firm's target is to take advantage of an opportunity by obtaining a sustainable competitive advantage while attenuating international risk. Entry mode and country selection are strategic decisions interrelated mutually and with other strategic choices and with performance; this is why an analysis with ceteris paribus statements or episodic analysis may lead to the wrong conclusions.     

Entrepreneurial Marketing in the Public Sector: The Lessons of Headteachers as Entrepreneurs

This article argues that headteachers of primary schools have been at the forefront of the marketing/entrepreneurship interface since attempts to introduce competitive market forces into the maintained education system. It examines primary school headteachers' marketing strategies and compares them to those of owner managers of small firms. Case studies of ten schools illustrative of a variety of provision and market conditions provided the empirical data over a five year period. The headteachers shared many of the marketing problems of owner-managers of small firms. Headteachers found that the most effective marketing strategies consisted of: i) marketing to improve relationships with existing parents, staff and governors as an essential precursor to any external marketing effort; ii) parental involvement in the school which improved the likelihood of word of mouth recommendations; and iii) influencing such recommendations by marketing to improve parental and other involvement in the school. As word of mouth is also the most important source of new business for small firms, there are opportunities for lessons from the public to the private sector.     

Integrating psychological approaches to entrepreneurship: the Entrepreneurial Personality System (EPS)

Understanding the psychological nature and development of the individual entrepreneur is at the core of contemporary entrepreneurship research. Since the individual functions as a totality of his or her single characteristics (involving the interplay of biological, psychosocial, and context-related levels), a person-oriented approach focusing on intraindividual dynamics seems to be particularly fruitful to infer realistic implications for practice such as entrepreneurship education and promotion. Applying a person-oriented perspective, this paper integrates existing psychological approaches to entrepreneurship and presents a new, person-oriented model of entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurial Personality System (EPS). In the empirical part, this model guided us to bridge two separate research streams dealing with entrepreneurial personality: research on broad traits like the Big Five and research on specific traits like risk-taking, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control. We examine a gravity effect of broad traits, as assumed in the EPS framework, by analyzing large personality data sets from three countries. The results reveal a consistent gravity effect of an intraindividual entrepreneurial Big Five profile on the more malleable psychological factors. Implications for entrepreneurship research and practice are discussed.     

Global Marketing,Gender and Family Business in Asia: A Literature Review

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore the recent trends in global marketing, gender and family entrepreneurship in Asia. Taking into account previous contributions, this article aims to provide a better portrait about research on global marketing, gender and family entrepreneurship in Asian countries and future directions. The article presents a few comparative analyses for Asian countries in terms of gender representation in the entrepreneurship sector in recent years as well as the succession in larger family businesses in Asia.     

Internationalization through business model innovation: In search of relevant design dimensions and elements

Internationalization through business model innovation involves the creation, or reinvention, of the business itself. This paper aims to integrate basic insight from the literature on business model innovation, internationalization of the firm, international entrepreneurship, and global marketing into a conceptual model. Our model illustrates that internationalization through business model innovation includes design dimensions, which are domestic or globalized in upstream production as well as in downstream markets. The outcome of this paper is four international business model types each with a specific resource allocation for dealing with differences across geographical locations and entry mode elements. We address the interrelation of these dimensions and elements in firms’ international activities.     

中国本土文化环境下的商务"关系":一项探索性研究

Recently, guanxi has become one of the hottest topics in domestic academia. Although relationship and guanxi are the same in Chinese characters, significant differences exist between the “relationship” in the western academic context and what Chinese people are familiar with, the Chinese “guanxi”. The indiscriminate imitation of the western relationship marketing in China neglecting the Chinese native culture context is detrimental to a true and thorough understanding of the Chinese relationship marketing practice. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct research on guanxi in the Chinese native commercial context. Based on domestic and foreign literature review, this paper uses a qualitative research method including content analysis and focus group to get a thorough understanding of guanxi both from the academia and from the practitioners, followed by quantitative analysis methods including questionnaire investigation and factor analysis to develop a native commercial guanxi concept scale. After comparison of the qualitative and quantitative research results, an integrated guanxi concept system is built, which lays foundation for the future guanxi research. __________ Translated and revised from Yingxiao kexue xuebao 营销科学学报 (Journal of Marketing Science), 2006, 9(1): 1–14     

The Constant Gardener Revisited: The Effect ofSocial Blackmail on the Marketing Concept,Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

This paper discusses how adoption of the social dimensions of the marketing concept may unintentionally restrict innovation and corporate entrepreneurship, ultimately reducing social welfare. The impact of social marketing on innovation and entrepreneurship is discussed using the case of multinational pharmaceutical firms that are under pressure when marketing HIV treatments in poor countries.The argument this paper supports is that social welfare may eventually be diminished if forced social responsibility is imposed. The case of providing subsidized AIDS medication to less developed nations is used to illustrate how social blackmail may result in less innovation, entrepreneurship, and product development efforts by the pharmaceutical industry, ultimately reducing social welfare.     

Impact of Traditional Chinese Culture on Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing and Service Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This work addresses the mixed findings in relationship marketing studies regarding the importance of traditional culture-level (i.e., interpersonal) relationships on service firm outcomes.

Methodology/approach: This article leverages customer relationship marketing (CRM) theory to advance a framework for understanding the causal relationship between the Chinese cultural worldview and relationship marketing in order to better predict firm performance.

Findings: The author suggests that five major Chinese cultural characteristics—iren-qing, wa-pao, mianzi, chaxu-geju, and collectivism—can qualify the business-to-business (B-to-B) relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on service firm outcomes.

Research implications: The study’s framework suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics, universal concepts manifest in the activities of Chinese society and organizations, have a positive effect on customer relationship marketing. Chinese culture characteristics can be used to generate excellent relationships with customers and thus create a consumer preference for certain companies and drive service marketing repurchase.

Originality/value/contribution: This study’s theoretical framework (a) distinguishes between Chinese cultural characteristic and relationship marketing relationships; (b) suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics and customer relationship marketing have a positive and substantial effect on service firm performance and that Chinese cultural characteristics are related to customer relationship marketing in their effect on service firm performance; and (c) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning.     

Relevant for Whom? An Essay to Celebrate JBBM’s 21st Anniversary,in Favor of Paying Greater Attention to the Needs of Students and Practitioners and Less to the Interests of Peers

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To argue that useful research into business-to-business marketing must have practical relevance and that this may call for alternative methodologies to the positivistic “scientific” model favored by leading marketing journals; to suggest that citation by academic peers as measured by impact factors is only one of several criteria relevant to the assessment of academic papers; and to propose a less formulaic presentation of research to make it more accessible to students and practitioners.

Methodology/approach: Informed comment as a participant observer based on extensive experience as an academic administrator (Head of Department, Dean and Deputy Principal), Past Chairman of the Scottish Business Education Council, Past President of the Academy of Marketing, Past Chairman and Trustee Chartered Institute of Marketing, Founding Editor of 3 academic marketing journals and author of more than 50 books and 150 articles and papers.

Findings: Academic research in marketing has become distorted as a result of an excessive emphasis upon journal impact factors reported in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), which relate to only a limited selection of published research into the subject of marketing. Not only that, but the research reported largely conforms to a positivistic model that is less appropriate for social and behavioral sciences than for the pure sciences that it seeks to imitate. Nonetheless, publication in journals included in the SSCI counts for more in decisions for academic appointment and preferment than do other publications that may be demonstrated to have equal or greater impact on the audiences for which they are intended. It is argued that this imbalance should be redressed with greater attention given to instrumental knowledge and its impact on practice.

Research implications: The author’s purpose is not to disparage or call into question the quality of academic research published in the top journals, rather it is to draw attention to the distinction proposed by Shankar that recognizes the existence of an external audience and the distinction between instrumental and reflexive knowledge.

Practical implications: It is recommended that academic peer review be continued for academic papers, which would be identified as such, but that other kinds of contribution such as thought pieces, case studies, commentaries, reports, and so on be published subject to appropriate editorial review.

Originality/value/contribution: A point of view with growing support.     

The Diana Project: pioneering women studying pioneering women

The 2007 winner of the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research is the Diana Project team (Candida Brush, Nancy Carter, Elizabeth Gatewood, Patricia Greene and Myra Hart). The Diana Project builds on the vast experience of the team in the field of entrepreneurship in general and women entrepreneurship, business growth and venture capital in particular. The Diana Project has investigated the supply and demand side of growth capital for women entrepreneurs. The research contributes to entrepreneurship theory as well as to practice, filling a void in knowledge on growth-oriented women entrepreneurship. In this article we present and discuss the research contribution of the Diana Project, in the areas of entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship and venture capital. We specifically discuss the value of researching a specific group of women entrepreneurs, those who want to grow their businesses, that very clearly demonstrates the positive potential of female entrepreneurship. The Diana Project has also moved research on women’s entrepreneurship forward since its framework does not treat women entrepreneurs as “other,” i.e., the project does not presuppose that women’s entrepreneurship is similar to or different from men’s entrepreneurship. It assumes that women’s entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship and studies it from that point of view. Carin Holmquist is professor at Stockholm School of Economics and member of the Prize Committee for The International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. Sara Carter is professor at University of Strathclyde. Both have written extensively in several of the areas covered by the Diana Project. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (FSF) and the Swedish Board of Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK). An important aim with this prize is to attract broader attention to this research field. A precondition for choosing the winner of the award is that the research for which the award has been granted is a significant contribution to the theory and empirical understanding of entrepreneurship and the importance of entrepreneurship, new firm formation and small businesses in economic development. Besides the honor, the prize consists of SEK 0.5 million (roughly USD 80,000). It has been awarded annually since 1996. More information about the prize and previous winners is available at .     

Gender Entrepreneurship and Global Marketing

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to redirect attention to the role of gender entrepreneurship in global marketing. The value of gender in global marketing through the use of words and behavior is discussed, which helps to integrate the disparate gender, entrepreneurship, and global marketing streams of research. The article suggests that a more gender neutral stance in global marketing is required due to the more fluid and changing understanding about the meaning of gender in society. This enables increased dialogue about gender stereotyping in global marketing to be examined as a way to keep up to date with global trends. Global marketers must confront gender biases as a way of enhancing a more open and inclusive society. The trends in gender and marketing are addressed that help to raise awareness for how to improve global marketing standards.     

A cross‐cultural and cross‐gender analysis of compulsive buying behaviour's core dimensions

This study seeks to address the disagreement in the literature about compulsive buying behaviour's (CBB) dimensional structure and tests for cross‐cultural and cross‐gender invariance in young British, Chinese, Czech and Spanish consumers using structural equation modelling. The results show that CBB has two compulsive dimensions: Compulsive Purchasing (CP) and Self‐control Impaired Spending (SIS). These dimensions are cross‐culturally invariant, although the influence of SIS on CBB is higher in more developed countries, particularly among females. The confirmation of the SIS dimension and the external validity of the CBB construct established through the cross‐cultural invariance in CBB dimensions indicate that screening tools should be revised accordingly. The SIS dimension has possibly been previously misinterpreted as impulsive and/or as spontaneous buying and may explain the higher incidence of CBB among female consumers.     

Customer Orientation of Service Employees—Toward a Conceptual Framework of a Key Relationship Marketing Construct

Abstract

Although customer orientation is a core element of the marketing concept and is especially crucial to the concept of relationship marketing, no widely accepted conceptualization of the construct exists. In the context of service organizations, the fulfillment of customer needs and wishes by customer-contact employeescan be seen as crucial for gaining a high degree of customer orientation. This paper develops a conceptualization of service employee customer orientation which is presented as a three-dimensional construct, the interrelated dimensions being the employee's motivation to serve customers, his or her customer-oriented skills, and his or her self-perceived decision-making authority. Implications are drawn out for relationship marketing of services organizations and relationship marketing theory.     

Entrepreneurial orientation in long-lived family firms

We apply a key construct from the entrepreneurship field, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), in the context of long-lived family firms. Our qualitative in-depth case studies show that a permanently high level of the five EO dimensions is not a necessary condition for long-term success, as traditional entrepreneurship and EO literature implicitly suggest. Rather, we claim that the level of EO is dynamically adapted over time and that the original EO scales (autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness) do not sufficiently capture the full extent of entrepreneurial behaviors in long-lived family firms. Based on these considerations we suggest extending the existing EO scales to provide a more fine-grained depiction of firm-level corporate entrepreneurship in long-lived family firms.     

The customer-based corporate reputation scale: Replication and short form

Corporate reputation attracts significant attention among marketing scholars. However, researchers often overlook customers' opinions specifically. Walsh and Beatty [Walsh, G., Beatty, S.E., Measuring Customer-based Corporate Reputation: Scale Development, Validation, and Application. J Acad Mark Sci 2007; 35(1): 127–143.] identify dimensions of customer-based corporate reputation (CBR); they develop scales to measure these dimensions. Researchers in the present study use the Walsh and Beatty CBR scale in the UK and Germany across contexts to study the cross-cultural validity of the measure of customer-based corporate reputation. This study assesses an abbreviated version of the CBR scale (with 15 items). The CBR Short scale has equally good dimensional properties as the original scale. The paper ends with implications for cross-cultural marketing research and management.     

Rural Entrepreneurship in an Emerging Economy: Reading Institutional Perspectives from Entrepreneur Stories

Rural entrepreneurs are of extreme importance in China's progress toward a more market‐oriented economy as the vast majority of Chinese live in rural areas. From an institutional perspective and based on content analysis of 91 publicly published stories about rural Chinese entrepreneurs broadcast by China Central Television, this paper addresses several key aspects of rural entrepreneurship in China and specifically probes into how different institutional elements (i.e., regulative, normative, and cognitive components) affect the strategic behaviors of rural Chinese entrepreneurs. We found that due to weak regulatory protection of intellectual rights, rural entrepreneurs in China tend to work on innovations on their own or with close family members instead of collaborating with external sources; these entrepreneurs use guanxi strategically to deal with constraints from the institutional environment; it is important to build legitimacy by either building alliances with large, established firms, or acquiring approval from people of authority.     

Understanding contemporary marketing: Development of a classification scheme

The term Relationship Marketing has been used in a multitude of ways to describe and define marketing in the contemporary environment. This has led to the term being loosely defined and applied in the literature, resulting in frustration for both researchers and practitioners. Therefore, a classification scheme is developed from analysis of the extant literature, and used to systematically examine the meaning of marketing across twelve dimensions which reflect issues related to marketing practice. From this scheme, the authors identify two ‘perspectives’ of marketing, which encompass four distinguishable ‘types’ of marketing. Implications for future research in the area are discussed.     

Internationalization processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises—a matter of attitude?

Scholars suggest that when it comes to the role owner-managers of SME play in terms of their companies’ internationalization, their attitudes have a major impact. However, little is known on how exactly they lead to international entrepreneurial behavior. This paper sheds light on this relationship by making use of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Besides attitudes, other cognitive factors are examined for relevance. The study is based on empirical data which have been gathered from owner-managers from Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany. The study yielded several interesting results. First, TPB clearly is applicable to investigate the cognitive antecedents of SME owner-managers’ international business activities. More specifically, the understanding of how decision-makers’ motivation to do business abroad is determined has been deepened. Second, some extensions proved to be useful in order to increase the approach’s predictive strength. From these results several conclusions can be drawn. Cognitive aspects are a promising starting point for increasing the knowledge on decision-making in the context of SME internationalization. Thus, the intersection of international entrepreneurship (IE) and entrepreneurial cognition deserves further attention. On the other hand, traits-based research seems to contribute little to a better understanding of IE. Policies supporting SME should be extended: pure resource-based approaches seem to be insufficient. Furthermore, entrepreneurship courses should reflect the relevance of attitudinal and other cognitive influences.