英语论文网

Business-to-business Marketing as a key factor for increasing service revenue in China

Institute for Technology Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland 
St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland
Institute for Technology Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland

Abstract

Purpose – This study seeks to examine how Chinese culture affects business-to-business marketing strategies and service revenue in manufacturing companies.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper used a combination of qualitative research approaches, namely interviews, longitudinal study and bi-polar case studies. The sequence of the qualitative research approaches was chosen to maximize internal and external validity.

Findings – The findings expose the impact of the characteristics of Chinese culture on a firm's potential to generate high service revenues in business marketing.

Research limitations/implications – The study has possible location- and industry-specific limitations.

Originality/value – The implicit logic for increasing service revenue starts with overcoming typical and, in some respects, limiting cultural characteristics. These characteristics limit business-to-business marketing for increasing service revenue. Monitoring the effects of Chinese culture and gaining an understanding of how they have to be managed provides some guidance for managers to generate high service revenues.
________________________________________
Article Type: Research paper
Keyword(s): Customer service management; Manufacturing industries; China; National cultures.

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
Volume 22 Number 2 2007 pp. 126-137
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited ISSN 0885-8624
________________________________________
An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.

Introduction
Until the late 1990s, only a few Swiss machine and equipment manufacturing were active in the Chinese market. The majority of them concentrated their business on the European or American markets or on other Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan. Companies like Schindler, Sulzer, Bühler and Saurer rank among the exceptions. These organizations have been present in the Chinese market since the early 1980s. Since most European or American markets have reached an advanced stage of maturity and China offers attractive growth opportunities, more and more Swiss machine and equipment manufacturing companies have entered the Chinese market over the last couple of years. The high speed of economic growth and the large population of 1.3 billion, for example, add up to a rapidly growing demand for consumer goods leading to emerging markets for machines and equipment. As our own study among 118 Swiss companies indicated in 2004, 41 percent of Swiss companies have already entered the Chinese market. In addition, 62 percent of those companies that have not yet entered the Chinese market are planning to do so within the next five years.
The starting point for our hypothesis is the observation that most Swiss machine and equipment manufacturing companies have found it extremely difficult to transfer their traditional business model to China. A business model is generally defined as the way in which companies generate their revenue and profits. To本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。