Qionglei Yu

Focusing on Relationship Dimensions to Improve the Quality of Chinese–Western Business-to-Business Exchanges

Abstract The article reports on a number of items that have been assembled to compare business relationships involving Western and Chinese counterparts. Whilst the extant buyer–seller and channel management literature has tended to focus on Western or Chinese relational forms in isolation, an attempt has been made here to broaden our understanding by providing a comparative overview of these two perspectives. By focusing on several key items that appear significant, yet may also imply different forms of relevance in a Chinese and Western context, several managerial implications are extracted, and these are considered useful in the quest to help firms improve the quality associated with managing and developing such hybrid international relations.

Exploring cosmetics advertising in southern China

China is now one of the largest and fastest-growing advertisement markets in the world. This research provides insights to assist advertising executives in their bid to target cosmetics consumers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Despite a tendency to retain certain traditional values, we find that Chinese women in these cities have increased their status and independence, and are inspired by western brands, music and images. We discover some significant differences between these markets, which suggest that some adaptations may be required in terms of advertising appeal, model selection and media focus, when designing advertising campaigns that will influence the consumer groups in these cities.

Investigating the impact of international cosmetics advertising in China

At the crossroads of old customs and modern thinking, Chinese women experience a mixture of traditional culture and modern-world tendencies. On the one hand, they obtain great pleasure from their new power to make decisions regarding their appearance and roles, while at the same time they experience great anxiety and a pressure to maintain the status quo. Research on the subject of Chinese women.s perceptions of international advertising from a Chinese cultural context is somewhat scant . very little has been concluded. This paper reports on a research investigation designed to explore cosmetics advertising from the perspective of Chinese female consumers. Preliminary findings provide some potentially useful insights. These include a willingness among respondents to accept standardised cosmetics brand names, the discovery that television and magazines represent highly influential media channels, the significance of expert opinion in endorsing cosmetics, and the strength of boyfriend/ girlfriend and sister-to-sister relationships for enhancing advertising appeal.

Enhancing firm performance through internal market orientation and employee organizational commitment

Abstract Considering the importance of retaining key staff and managing the negative impact of high labor turnover on firm performance, this study investigates the notion of internal market orientation (IMO) as an employee management tool for helping companies retain employees and leverage performance via their organizational commitment. Drawing on data from three different managerial respondents in 275 companies based in China, the findings demonstrate the precedential effect of IMO on corporate performance through employees’ organizational commitment and retention. Interdepartmental relationship and interdepartmental communication, together with ownership types are identified as potential moderating variables, which may vary IMO’s effectiveness in the framework. This study provides scholars and practitioners with empirical evidence of IMO’s contribution to different industries and markets. Building on a western perspective, this study extends the literature in an emerging market context and specifically has implications for managing Chinese employees.

Internal customer orientation and internal supply chain management

Internal customer orientation was initiated by the concept of internal marketing. The existence of internal market advocates the fact that internal customers can be motivated and satisfied by certain internal marketing programs. Companies with an internal customer orientation have more power in internal supply chain management and gaining better external market performance. This paper investigates how internal customer orientation can have positive impact on the firm performance with an improvement of internal service quality. A conceptual framework is established and propositions are posited. Two cases are investigated. The research outcome shows a positive relationship between internal customer orientation and the effectiveness of internal supply chain management. Finally, management implications are recommended1.

ANIMOSITY AND TRAVEL INTENTION AMONG CHINESE OUTBOUND TOURISTS

By carrying out experimental research, the authors aim to explore the influence of animosity on tourists’ travel intention. Although animosity is proven to have a direct negative impact on consumer’s purchase intention in many other product categories in the consumer marketing domain (Moufakkir, 2014), little has been investigated into its impact on tourists’ behavioural intention within the tourism context. It is a first study in tourism using experiment method to examine the relationship between Chinese tourists’ animosity triggered by different scenarios and their outbound travel intention. By analysing and comparing types of animosity and price promotion, the research contributes to the existing literature in both consumer behaviour and tourism via better understanding the impact of attitude (animosity) on behaviour (travel intention) and the relative marketing application (price promotions). This study has discovered that although animosity triggered by unexpected incidents and political disputes will lead to significant decrease in travel intention, even deep price cut cannot reverse the unwillingness to travel to those destinations when animosity exists. This research is particularly important for countries/regions that are seeing an increasing number of Chinese tourists and investing heavily to provide tailored products and services to this target market, negative feelings, particularly animosity should be taken into consideration when developing tourism strategies (Richter, 1983).