Exploring Chinese cultural influences and hospitality marketing relationships

Marketing has always been recognised as an economic activity involving the exchange of goods and services. Only in recent years have socio‐cultural influences been identified as determinants of marketing behaviour, revealing marketing as a cultural as well as economic phenomenon. Nevertheless, the influence on business activity of cultural differences is obvious but not simple to analyse, describe or categorise. Therefore, the cultural aspect of marketing remains a weak and subsidiary element in the theoretical realm of hospitality management. It has been suggested that cultural differences are an important influence on the successful outcomes of business. This exploratory study examines the new approach to relationship marketing (RM) in the context of eastern culture, to uncover the context and construction of relationships in Chinese society. Traditional Chinese culture stresses the importance of human interaction. The essence of this interaction is kuan‐hsi (personal relationships) which goes far beyon...

[1]  Fan Xing,et al.  The Chinese Cultural System: Implications for Cross-Cultural Management , 1995 .

[2]  P. Kotler,et al.  Principles of Marketing , 1983 .

[3]  Relationship marketing and airline loyalty schemes , 1996 .

[4]  Yadong Luo,et al.  Guanxi and Performance of Foreign-invested Enterprises in China: An Empirical Inquiry , 1997 .

[5]  A. Palmer.  Relationship marketing: a universal paradigm or management fad? , 1996 .

[6]  E. Buttery,et al.  The difference between Chinese and Western negotiations , 1998 .

[7]  Oliver H. M. Yau,et al.  Chinese Cultural Values: Their Dimensions and Marketing Implications , 1988 .

[8]  Kao Cheng-shu.  „Personal Trust“ in the Large Businesses in Taiwan: A Traditional Foundation for Contemporary Economic Activities , 1996 .

[9]  C. Hampden-Turner,et al.  Riding the Waves of Culture. Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business (3rd ed) , 1993 .

[10]  J. Sutton,et al.  Corporate and national culture ‐ an irreconcilable dilemma for the hospitality manager? , 1998 .

[11]  S. C. Grunert,et al.  Consumer values in West Germany underlying dimensions and cross-cultural comparison with North America , 1990 .

[12]  Y. Wong,et al.  The benefits of “Guanxi”: The value of relationships in developing the Chinese market , 1995 .

[13]  C. Grönroos.  Quo Vadis, marketing? Toward a relationship marketing paradigm , 1994 .

[14]  John Sutton,et al.  Doing business in China ‐ the art of war? , 1998 .

[15]  F. Buttle.  Relationship Marketing: Theory and Practice , 1996 .

[16]  N. Adler.  International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior , 1986 .

[17]  Jean-Claude Usunier,et al.  International Marketing: A Cultural Approach , 1993 .

[18]  M. Rose,et al.  Book reviewsCulture's consequences: international difference in work related values: G. Hofstede, Sage, London and Beverly Hills, 1984. pp. 325, £33.00 (hardback), £13.25 (paper) , 1986 .

[19]  J. Sutton,et al.  Employee perceptions of the hotel sector in the People’s Republic of China , 1996 .

[20]  Edward T. Hall,et al.  The silent language in overseas business , 1960 .

[21]  R. Bennett.  Relationship formation and governance in consumer markets: Transactional analysis versus the behaviourist approach , 1996 .

[22]  Evert Gummesson,et al.  Service Management: An Evaluation and the Future , 1994 .

[23]  Durganand Sinha,et al.  Effective organizations and social values , 1994 .