<p>Aim: After discussing marketing issues with representatives from a number of companies established on the Chinese market, we came to the conclusion that it would be interesting and useful to further investigate relationship marketing models from a Swedish perspective when doing business in China.</p><p> </p><p>The aim of the study is to highlight, by examples and experiences from firms dealing with or on the Chinese market, what makes up successful marketing between Swedish and Chinese businesses.</p><p> </p><p>Research question: Is relationship marketing with a dash of guanxi the recipe of success for Sino-Swedish businesses?</p><p> </p><p>The result of successful relationship marketing is a marketing network and it is an important asset for companies today. Competition is not between single business units or entities any more but between marketing networks (Kotler et al., 2006).</p><p> </p><p>To get a full view of relationship marketing between Sweden and China, we have also studied the Chinese culture context.</p><p> </p><p>Method: We interviewed 10 firms in various industries. Common for all respondents is an extensive experience of over 5 years of doing business in China. A questionnaire was used as a foundation for the interviews.</p><p> </p><p>In the analysis findings regarding how the respondents have handled their internationalization process are highlighted. Also how they handle the relationship marketing on a market, where guanxi have been a dominating way of doing business.</p><p> </p><p>Result and conclusions: Relationship marketing with a dash of guanxi is the road that most companies take already today and should take if not yet doing so. As we can see from the study, China is not under as strong influence of <em>guanxi</em> as it used to be. Our respondents offer insights and examples of that Chinese businessmen and women are adapting a more global approach to business negotiations. Operating on the Chinese market requires a relationship marketing approach although it is more personalized to better suit the Chinese culture context.</p><p> </p><p>Suggestions for future research:</p><p>* Relationship marketing in China and corruption: how is it handled, avoided, viewed.</p><p>* Relationship marketing in Sweden by Chinese firms: How can Chinese firms succeed on the Swedish market?</p><p>* Deeper research into relationship marketing strategies for Swedish companies in China.</p><p>* Study Swedish firms on the Chinese market today and how they experience the paradoxes mentioned by Fang and Faure (2008).</p><p> </p><p>Contribution of the research: The study offers insights in the actual marketing strategy implementation and how firms with extensive experience from China and the Chinese market approach it.</p>

Aim: After discussing marketing issues with representatives from a number of companies established on the Chinese market, we came to the conclusion that it would be interesting and useful to further investigate relationship marketing models from a Swedish perspective when doing business in China.   The aim of the study is to highlight, by examples and experiences from firms dealing with or on the Chinese market, what makes up successful marketing between Swedish and Chinese businesses.   Research question: Is relationship marketing with a dash of guanxi the recipe of success for Sino-Swedish businesses?   The result of successful relationship marketing is a marketing network and it is an important asset for companies today. Competition is not between single business units or entities any more but between marketing networks (Kotler et al., 2006).   To get a full view of relationship marketing between Sweden and China, we have also studied the Chinese culture context.   Method: We interviewed 10 firms in various industries. Common for all respondents is an extensive experience of over 5 years of doing business in China. A questionnaire was used as a foundation for the interviews.   In the analysis findings regarding how the respondents have handled their internationalization process are highlighted. Also how they handle the relationship marketing on a market, where guanxi have been a dominating way of doing business.   Result and conclusions: Relationship marketing with a dash of guanxi is the road that most companies take already today and should take if not yet doing so. As we can see from the study, China is not under as strong influence of guanxi as it used to be. Our respondents offer insights and examples of that Chinese businessmen and women are adapting a more global approach to business negotiations. Operating on the Chinese market requires a relationship marketing approach although it is more personalized to better suit the Chinese culture context.   Suggestions for future research: * Relationship marketing in China and corruption: how is it handled, avoided, viewed. * Relationship marketing in Sweden by Chinese firms: How can Chinese firms succeed on the Swedish market? * Deeper research into relationship marketing strategies for Swedish companies in China. * Study Swedish firms on the Chinese market today and how they experience the paradoxes mentioned by Fang and Faure (2008).   Contribution of the research: The study offers insights in the actual marketing strategy implementation and how firms with extensive experience from China and the Chinese market approach it.

With the trend of globalization, competition on the 21st century’s global economy is complex and filled with challenges. More and more MNCs realize that effective leadership, as a foundation of competitive advantage, plays a crucial role in better performance of the organizations. Both practitioner and theorists thus pay numerous attention to the study of effective leadership in different countries. However, researchers still report noticeable absence of cross-cultural research in the field of the three major Western leaderships study, i.e. charismatic leadership, transformational leadership and transactional leadership. An urgent need raises to further investigate the major Western leadership styles in non-Western contexts. The study aims to explore the most effective leadership style in MNCs Chinese Subsidiaries and to answer the question “why it differs from the Western world?” through applying the Western leadership theories into Chinese business practices. Eventually, the causes behind these differences have been disclosed and discussed. By reviewing 18 peer-reviewed articles, the attributes of the three major Western leadership styles are identified. Subsequently, all dimensions of the three leadership styles are ranked in terms of effectiveness and activity. As a result of combining the rank and all the identified attributes, a theoretical model of the three leadership styles is proposed. Based on a multi-case study approach in the Chinese context, the empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with five Chinese managers and five Chinese followers. The result of qualitative data analysis suggests that the most effective Chinese leaders’ behaviors belong to the transactional leadership style. With reference to the proposed theoretical model, this finding differs from the Western leadership theories. The study further reveals the major causes that lead to the differences between the Chinese practices and the Western theories. Seven implications were thus concluded. The study contribute to better understanding the applicability and effectiveness of the Western leadership theory in non-Western contexts, particularly China, and further address the weakness of cross-culture research reported in existing literature. The implications of this study give advice to MNCs that are paying increasing attention to exploring effective leadership style in China.

As more Swedish companies are turning towards China, a common challenge when establishing sustainable business relationships with Chinese companies is the requirement to spend a lot of time locally, as the Chinese business culture usually focuses on building a personal relationship before the business relationship. This study will focus on the Swedish perspective on how to cope with these challenges from a geographical distance, as the authors seek to facilitate Swedish business in China. Through a qualitative research by interviewing eight Swedish managers, the authors found that there are different perceived challenges if the business relationship was established on site versus established from a distance. This study shows that for managers who lacks the resources to establish the business relationship on site, there is a lack of trust, respect and potential misunderstandings. These challenges can be overcomed by using a distributor or an agent for a fee. For the managers that possessed the resources to establish the relationship on site, other challenges appeared such as Guanxi and cross-cultural competence, but by paying attention to these challenges the managers could achieve trust, respect and avoid misunderstandings. These managers also needed an occasional local presence in order to manage the business relationship, which was due to Guanxi and that China is a high-context culture.

<p>Over the last few decades trends such as globalization have sharpened up competition on the worldwide open market and in order to meet customers demand high level of technological and competitive uncertainties have increased the pressure of reducing R&D budgets, reduce innovation cycles and shorter time to market as a consequence of the rising competition and as a result, forced companies to source external knowledge. One way of doing this is by tapping external information and knowledge from universities.China is a country with a steady rapid growth on science and technology, but also with a progressively increasing R&D. Today they have the highest input level in the history and this is an opportunity for Western MNCs to establish collaborations in order to gain competitive advantages and create new technology. This study focuses on Industry-University collaborations in China for high technological companies and the process of finding knowledge and establishes networks at Chinese universities with the aim of establish Industry-University collaboration. Based on literature review and a qualitative study of Chinese universities, this thesis explores how a MNC can build a network of local universities connection in a fast growing market and use this network as a source of technology scouting.Over the last few decades trends such as globalization have sharpened up competition on the worldwide open market and in order to meet customers demand high level of technological and competitive uncertainties have increased the pressure of reducing R&D budgets, reduce innovation cycles and shorter time to market as a consequence of the rising competition and as a result, forced companies to source external knowledge. One way of doing this is by tapping external information and knowledge from universities.China is a country with a steady rapid growth on science and technology, but also with a progressively increasing R&D. Today they have the highest input level in the history and this is an opportunity for Western MNCs to establish collaborations in order to gain competitive advantages and create new technology. This study focuses on Industry-University collaborations in China for high technological companies and the process of finding knowledge and establishes networks at Chinese universities with the aim of establish Industry-University collaboration. Based on literature review and a qualitative study of Chinese universities, this thesis explores how a MNC can build a network of local universities connection in a fast growing market and use this network as a source of technology scouting.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and provide a deeper understanding of how the national culture of China affects the use of formal and informal management control systems of Swedish firms, operating in China. In order to conduct this research, relevant theories concerning internationalization, culture and management control systems were gathered and analyzed in relation to each other. This resulted in a conceptual framework, which illustrates the interrelationships between the concepts. Thereafter, this was used as the ground to which the empirical findings were analyzed and compared to. The analysis chapter involves a discussion of the similarities and dissimilarities between theory and empirical data, which leads to the conclusions of this study. This is lastly followed by theoretical implications, practical implications and recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further research.   The study has been conducted with a qualitative research method, in order to obtain a deeper understanding of how national culture can affect the use of  management control systems of Swedish firms in China. Further, due to the unexplored and limited research area of this complex subject, the study followed an abductive approach.   The findings of this research indicate that the Chinese culture affects the use of formal control systems, in which they are used extensively within Swedish firms, operating  in China. However, the national culture of China does not have an effect on the informal control systems of Swedish firms. Nevertheless, the use of the informal control systems should not be undermined, as the use of these triggers for more innovation and creativity among the members of an organization. This in turn could lead to Swedish firms operating more efficiently in the Chinese market. This research can be valuable for Swedish firms that wish to internationalize to the Chinese market, as well as firms operating in China with concerns regarding the use of management control systems in relation to the culture.

Over the last few decades trends such as globalization have sharpened up competition on the worldwide open market and in order to meet customers demand high level of technological and competitive uncertainties have increased the pressure of reducing R&amp;D budgets, reduce innovation cycles and shorter time to market as a consequence of the rising competition and as a result, forced companies to source external knowledge. One way of doing this is by tapping external information and knowledge from universities.China is a country with a steady rapid growth on science and technology, but also with a progressively increasing R&amp;D. Today they have the highest input level in the history and this is an opportunity for Western MNCs to establish collaborations in order to gain competitive advantages and create new technology. This study focuses on Industry-University collaborations in China for high technological companies and the process of finding knowledge and establishes networks at Chinese universities with the aim of establish Industry-University collaboration. Based on literature review and a qualitative study of Chinese universities, this thesis explores how a MNC can build a network of local universities connection in a fast growing market and use this network as a source of technology scouting.Over the last few decades trends such as globalization have sharpened up competition on the worldwide open market and in order to meet customers demand high level of technological and competitive uncertainties have increased the pressure of reducing R&amp;D budgets, reduce innovation cycles and shorter time to market as a consequence of the rising competition and as a result, forced companies to source external knowledge. One way of doing this is by tapping external information and knowledge from universities.China is a country with a steady rapid growth on science and technology, but also with a progressively increasing R&amp;D. Today they have the highest input level in the history and this is an opportunity for Western MNCs to establish collaborations in order to gain competitive advantages and create new technology. This study focuses on Industry-University collaborations in China for high technological companies and the process of finding knowledge and establishes networks at Chinese universities with the aim of establish Industry-University collaboration. Based on literature review and a qualitative study of Chinese universities, this thesis explores how a MNC can build a network of local universities connection in a fast growing market and use this network as a source of technology scouting.