The classical approach to strategy defines strategy as a process of planned calculation and analysis to design long-term advantages. The Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) model argues that firms perform and develop strategies based on market structures. These approaches have been seen as the “norm” but are today criticised as outdated since they do not fully suit new emerging markets. The aim of the study is to investigate whether these approaches need modifications for emerging markets and if unique factors need to be emphasized when developing sale strategies for the Chinese market.  The empirical findings are based on two Scandinavian firms with long experience in China. A qualitative exploratory research design is conducted trough the study. As a conclusion a guideline of vital factors for the Chinese market is provided: market knowledge, political and social system, relationships and branding. The knowledge of these factors can help other companies to master the complex environment of the Chinese market.

Abstract In this study, we will research for legal services company about the customer relationship management. We select three city¡¦s legal services company, including Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei. The research variables are customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, brand, Guanxi and customr relationship management. In this study, we use qualitative analysis method and to interview the legal services partner to get first-hand data. About customer¡¦s satisfaction, customers care about the quality more than price. In most cases, the company doesn¡¦t use customer satisfaction surveys to understand customer needs. About customer¡¦s loyalty, new customers majority is recommended from the old customers. If the company fail the case, there are still 70% of customers are willing to continue to cooperation. About the Brand and Guanxi, different cities and different legal services are showing different data. About the customer relationship management, the legal services and customer interaction are dominated by academic exchanges and good customer management will enchance the satisfaction, loyalty and increasing revenue. Keywords: legal services, customer relationship management, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, Brand, Guanxi.

<p>The Swedish town Kalmar suffered from economic cutbacks during the 1990’s and many local companies left the region resulting in a decrease in population. Local authorities therefore set goals of regional development and an economic turn was thought to come with foreign investments.</p><p>Fanerdun is one of the Chinese firms recently interested in investing in the Swedish market, more specifically in Kalmar. Its business idea is to build a convention centre where ap-proximately 1000 Chinese suppliers will sell light industry products to companies in the Baltic Sea region and Northern Europe.</p><p>The establishment process is of value to study since the economically strained Kalmar region managed to attract such a large investment and Fanerdun’s reasons behind its choice of location for the establishment are not apparent. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the questions why and how the convention centre was realised in Kalmar. Both given and cre-ated factors are taken into account.</p><p>To fulfil the purpose, a case study using a qualitative method with an abductive approach was used. Primary data was collected through interviews with different involved actors to give a complete picture from various perspectives. This approach is referred to as triangula-tion and was also present in the frame of reference. Three different theory fields; regional network, internationalisation and guanxi were appropriate to describe the complexity of the establishment process.</p><p>The conclusion includes the given and created factors that led to Fanerdun’s establishment in Kalmar. The given factors are; location in Europe and the Baltic Sea region, low corporate tax, low investment costs, infrastructure capabilities and small town advantage. From the analysis, created factors became clear. One common feature found to be a central factor was relationships between people, organisations and regions. From Kalmar’s perspective, the regional network anticipation explains why the establishment was realised. To answer how, the three developing regional networks; Changxing-Kalmar, Baltic Sea region and Kalmar region itself together played essential roles. From Fanerdun’s perspective, why and how Kalmar was chosen as location for its international establishment is interlinked. Different internationalisation drives were characterised by commitment, shared knowledge and mu-tual dependency between Fanerdun and Kalmar representatives. The presence of guanxi, a Chinese concept of relationship cultivation, was a specific aspect for the realisation of the convention centre.</p>

Building upon Granovetters well-known study of the job search behaviors of white males, this research extended the degree to which his findings apply across cultures to Chinese minorities, and across time to the Internet age. Using quantitative and qualitative data collected through systematic observation, questionnaire surveys, and in-depth interviews, this research investigated the impact of culture, Internet usage, gender and age on the communication patterns of foreign-born Chinese jobseekers in the U.S. It is found that jobseekers adopt either one or a combination of traditional (printed publications and direct application), institutional (the Internet, job fairs, and employment agencies), and personal (personal network) approaches. Within the institutional approach, the Internet job search strategy is a rsing preference among younger jobseekers. Through the personal approach, jobseekers enjoy four benefits of personal networks: information, trust building, position creation, and job market expansion. Across culture, guanxi, the Chinese version of the personal network is compared and contrasted with its American counterpart. Further, Granovetters argument about the strength of weak ties holds true in todays Internet age. Job-leading weak ties are usually those infrequently contacted professional and social connections working in targeted organizations at the time of a job search. Meanwhile, Chinese jobseekers mainly encounter six obstacles in the U.S.: racial discrimination, cultural obstacle, linguistic obstacle, insufficient network, immigration background, and an intercultural communication gap.

The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanics of guanxi in an organizational setting, focusing on the use of interpersonal relationships within Chinese firms to discover how firms initiate, build and use guanxi networks. Two richly detailed case studies document changes that take place over time in two distinct networks with respect to key actors and their contacts. This research also investigates patterns of social structure that emerge over time in these two distinct cases looking at brokerage relationships, network density, and dyadic redundancy in three waves at six month intervals. The cases are dissimilar in all aspects except absolute size demonstrating the universal use of guanxi across time, geographic location, specific industries, and firm experience. Dynamic network visualization is used to highlight the sequence and rate of activity in each network to identify salient changes. The findings show that firms seek to improve their organizational guanxi by improving existing employees' guanxi quality within the firm and by recruiting new actors from outside the firm. Additionally, firms use organizational guanxi to expand their networks by forming cooperative partnerships with complementary organizations that enhance the attributes or potential of both organizations. And finally, firms initially exploit brokerage in organizational guanxi, then attempt to stabilize the network by fostering new ties to exclusive contacts.

Some authors have identified different cultural dimensions that could be used to classify people from different cultures in terms of values, believes, and behaviors which are defined by the environment where they are brought up. Among these dimensions, power distance is hi-lighted in this research in order to identify how the relationships of power among individuals would be a cause of cultural barriers that could ultimately prevent managers from the successful accomplishment of objectives. In the field of project management is during the project implementation when the interaction among stakeholders will reach its highest point of importance. This is due to the fact that all plans formulated in previous phases will be transformed into real actions. International project management required special skills and knowledge in order to achieve the right implementation of the strategy to accomplish a proper project completion. Therefore, this research is made in response to the need within the project management field for having a practical tool that could be applied to overcome cultural barriers. By gathering the point of view of managers from different backgrounds and ages, Chinese and non-Chinese, a list of practical guidelines is provided for foreigners to follow in order to avoid conflicts which could be initiated by cultural issues related to the way relationships of power are established in China. In order to develop these guidelines, a qualitative research method has been applied in this study by carrying out semi-structured interviews to a diversified group of people, Chinese and non-Chinese, in order to get the information from their experience to achieve the final objective of this research. After collecting the necessary information conveyed by interviewees, the suggested guidelines have been developed based on the findings which performed the factors of power and mechanism that describes how Face and Guanxi define the relationships of power among Chinese individuals.

This master thesis aims to put an abstract view on culture and leadership in China considering the context of a Chinese society, which is adapting and transforming within the age of globalization and a rapid economic development. The goal of our research is to investigate on influences, trends and manifestations, which help to characterize the foundation and exercise of leadership in China. In order to be able to answers our research questions, we travelled for six weeks to China to conduct in-depth interviews with 15 Chinese leaders in Shanghai and Beijing in order to draw conclusion from the utterances we were able to grasp. Many researchers try to oversimplify the Chinese culture and society as well as its approach to leadership. For this reason we tried to underline the complexity of conducting business in China, and what factors need to be taken into consideration in order to have a successful encounter. The key findings of our thesis are that it is hard to simplify the phenomenon leadership in China, since it highly depends upon the observed company, and also the generation of the leader or follower one is dealing with. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind the complex and rich culture of China, which goes several hundreds of years and has still a huge impact on behavior of today’s Chinese.

大中國區的興起，帶動全球的投資中國熱 其獨特經濟人文的發展對外人而言是一大挑戰 在大中國地區，如何找尋好的案源 對非中國人而言，文化語言的藩籬如何克服 如何透過複雜的關係網，確保好案源的建立 如何找出Deal sourcing 的最佳運作模式 根據過去十幾年來在中國投資的VC的經驗模式探討及分析 希望從經驗中歸納出重點來提升未來中國投資案的成功率 / “Greater China” is a term referring collectively to both the territories administered by the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), and territories administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan and some neighboring islands). To foreigners, Greater China may seem like more or less a homogenous region, with people of seemingly common appearance, language (Mandarin or some variant of it), and culture. However, deep underlying differences exist between Taiwan and China. To give an example, while Confucian ethics and values are deeply ingrained in the Taiwanese mindset, such traditional values are almost non-existent under the mainland Chinese brand of social capitalism. Being able to understand and leverage these fine nuances in culture is a critical factor in successfully doing business in China. Indeed, in the fifteen years or so since Taiwanese VC’s have entered the Chinese market, they have gained valuable insight on the critical role that culture plays in originating successful deals. This paper will attempt to identify the best practices adopted by Taiwanese VC’s in successfully sourcing and landing VC deals in China.

China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has greatly enhanced global interest in investment in the Chinese media market, where demand for digital content is growing rapidly. The East Asian region is positioned as a growth area in many forms of digital content and digital service industries. China is attempting to catch up and take its place as a production centre to offset challenges from neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, Taiwan is seeking to use China both as an export market and as a production site for its digital content. This research investigates entry strategies of Taiwanese digital content firms into the Chinese market. By examining the strategies of a sample of Taiwan-based companies, this study also explores the evolution of their market strategies. However, the focus is on how distinctive business practices such as guanxi are important to Taiwanese business and to relations with Mainland China. This research examines how entrepreneurs manage the characteristics of digital content products and in turn how digital content entrepreneurs adapt to changing market circumstances. This project selected five Taiwan-based digital content companies that have business operations in China: Wang Film, Artkey, CnYES, Somode and iPartment. The study involved a field trip, undertaken between November 2006 and March 2007 to Shanghai and Taiwan to conduct interviews and to gather documentation and archival reports. Six senior managers and nine experts were interviewed. Data were analysed according to Miller’s firm-level entrepreneurship theory, foreign direct investment theory, Life Cycle Model and guanxi philosophy. Most studies of SMEs have focused on free market (capitalist) environments. In contrast, this thesis examines how Taiwanese digital content firms’ strategies apply in the Chinese market. I identified three main types of business strategy: cost-reduction, innovation and quality-enhancement; and four categories of functional strategies: product, marketing, resource acquisition and organizational restructuring. In this study, I introduce the concept of ‘entrepreneurial guanxi’, special relationships that imply mutual obligation, assurance and understanding to secure and exchange favors in entrepreneurial activities. While guanxi is a feature of many studies of business in Pan-Chinese society, it plays an important mediating role in digital content industries. In this thesis, I integrate the ‘Life Cycle Model’ with the dynamic concept of strategy. I outline the significant differences in the evolution of strategy between two types of digital content companies: off-line firms (Wang Film and Artkey) and web-based firms (CnYES, Somode and iPartment). Off-line digital content firms tended to adopt ‘resource acquisition strategies’ in their initial stages and ‘marketing strategies’ in second and subsequent stages. In contrast, web-based digital content companies mainly adopted product and marketing strategies in the early stages, and would adopt innovative approaches towards product and marketing strategies in the whole process of their business development. Some web-based digital content companies also adopted organizational restructuring strategies in the final stage. Finally, I propose the ‘Taxonomy Matrix of Entrepreneurial Strategies’ to emphasise the two dimensions of this matrix: innovation, and the firm’s resource acquisition for entrepreneurial strategy. This matrix is divided into four cells: Effective, Bounded, Conservative, and Impoverished.

Most small new firms face problems in surviving the gestation process and achieving a viable performance thereafter because of the very fact of their smallness and newness. Due to a lack of internal resources, entrepreneurs of small new firms find it necessary to seek resources from outside the firm through their external social network. The theory of social capital that prescribes valuable resources are embedded in social relations is, thus, particularly relevant to the small business start-up situation. The embedded resources within an external network are hypothesized to have a positive impact on the business performance of these new firms. The main objective of the present study is to empirically investigate the impact of external networks, and in particular the initial social network of entrepreneurs, to the success of small firm start-up in Hong Kong. The second objective is to determine whether there is any interaction effect of the entrepreneur’s networking capability with the external network structure on the start-up success of small Hong Kong firms. / To carry out the research, this study offers a conceptual model linking initial network start-up success to initial network structure of start-up, and including an interaction effect from the entrepreneur’s networking capability. The study operationalizes social capital in four types of network constructs: network size, trustworthiness, network support and network diversity. A series of hypotheses relating to these four dimensions asserting external network determinants of the start-up success of small firms is posited. Other hypotheses which assert the interaction effect between an entrepreneur’s networking capability and the initial network structure on the success of small firm start-up, are also posited. A field survey, administered to 1,000 small Hong Kong firms of various industries, is used to gather the data. The questionnaire survey was developed in two languages – Chinese and English – to ensure a good level of understanding in the bilingual business environment of Hong Kong. Of the 1,000 questionnaires dispatched, a final sample of 89 small firms was used to empirically test the hypotheses using multiple regression analysis and multiple hierarchical regression analysis. Control variables such as entrepreneurs’ experiences and education prior to the firm start-up are included. / Empirical results indicate that the verification of social capital theory’s prescription for start-up success cannot be supported unequivocally. The results suggest that some initial network conditions such as initial size of strong tie network, network support and network diversity are positively associated with some measures of start-up success, but trustworthiness of network ties and the size of weak tie network do not figure among them. No evidence is found to support that entrepreneurs’ networking capability can positively enhance the effect of the initial network structure on start-up success. Overall, the study raises some questions on the positive linear relationship of certain operationalized constructs such as network size and trustworthiness of social capital with start-up success. Following the findings of this research, future studies may choose to further investigate social capital theory on small start-up success by refining the operationalization of social capital, and verify other interaction effects of entrepreneurs’ networking capabilities.