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This comprehensive project introduces the past and present of the Chinese petroleum industry, conducts industry analysis using Michael Porter's Five forces model, and discusses the changes made in recent years and the business oppurtunities for foreign companies. In order to effectively enter the chinese petroleum market, four commonly used entry strategies are introduced. Key issues, weaknesses and strengths, as well as implications of each entry strategy are discussed in detail.

To date, the rather new phenomena known as Social Media Marketing (SMM) has caught much attention from researchers and several studies have been conducted prior to resolving how this new phenomenon can be utilized by business-to-business (B2B) organizations. However, existing literature covering SMM has been mainly focused on the business-to-consumer (B2C) perspective, therefore, there is a lack of research in the utilization of SMM in a B2B context. Hence, this bachelor thesis aims to contribute to the theoretical and empirical findings of social media in a B2B context, by uncovering marketing decision-makers point of view and how they work with social media, specifically in the international high-technological and service-oriented sector. The purpose of this research paper is to identify and describe the utilization of SMM together with the positive and negative aspects of it in the B2B context, based on empirical data collected from decision-makers working with marketing, operating in service-oriented international IT-organizations located in Sweden. In order to fulfil the purpose, a qualitative research method was chosen where 7 semi-structured interviews were conducted with marketing decision-makers from 6 international service-oriented B2B companies operating in the IT industry. The decision-makers participating in the study contributed with their experiences and perceptions of social media, concluding that they highly values SMM and emphasizes its importance as it is perceived as significant for all B2B organizations today and as the society is becoming more and more digitized, it will become of even higher importance in the upcoming years. Further, the thesis also found that the decision-makers working with SM use it for three main objectives; Brand awareness, Lead generation and Employer branding. Lastly, based on the empirical findings of this report, some similarities and controversies were discovered in regard to how theory suggests that SMM is used in the B2B environment as well as how the different participants view the usage of SMM.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of self-efficacy, process feedback and task complexity on decisions by managers to continue or discontinue a new product after receiving negative performance feedback. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a classroom experiment design and uses logistic regression and a chi-square test to analyze the data. Findings: The findings of this paper show that self-efficacy, process feedback and task complexity have not only main effects but also interactive effects on managers’ go or no-go decisions; further, the main effects are mediated by interactions. The effect of self-efficacy is moderated by process feedback and task complexity. Process feedback and task complexity also have an interactive effect on decisions about new products by decision-makers. Research limitations/implications: This paper extends the theory of escalation of commitment (EOC) by showing that self-efficacy, process feedback and task complexity can influence decision-makers’ go or no-go decisions after they have received negative performance feedback. Practical implications: This paper provides useful guidelines for managers on how to reduce the likelihood of EOC. Originality/value: The originality and value of this paper lie in its being the first to examine the effects of process feedback and task complexity on the EOC.

Cross-selling is the practice of selling products or services that do not replace already purchased products or services to existing customers. In industries characterized by complex products, long lead times and intricate relations between customer and company, the determinants of a company's cross-selling performance are different than those present in other industries. This study explores salespersons' perceptions of antecedents of their cross-selling performance in a Swedish professional services company. The results are synthesized into a theoretical model that provides partially different perspectives compared to previous research. The most unexpected finding is that cross-divisional transpersonal efficacy - belief in the ability of service providers of cross-sold services to perform well - appeared to affect motivation to cross-sell notably. Transpersonal efficacy is an unexplored concept in the context of cross-selling and should thus be explored further. Managers should attempt to increase salespersons' cross-divisional transpersonal efficacy to increase salespersons' cross-selling performance. / Korsförsäljning, eller cross-selling, innebär att sälja produkter eller tjänster som inte ersätter redan köpta sådana till befintliga kunder. I branscher med komplexa produkter, långa ledtider och invecklade relationer mellan säljare och köpare skiljer sig faktorer som ökar cross-selling åt från andra branscher. Den här studien undersöker vad försäljare i ett yrkestjänsteföretag uppfattar påverkar deras korsförsäljningsprestation. Resultaten konsolideras i en teoretisk modell vars perspektiv delvis skiljer sig från tidigare studier i ämnet. Det mest oväntade resultatet är att försäljares motivation att korsförsälja påverkas starkt av deras uppfattning av hur väl de förmedlare som tillhandahåller de tjänster som korsförsäljs kan prestera. Detta fenomen är inte tidigare undersökt inom korsförsäljning, och bör därför undersökas vidare. Organisationer som vill öka sina försäljares korsförsäljningsprestation bör förbättra försäljares uppfattning av förmedlare av andra tjänsters prestationsförmåga.

This research is a qualitative case study at the industrial business-to-business startup Nytt Tech aiming to understand how startups work with networkbased relationship marketing in the early phase and how they gain access to the business network and benefit from creating relationships. The following research question is presented: How can a business-to-business startup gain access to and benefit from the business network to create relationships? The study is limited to Nytt Tech and the circumstances that prevail for them. As a basis, unstructured and semi-structured interviews have been held with the employees and key customers to understand how success has arisen so far and then examine how it can be further developed. The data has been processed and analyzed using the ARA-model as the theoretical framework. The study finds multiple drivers which will help Nytt Tech for continued growth. In terms of Actors, the close collaboration with their customers contributes to both knowledge and feedback. Simultaneously, it generates revenue and spreads the word, which can cause more paying customers. In terms of Resources, the close collaboration between university and industry is an essential resource in several areas; recruitment of talented and ambitious students, product development deeply rooted in research, and direct opportunity to apply the theory in practice. Finally, in terms of Activities, direct contact reduces the risk of creating a distance between the company's offer and the customer's actual needs, leading to increased success. To conclude, companies can gain access to and benefit from the business network by activating direct and indirect business relationships and working closely together over time. A startup company may not have established business relationships, but its people do. Each person has a network that is combined uniquely. Therefore, recommendations are given that the case company should continue to work closely and use their own and partners' business networks to access new potential customers.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: E-commerce in South Africa is currently experiencing considerable growth, as in the rest of the world. Substantial foreign investments are being made in selected South African online retail stores and the majority of businesses have an online presence to sell or promote their products and services. Yet, as e-commerce is a dynamic and relatively new industry, there is a need for South African companies to understand business model adaptation for e-commerce, and specifically for successful e-marketplace participation. Kalahari Marketplace was established in 2011 as a C:C platform for customers to sell books and media. In January 2014, this platform was expanded to a fully integrated B:C platform that enables third-party retailers to sell directly to Kalahari.com customers in various categories. The Kalahari Marketplace platform follows the same development outline as the very successful Amazon.com Marketplace platform in the United States. The premise is that sellers have an additional channel to sell to customers they would not normally have had, and customers benefit by having access to a wide product range and competitive pricing. The aim of this research study is to understand the typical business model of a successful e-marketplace participant. It furthermore set out to explore the success factors, which translate into value creation for the seller achieved through participation in an e-marketplace. This investigation was done through a case study approach by examining existing sellers retailing through Kalahari Marketplace. To achieve the research aim, qualitative, exploratory research was conducted. The research method involved a combination of primary and secondary research. Secondary research was conducted regarding the external environmental factors of Kalahari Marketplace sellers. Primary data was gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews with Kalahari Marketplace sellers. The external environmental analysis for participating in an e-marketplace, such as Kalahari Marketplace, was overall positive, taking into consideration challenges such as expensive Internet and low Internet usage penetration. The key findings from the internal analyses were that participating in an e-marketplace has substantial benefits for a traditional retailer that wants to trade online. These advantages include transaction cost savings, exposure to new customers, and reduced marketing expenses. The following recommendations were made for successful e-marketplace participation: • Take an active involvement in e-marketplace listings; • Effective procurement and use of resources; • Excellent customer service; • Build reliable and cost effective delivery channels; and • Offer a wide and mixed product range. The research limitation of this study stated that Kalahari Marketplace is a moderately new B:C e-retailing platform; therefore, retailers are still learning to adapt. Suggested additional research involves a wide-reaching quantitative research into key success factors for e-marketplace participation from a South African perspective.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudio_Colucci.pdf: 998498 bytes, checksum: 7c1b532e9e2f1a0a4018ada447eeb971 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-09-16 / Studies about organizational buying behavior received greater emphasis since the sixty years, with many works about models for buying and adopted criteria for suppliers selection and decisions, been useful for industrial marketing, and also to the development of purchase strategies. This work wishes to corroborate for better understanding about the subject, studying the suppliers selection for two ingredients, flavors and colors, used by food and beverages industries. The first step of work was a bibliographic review about buying organizations, flavors and colors. After that, the research was developed in two steps. The first seeked the construction of a questionnaire to be applied in the second, by interviewing with opened and non-structured questions specialized professionals in foods and beverages, for better understanding about specificity for flavors and colors. The second step, developed in food and beverages industries, researched the buying centers compositions for flavors and colors, the legal categories for the used products, the general (based on Kannan & tan, 2002) and specifics (based on interviewed professionals) criteria buying decision . Concludes for flavors and colors, that the buying centers are composed by the areas of p&d, quality, purchase, and minors influences from marketing. The most important factors in the suppliers selection are quality, reputation, specialization, be open and honest in the communications, and adopt good manufactory practices. The price is not the most important factor in the buying decision. The use of sensory research is important for both products, and possibly followed by market research. To the food and beverages industries, flavors could be classified as strategic, and colors as critic. The relationship with flavors and colors suppliers could be classified as associated. / O estudo sobre comportamentos em compras organizacionais recebeu maior ??nfase a partir do final dos anos sessenta, atrav??s da apresenta????o de uma s??rie de propostas sobre modelos de compras e crit??rios adotados na sele????o de fornecedores e decis??es, com utilidade na ??rea de marketing industrial, como tamb??m ao desenvolvimento de estrat??gias de compras. Este trabalho pretende corroborar com maiores compreens??es sobre o assunto, ao estudar a sele????o de fornecedores e decis??es de compras de dois ingredientes, aromas e corantes, utilizados em ind??strias de alimentos e de bebidas. Inicialmente o trabalho envolveu uma revis??o bibliogr??fica sobre compras organizacionais, aromas e corantes. Em seguida, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa em duas etapas. A primeira visou a elabora????o de um instrumento de pesquisa a ser aplicado na segunda etapa, envolveu entrevistas atrav??s de quest??es abertas e n??o estruturadas ?? especialistas em alimentos e bebidas, pela qual se buscou compreens??es sobre especificidades de aromas e corantes. Na segunda etapa desenvolvida em ind??strias de alimentos e de bebidas, foram pesquisadas as composi????es dos centros de compras de aromas e corantes, as categorias legais utilizadas desses produtos, os crit??rios gerais (baseados no trabalho de Kannan e Tan, 2002) e espec??ficos (gerados atrav??s das entrevistas com especialistas em alimentos e bebidas) adotados nas sele????es de fornecedores e decis??es de compras. Conclui que para aromas e para corantes, os centros de compras s??o formados pelas ??reas de desenvolvimento de produtos, qualidade e compras, com influ??ncias de marketing. Os fatores mais importantes nas sele????es de fornecedores s??o a qualidade, a boa reputa????o, a especializa????o, as comunica????es, a rapidez e a ado????o de procedimentos de boas pr??ticas de fabrica????o. O pre??o n??o ?? o principal fator nas decis??es de compras. O uso de an??lise sensorial ?? importante nas escolhas desses produtos, com o poss??vel acompanhamento de pesquisas de mercados. Para as ind??strias de alimentos e de bebidas, os aromas podem ser classificados como produtos estrat??gicos e os corantes como cr??ticos. O relacionamento com os fornecedores de aromas ou de corantes pode ser classificado como associado.

Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, utilizando o método do estudo de caso, que investiga quais as orientações de negócios predominantes nos Institutos de Pesquisas Tecnológicas Industriais (IPTIs) brasileiros. No contexto atual de ciclos de vida dos produtos cada vez mais curtos e de concorrência acirrada entre empresas, cadeias produtivas, setores econômicos e países decorrente da globalização, os IPTIs são chamados a dar suporte tecnológico fundamental aos agentes econômicos nacionais, os quais não têm condições ou recursos para gerar internamente. Para que isto ocorra efetivamente dentro deste quadro, somado à escassez de recursos governamentais, crises econômicas cíclicas e concorrência de fontes alternativas de suporte tecnológico, os IPTIs têm que estar orientados para os seus mercados. O trabalho faz uma revisão da literatura sobre orientação de negócios, com ênfase na orientação para o mercado (OM), e estuda dois IPTIs nacionais: o Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo (IPT) e o Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Após análise dos dados, o estudo propõe o aprofundamento da investigação em futuros estudos com base em um modelo de OM que introduz variáveis apropriadas para os IPTIs nacionais, como ?natureza jurídica do instituto? e ?consciência e orgulho do papel dos empregados?. Propõe ainda que em futuros estudos sejam também investigados os clientes dos IPTIs para que os efeitos de suas orientações de negócios sejam avaliados por aqueles para quem estas orientações são dirigidas. / This dissertation is a exploratory study, using case study method, that investigates what business orientations prevail in Brazilian Industrial Technology Research Institutes (ITRIs). On the current context of shorter product life cycles and strong competition amongst value chains, industries and countries due globalization, ITRIs are being pushed to provide essential technological support to domestic economic agents, which don?t have resources and conditions to generate them internally. In order to play this role effectively amidst this picture, adding up lack of governmental funds, cyclical economic crisis and alternative technology sources competition, ITRIs must be market oriented. This work performs a literature survey, emphasizing market orientation (MO), and studies two Brazilian major ITRIs: Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo (IPT) e o Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). After accomplishment of data analysis, the study suggests deeper investigation on future researches based on a MO model that introduces variables suitable for Brazilian ITRIs, such as ?juridical status? and ?employees pride and consciousness of their role?. It also proposes the investigation of ITRIs clients, on their perceptions about ITRIs MO outcomes effects in their businesses.

Research question: How is the sales network of ABB Crane system related to industrial marketing in anetwork perspective? Purpose of the research:The main task is to investigate if the sales network of ABB Crane Systems is related toestablished theory of industrial marketing in a network perspective. Method: The research strategy has been formed from a deductive approach and the empiricaldata has been gathered with a qualitative approach. Both primary and secondary data hasbeen used in order to fulfill the purpose of our paper. The empirical findings representthe primary data which was gathered through interviews with the management of ABB Crane Systems. The secondary data was gathered from journal articles, literature, ABB’s website and Mälardalen University’s databases. Conclusion: With the help of three different theories, it has been concluded that the sales network ofABB Crane Systems has a rather close relationship with Industrial Marketing in anetwork perspective. However, it has also been found that the company is not entirelyrelated to the important aspect of embeddedness in its sales network, which is adeliberate strategy in order to minimize the risks of miscommunication, maintain controlover the sales process, remain flexible, as well as not waste scarce resources. Theimplication is that the level of embeddedness in the industry depends on several factorssuch as market concentration, competition, number of projects per year, size of availableprojects, the stage in the relationship building process and overall market uncertainty. / Frågeställning: Hur är ABB Crane Systems försäljningsnätverk relaterat till nätverksperspektivet inomindustriell marknadsföring? Syfte: Huvudsyftet är att undersöka om ABB Crane Systems försäljningsnätverk är relaterat tilldet etablerade nätverksperspektivet inom industriell marknadsföring. Metod: Denna undersökning has strategiskt formats utifrån en deduktiv ansats, och denempiriska datan har samlats in med en kvalitativ metod. Både primär och sekundär datahar använts för att uppfylla syftet samt svara på frågeställningen. Empirin representerarprimärdatan vilken har samlats in genom intervjuer med chefer på ABB Crane Systems.Den sekundära datan samlades in från academiska tidskrifter, literatur, ABBs hemsida samt från databaser på Mälardalens Högskola. Slutsats: Med hjälp av tre olika teorier har slutsatsen dragits att ABB Crane Systems försäljningsnätverk har en relativt nära relation till nätverksperspektivet inom industriellmarknadsföring. Emmelertid har det även påvisats att företaget inte helt är relaterat till”embeddedness” i försäljningsnätverket, vilket är förankrat i ett medvetet strategiskt valför att minimera riskerna med missförstånd, upprätthålla kontroll över säljprocessen,bibehålla flexibilitet, likväl för att inte slösa på de begränsade resurserna. Innebörden äratt nivå av ”embeddedness” beror på flera faktorer såsom marknadskoncentration,konkurrens, antal project per år, storlek på tillgängliga project, relationsnivån i denrelationsbyggande processen, samt den överliggande osäkerheten på marknaden.