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Paper info: The digital network and its impact on buying and selling in Chinese business-to-business relationships

Title


The digital network and its impact on buying and selling in Chinese business-to-business relationships

Authors


XIA ZHU
Manchester Business School
United Kingdom
XIA ZHU and
Judy Zolkiewski
Manchester Business School
United Kingdom
Judy Zolkiewski

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 34th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2018.

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Abstract


Digital technology is now all pervasive and its use blurs working and home lives. This exploratory research investigates how social media, specifically WeChat, is being utilized and experienced by buyers and sellers in the context of textile raw material suppliers and textile manufacturers in China and the impact this has on the development of salesperson to client business relationships. A mixture of data capture from WeChat conversations and indepth personal interviews are being used to understand the underlying relational processes that drive the type of information exchanged and the impact of this on both the relational experiences and future intentions of the buyers and sellers concerned. The majority of sales research is undertaken in a Western context and thus this research aims to broaden our understanding of the complexity of sales relationships in a Chinese sales context where strong cultural norms are believed to impact on more formal organizational relationships.