TOPIC: Comprehensive Alliances The Research Paper will be on an International Management and Business topic that is very important to the culture, climate and operational needs within the International activity. The paper must use APA style (AN EXAMPLE OF APA FORMATTING WILL BE PROVIDED) and have a minimum of 12 pages (full page text from top to bottom margin – these pages are in addition to the Cover page, Table of Contents page, Abstract page, Reference page and Appendix page) with a minimum of 10 references in the reference page ONLY USING NEXIS UNI DATABASE. Please review the Research paper rubric which will be provided in the Document Sharing files. Attached is the style, format and instructions, APA format, and an example of the paper that professor provided to what he is looking for in a paper style. Grading rubic will be attached as well
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Style and format for assignments:
ASSIGNED TOPIC IS Comprehensive Alliances
EXTRACTION FROM THE SYLLABUS:
The Research Paper will be on an International Management and Business topic that is very
important to the culture, climate and operational needs within the International activity. The
paper must use APA style (AN EXAMPLE OF APA FORMATTING WILL BE PROVIDED)
and have a minimum of 12 pages (full page text from top to bottom margin – these pages are in
addition to the Cover page, Table of Contents page, Abstract page, Reference page and
Appendix page) with a minimum of 10 references in the reference page. Please review the
Research paper rubric which will be provided in the Document Sharing files.
Students are expected to write skillfully and professionally in the workplace.
Accordingly, the instructor intends to hold students accountable for the quantity and
quality of the written work they turn in. Use the following guidelines for all assignments
that will be turned in to the instructor during the course. Points will be taken off for not
following the format requirements. The papers must be:
Typed (word processed)
Margins: one inch on the top, bottom, and both right and left sides
Spacing: double-space
Font: Times New Roman 12-font
Page size = letter; Use a standard 8-1/2 by 11-inch paper format
APA 6th Edition Format (Any Web site will provide examples, particularly the
references page)
Use headings to identify the parts of the assignment.
Management 380 Assignment
Name
Texas A&M
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for MGT 380
December 2, 2018
(The above [and the next 3 lines] starting with “In partial fulfillment…..” may be single
spaced).
Table of Contents
Page
Abstract or Introduction
3
Statement of the Problem (or whatever the next topic is)
4
(And so forth for each major topic subject area)
References
(Whatever the
page #)
Appendix
(Whatever the
page #)
(Every line entry is double spaced)
lease note special use of page number at center of page for Table of Contents at the
bottom of this page.)ii
3
Abstract or Introduction
(This is not necessarily a page long but is usually a paragraph or two; in some cases for
very in depth papers and/or reports the Abstract or Introduction may be greater than a
page. Its purpose is to concisely tell the reader what is the paper/report about).
THIS IS YOUR FIRST PAGE OF TEXT THAT IS COUNTED TOWARD THE
MINIMUM TOTAL OF PAGES REQUIRED FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
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the paper appears to be well uniform “inside a box or rectangle, if you will. In addition
please remember the font that is listed in the syllabus).
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Statement of the Problem or whatever the next subject/topic is
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text is)
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assignment, i.e. Conceptual Assignment; Personal Application and Contemporary or
Controversial Project).
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PLEASE GIVE REFERENCE SOURCE CREDIT. SEE APA, EDITION 5 AS TO
PROPER USE OF REFERENCING IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER.
(Whatever page # that is for the Reference page after the body of the report)
?
References
Gous, M. (2003). Leadership in support of learning for an unknown future. Paper
presented at the HERTDSA 2003 conference. Retrieved March 26, 2005, from
http://surveys.canterbury.ac.nz/herdsa03/pdfsnon/N1071.pdf.
Knight, P., & Trowler, P. (2001). Departmental leadership in higher education.
Buckingham England: SRHE/Open University Press.
Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2003). The leadership challenge. In J.Kouzes & B. Posner
(Eds.), Enlist Others (pp. 153). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
(Please note the following:
•
Centering of the word Reference for the Reference page
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justified”
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Each entry is double spaced
•
Above is examples of references from 1. the internet, 2.
article in journal, and 3. a book.
•
Examples of other types of references are in APA, 5th
edition.
Appendices
(or the Word Appendix if one only has one appendix on the next page).
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Also, note the centering at the bottom of the page for the page number)
12 (Whatever next sequential number of page
should be)
13
APPENDIX A
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(Note that the paging goes back to right corner).
Typically this is the section for tables, graphs, etc.
The glossary of terms may be placed in an appendix. Many individuals prepare a table of
the glossary and the matrix of the table has the term, definition and then an example.
Always remember to give reference credit to the source that you obtain both the term and
the definition. (The glossary may also be in the body of the paper).
THE GLOSSARY IS NOT COUNTED AS TO THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES IN
MEETING THE ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS. Therefore, in Week One if an
individual included the glossary in the body of the paper then the text, beginning with
page 3 should go more than 8 pages. Did not deduct points for this for Week One but
deduction will be applicable for the following weeks.
China – Marketplace
Texas A&M
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for MGT 380
Professor
April 22, 2018
Table of Contents
2
Abstract
3
Introduction
4
China’s Modern Consumers
5
International Business in China
6
Unsuccessful Marketing in China
7
Superstitions in China and Their Influence on Products and Marketing
8
Chinese Government Regulation
9
Counterfeit Products and Fraud in China
10
Foreign Investment in China
11
Chinese Calendar
13
E-Commerce in China
13
Conclusion
15
References
18
Appendices
Appendix A
22
Appendix B
23
3
Abstract
This paper discusses the Chinese marketplace, including: the demographic make-up of the
consumer population in China, how international and domestic businesses choose to market to
the Chinese consumer, international business in China, unsuccessful marketing campaigns in
China, superstitious beliefs and their effect on certain products marketed in China, Chinese
regulation and its affected on what is allowed to be marketed in China, the issue of fraudulent
and counterfeit products in China, the decline of foreign investment in China and reasons why,
the Chinese Calendar and how that affects sales, and finally e-commerce and mobile commerce
in China. From this investigation of the Chinese market the paper seeks to provide a cursory
knowledge of what a company or investor should know about Chinese markets before investing
their money in China.
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Introduction
The Chinese marketplace is a bit of a peculiar case for a number of reasons. Firstly, China is a
vast country with many different dialects and cultural differences, and these different consumer
groups have different behavior (“Chinese Consumer Behavior Overview”, 2017; “Understanding
Chinese Consumers”, 2018). For several reasons, Chinese consumers have developed particular
things they tend to look for over Western consumers. Because of a history of fraudulent products
in China, for example, Chinese consumers desire secure platforms such as WeChat and Tmall
with verified and safe products, and strong customer support. Chinese consumers have become
more health conscious, and more focused on the quality and safety of products over price.
Chinese consumers use the internet and in particular their phones to purchase products online
moreso than in Western countries, and are doing so at an increasing rate. It is hard for
international brands to compete with domestic ones in China on the topic of price, but
international brands are certainly capable of competing with domestic Chinese brands when it
comes to providing quality products that are also safe, which is more what the modern Chinese
consumer wants. While China is a place of much opportunity for international businesses, the
Chinese market is a highly competitive market, and beset with trademark squatters, fraudulent
and counterfeit products, a government that has engaged in force tech transfers before allowing
foreign companies access to their markets, a government which was found by a US investigation
under the Trump administration to have instigated cybersecurity attacks on foreign companies for
the purposes of stealing trade secrets and disrupting their operations, and pernicious government
regulation. These reasons make it an easy market to fail in even though it is a market with huge
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potential and growth. These factors have contributed to falling foreign investment in China.
While China has vowed to address these issues, many companies aren’t confident that China is
serious about addressing these issues. By understanding these issues, and what exactly the
modern Chinese consumer is looking for when purchasing a product, it will be easier to
successfully market a product in the Chinese market.
China’s Modern Consumers
According to the Chinese Consumer Behavior Overview (2017) the average consumer in modern
China is in their 20s and early 30s; they tend to buy things not only for themselves but also for
their parents as well; they tend to spend more on entertainment than older generations and also
are more likely to choose to shop online, with every 1.3 of 10 RMB being spent digitally. The
article says that the majority of these consumers are in major cities such as Beijing; that Chinese
consumers are increasingly more likely to pay more for what they perceive to be higher quality
products ; the opinions of other consumers have increased in importance to Chinese consumers
when choosing to purchase a product, as opposed to traditional advertisement. This group, in
their 20s and early 30s, are projected to be the key consumer group in the next decade
(“Understanding Chinese Consumers”, 2018). This group is expected to account for 35 percent
of all consumer spending in China in the next five years (“The Chinese Consumer in 2017”,
2017). This is the generation under the now defunct “One-Child Policy”, so this generation of the
Chinese population had more parental resources invested in them, and probably more money
because of that as well. The Chinese consumer is becoming more health conscious, and more
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interested in sports and exercise (“The Chinese Consumer in 2017”, 2017). Newer generations
are most accessible to advertisement through social media, and use the internet to influence their
purchasing decisions.
Some more information about some of the changes in the consumer attitude of the Chinese
civilian in the past couple of years can be seen from Appendix A.
International Business in China
Being an international company base outside of China can give some advantages in certain areas,
sometimes for initially surprising reasons. Toys, for example, produced by non-domestic
companies in China are more popular for parents to buy for their kids, because of perception that
domestic toy products may be unsafe for their children (“Chinese Consumer Behavior
Overview”, 2017). This distrust of at least lower-quality domestic products has impacted the
food industry and other areas of the market, causing for example in the food industry an
increased desire for healthier food and beverage choices in the market by the consumers
(“Chinese Consumer Behavior Overview”, 2017).
Other benefits might be that it is easier for international companies to compete against local
companies for middle-class, upper-class and luxury products because of Chinese consumers have
becoming quality-conscience and less price-conscience in their buying decisions (“Chinese
Consumer Behavior Overview”, 2017)., and in general Chinese consumers earn higher wages
now, rising an average of 11 percent per year (Balding, C. 2017). China therefore has an
increasing middle and upper class consumer base. An example of international company
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marketing to the middle and upper-class in China can be found in the automobile market, with
the Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla automobile products, both are which are in the top ten in
the list of best-selling cars in China (Buckley, Peter & Horn, Sierk. 2009). Toyota’s luxury
vehicle division, Lexus, is also performing quite well in China (Buckley, Peter & Horn, Sierk.
2009).
Another Japanese company, Shiseido, specializing in personal care and cosmetic products, also
focused on the middle and upper class consumer market in China. It would obviously be difficult
for most foreign companies to challenge the low prices of domestic products in China, so a better
strategy is to develop higher end products marketed for the more well-off in China, an increasing
demographic.
Unsuccessful Marketing in China
There are a number of reasons why an international brand might fail to market themselves well
in China. Not only are the Chinese very different from the Western consumer, but international
have tended to make quite a number of seemingly quite obvious faux pas with their marketing
campaigns in China. Many prominent Western companies have used incorrectly translated
Chinese, or used the Chinese language in a way that negatively affected their marketing
campaigns. Pepsi, for example, had a slogan that was supposed to be “come alive with the Pepsi
generation” but was actually translated to “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back to life” in
Chinese (5 Marketing Translation Mistakes 2017). I found a surprising number of examples of
this happening in China with Western companies. Companies should be careful to not
8
misrepresent their message to the Chinese consumer. Another reason is that the purchasing habits
of the Chinese consumer are changing in a way that might be detrimental to a large corporate
conglomerate. Chinese consumers are becoming more concerned with expressing their
individualism through niche-branding (Lam 2014). There is also fierce competition from
domestic companies in China, which the Chinese government and private equity firms are very
supportive of, meaning the localization of international brands is perhaps a good idea (Lam
2014). Companies should be wary of presenting their product in a traditional manner, and should
potentially consider changing their approach in marketing. Perhaps some companies should
consider a rebranding in the Chinese market. Adjustments to marketing strategies should be
necessary in all cases.
Superstitions in China and Their Influence on Products and Marketing
Sometimes traditional superstitious beliefs in China have an effect on products on the market. An
example might be the popular online video games League of Legends. In that game players play
as “champions” which have their own look and abilities and so forth. One of the champions in
the game, Karthus, an undead character, used to be appear somewhat as a clothed skeletal figure.
Due to a Chinese superstition involving showing exposed bones and the remains of the dead, in
the Chinese version of the game his face was censored in the artwork for the character. Later,
when the art for the character was updated, all versions of the champion in China or otherwise
depicted Karthus without any bones. Similar things have happened in other games with
depictions of the undead, in particular skeletons, such as in the games World of Warcraft and
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Dota 2 (Custer, C. 2014). While a game can just change the models of certain characters, it
would be much harder for something like the TV series The Walking Dead to deal with this sort
of censorship.
Chinese Government Regulation
The Chinese population itself, or its customs, is however, not really to blame for the censorship
of skeletons and other undead in media in China. Ghost Story is an example of a Chinese
domestic title with depictions of skeletons, so such depictions themselves are evidently not
strictly forbidden. Rather, the issue seems to stem from regulation for such products as provided
by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, which forbids anything that “violates China’s policy or
religion by promoting cults or superstitions”, and it seems that depictions of the undead seem to
be interpreted as promoting superstitions (Custer, C. 2014). The censorship of skeletons in media
in China could instead then be seen as more of a result of unreasonable censorship by the
Chinese national government rather than the traditional superstitions themselves. Chinese
regulation can cause a number of issues for companies marketing their products in China.
Toyota, for example, was a company that was unable to get an early foot in the Chinese market
due to the hindrance of Chinese regulation (Buckley, Peter & Horn, Sierk 2009). The company
was still successfully able to market its products in China, but clearly Chinese regulation must be
carefully observed before attempting to launch a product in China, as the regulation might be
unexpectedly unreasonable and have devastating consequences for a smooth release in China.
10
Counterfeit Products and Fraud in China
It’s well known that China has a huge problem with counterfeit products, fraud, and a number of
related other issues, such as trademark squatting, where people will register trademarks the force
rightful owners to purchase back the trademarks from them, because China awards trademark
rights to the party that files for them first (Plane, D., & Livingston, S. 2017). Companies might
want to take that into account and secure the trademark for their product early in China to avoid
this issue, even if the brand is not actively used in China. Xinhua news estimated in 2015 that
over $45 billion in fraudulent or counterfeit products were available on Alibaba’s various
website, including Tmall and Taobao (Plane, D., & Livingston, S. 2017). In fact, the same source
says that, according to the China Consumers Association, in 2015, “only 37% of examined goods
on Taobao were genuine”. Plane, D., & Livingston, S. (2017) suggest several preventive steps to
combat these problems, including: choosing a suitable Chinese language mark, registering the
trademark under as many sub-classes as possible- as in China you can have identical trademarks
filed under different sub-classes, obtaining copyright registrations and careful monitoring of
online databases and e-commerce to check for any products infringing on any company IP. We
discussed earlier how this problem with counterfeit or fraudulent goods has caused some changes
in Chinese consumer behavior where the authenticity and safety of a product has become
increasingly important to Chinese consumers.
China’s issue with creating counterfeited products and stealing technology has even caused US
President Trump to put a tariff on a variety of Chinese goods and services, stating that following
an investigation it found that China helped “support and conduct cyberattacks on US companies
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to access trade secrets” (Clark, G., & Hagan, S. 2018). This would suggest that not only is China
ignoring issues with IP and technology theft against foreign companies, but seemingly even
actively encouraging it, or the one perpetrating it, which would suggest that China is probably
not going to change its attitude very soon on these issues. If China feels that it is in a position to
take advantage from this IP theft from international companies, it seems that it would be happy
to do so. If a business were to setup a branch in China, it might do well to take extra security
precautions, most specifically cybersecurity precautions, to make sure unwanted information
about the company and its products is not stolen. Clark, G., & Hagan, S. (2018) from Bloomberg
did however s …
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