Managing Relationship Marketing: A cross‐cultural perspective of a Chinese Market

This paper reports on research in China to investigate the exporting of industrial cranes and the building of long‐term relationships between foreign suppliers and their Chinese customers. The qualitative research findings showed the importance which the Chinese placed on the building of the customersupplier relationship in a competitive environment which is becoming increasingly fierce in certain segments. This is despite the fact that in broad terms, China is still very much an economy of planning and control where demand exceeds supply. However, at the sales management level, the nurturing of relationships with customers is as important as in the West.