TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– Retailers act as assemblers of merchandise, selecting goods from among a wide range of available products in order to enhance customer value and loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Chinese retail buying system, focusing on the buying committee, which is defined as a group of individuals from different positions that have the authority to make final judgments and decisions regarding such matters as adding or eliminating new products.Design/methodology/approach– This study uses a survey administered to retail buyers.Findings– Results of independent t‐tests support the hypothesis that the influence of guanxi will be greater in the retail firms without a buying committee. State‐owned enterprises are more likely to use a buying committee than non‐state‐owned enterprises.Research limitations/implications– Although the sample represents buyers from many regions in China it is not a random sample; this limits the generalizing of results.Practical implications– Suppliers wishing to sell to Chinese retailers need to know how selling to a retailer using a buying committee will affect their access to buyers.Originality/value– This is the only paper describing research that focuses on the internal structure of a buying committee within a Chinese retail store. Data of this nature are extremely difficult to obtain.
VL  - 22
IS  - 4
SN  - 1355-5855
DO  - 10.1108/13555851011090529
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/13555851011090529
AU  - Sternquist Brenda
AU  - Wang Lu
PY  - 2010
Y1  - 2010/01/01
TI  - Buying committees in the Chinese retail industry
T2  - Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 492
EP  - 511
Y2  - 2024/09/23
ER  -