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Three types of industrial buyer-seller relational process models are available: joining theory, stage theory, and state theory. However, historically, these models have developed based on the knowledge and cultural context of the Western world. Several researchers note that national culture may have an impact on international industrial buyer-seller relationships. Including culture in the models is highly important, especially as the business environment is increasingly more global and different countries have different business cultures. The goal of this paper is to define the most suitable industrial buyer-seller relational process models for describing relationships in various contexts. The paper includes a through literature review and a single case study in order to reach this objective. A new state theory model evolved during the research. It consists of two beginning states: searching and starting; four purely middles states: constant/static, decline, growth, and troubled; and a purely end state: termination. The state of dormant/inert is both a middle state and an end state, that is, when the relational actors are not in contact does not mean that the relationship has ended, but instead, for example, new legislation may have been implemented, which requires the actors to evaluate their relationship and its future. A relationship goes through the two beginning states in the order mentioned above, but after that, any state may occur.

This introduction provides the methodological framework for the book, approaching the business of football through the lens of its most reliable consumers – the fanbase. Fan cultures necessarily inform the normative understanding of a football club, due to the popularly held belief that it is the fan’s – or some reified idea of the fan – that is the permanent feature of a football club and that provides its identity. Players and owners come and go, but the relationship between the club and the fan is, theoretically, never-ending. In truth, this is never a real fan who could exist, but a constructed image of the fan built out of other narratives and that, at some level, football fans associate themselves. This fan is no one in particular, but is drawn from a close reading of football culture and identifying the directives of the traditional fan. Utilising a combination of critical theory and the existing literature on football club ownership, our goal is to reveal the distinction between how people talk about the social dimension of football clubs, and how they actually relate to their fans and the wider world in the era of late capitalism. A club is not simply the romanticised notions held by those within the games, but, as with all businesses, it is also the product of it conducts itself in a series of other networks of exchange. Often irreconcilable with the aforementioned romantic notions, these networks often get hidden by the prevailing discourse.

In recent years, festivals have become prominent events in many cities throughout Europe, playing a crucial role in improving the image of the host city and enhancing its attractiveness to tourists. Festivals are temporary organizations with a short-lived and intermittent nature. Such features could raise several challenges in terms of maintaining a festival’s identity and its attendees’ identification during the periods of inactivity. Drawing on the literature on temporary organizations, organizational identity, and social identification, this chapter investigates how festivals can communicate their central and stable characteristics to audiences by adopting Web 2.0-based communication strategies. To explore this issue, the chapter illustrates the case of an Italian festival, Fotografia Europea, which has changed its communication strategy from a more traditional approach to a Web 2.0-based one.

The FIFA Museum in Zurich is a division of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and has been opened in 2016 with the aspiration to become one of the key attractions, both in Zurich as well as in the association football context. As with many tourist attractions, staying on top of the game is a challenge. Unlike other museums, the FIFA Museum took an open innovation approach in developing their concept, especially for those parts that deal with visitor interactions. With the goal of being not only a football museum, but also an attractive and leading event location in Switzerland, event ideas were collected using a crowdsourcing approach, managed through a platform run by ATIZO. Through this community, the museum could design attractive event concepts, succeeded to increase visitor engagement and built a loyal base of innovators and future guests. This chapter describes the crowdsourcing methodology applied by the FIFA Museum, critically examines the process, advantages, and disadvantages of the methodology chosen, and concludes by giving recommendations for similar cases. The particular focus lies on the application of the crowdsourcing method in areas where a strong fan community can be involved in the development process, such as, e.g., in the association football context.

The industrial buyer-seller relational process models from the Eastern and Western worlds have not been combined. The Western world has dominated the development of the models, while there exist only a very limited amount of guanxi development models from the East. This paper is exploratory in nature, focusing on combining the development of these two worlds into one intercultural model. Four case relationships verify the proposed model.

This paper focuses on only one cultural context outside of the West, that is to say, China. In order to justify the model to be completely an intercultural one, research in other cultural contexts is necessary.

This chapter provides a detailed account of the comparison-based case study approach and argues that traditional case study approaches should adopt the comparison-based case study model. This study outlines the benefits and drawbacks of the comparative case study design. The penultimate section provides an example of a comparison-based case study to illustrate the virtues and the shortcomings of this mode of research. The chapter concludes with suggestions to aid novice tourism researchers and postgraduate students.

Purpose – This chapter aims to construct a scientific microworld to explain the management strategy of yang-ru yin-fa (Confucianism in public and Legalism in private) in Chinese organizations by an emic approach of indigenous psychology.

Design/Methodology/Approach – In consideration of the difficulties faced by either an imposed etic approach or a derived etic approach, this chapter advocates for an emic approach that argues that, in order to understand the specific features of organizational dynamics in China, it is necessary for us to construct an objective system of knowledge (epistemology) on the basis of Chinese cultural values (ontology), which can be examined by methods of social sciences (methodology).

Findings – Based on the theoretical model of Face and Favor, a conceptual scheme was proposed to highlight the contrast between Confucianism and Legalism in traditional as well as contemporary Chinese society. Findings of pervious empirical researches on two types of guanxi, along with two types of official and ethical leadership in Chinese organizations were reviewed to demonstrate the usage of yin/yang balance in strategic management.

Originality/Value – Taking the discourse of this chapter as an example, it is expected that the author's approach may initiate a scientific revolution against the Western paradigms of psychology that had been constructed on the presumption of individualism (Evenden & Sandstrom, 2011; Hwang, 2012).

The study explores the decision-making logics driving the usage of social media among internationalising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and how it supports entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. The author draws on qualitative data from four internationalising firms all of which had adopted social media. The findings show that causal decision-making logic is the main element driving the initial usage of social media (i.e. pre-adoption). Concerning ongoing usage, the author found evidence of both causal and effectual logic; the choice being dependent on the firm’s resources. The findings also show that both drivers of social media users have a paramount role in entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complete medical healthcare system that encompasses acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion, herbal medicine, diet, tui na massage, and exercises (tai chi and qigong) among other traditional therapies. It uses herbs and natural resources to produce the traditional medicines and focuses on maintaining the balance between body and mind. As such, many aspects of TCM can be considered as green and sustainable. While there is market demand for TCM in some countries and among some communities, some others are still not aware of TCM. Moreover, there are fewer discussions in the academic platforms on TCM. This case highlights the scenario of TCM based on Malaysia’s perspective and discusses its challenges and prospects.