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This article addresses some issues for Western women in negotiating with individuals and organisations in China. To be successful in a Chinese negotiation requires an awareness and understanding of cultural differences, and negotiation characteristics and behaviour to avoid any misunderstanding or tension. Research results show that there are no major hurdles for Western women negotiators in China. There are, in fact, advantages if they follow a few guidelines. These include having a professional and businesslike approach and understanding the cultural characteristics of a Chinese negotiation. The advantages include being easily noticed, remembered and receiving concessions more readily than Western men. As a result, the negotiation receives more attention and consideration, thus facilitating the achievement of the negotiation goals.

Utilises findings that relate to Chinese negotiation skills that can be used primarily as a guide for female Western negotiators wishing to do business with the Chinese. Evidence comes from observations and group discussions conducted with 31 female Chinese managers. Results show that there is a lot to consider when negotiating with the Chinese. The eight key characteristics which form an endemic part of Chinese culture are face, trust, friendship, ambiguity, patience, Guanxi networks, status, and Chinese protocols. Examines the gender impact of these characteristics on the negotiation process and assesses the ensuing implications for Western negotiators. Evidence suggests that first six characteristics are gender neutral while the latter two are gender biased. The women enrolled on the management programmes provided a “birds‐eye‐view” into the interactive behaviour and social upbringing of Chinese women, thus giving an insight into Chinese culture and customs. However, it is imperative to acknowledge that being a successful Chinese negotiator requires an “open minded” approach and heightened awareness of cultural differences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation experiences of a leading Chinese enterprise. The objective is to provide Chinese enterprises implementing ERP with knowledge about ERP implementation critical success factors.

Construction of a case study of the company using semi‐structured interviews of the principals involved in the ERP implementation process as well as examination of company documentation supported by literature.

The major findings of this paper are that the critical success factors for the case company for implementing ERP is similar to its Western counterparts, with the addition of an underpinning theme – cultural characteristics. This study found that when an attempt is made to adapt the implementation to the Chinese culture, management and style of the company, implementation is successful.

The value of this paper is that it presents companies wishing to implement ERP as well as vendors and consultants with a set of critical success factors that is applicable in China. Understanding the critical success factors would lead to a smoother implementation path. Although as a single case study the ability to generalise the findings is limited, support from literature and the experiences of the company before and after making changes to their ERP implementation add to the knowledge of ERP in China.

This paper examines the prevalent characteristics inherent in negotiating with individuals and organisations in China. A successful negotiation with Chinese needs to be conducted in a way that is acceptable to the Chinese. Supported by literature, six cases are used to determine and illustrate these characteristics on the challenges facing the European negotiator in China. These include ways to influence the Chinese side and awareness of the cultural dynamics that account for Chinese behaviour in negotiations. Research results show that any European negotiator needs to be aware of the prevalent negotiation characteristics of status, face, trust, friendship, Guanxi network, ambiguity, patience and Chinese protocols. Their knowledge is essential to avoid any misunderstanding or tension when dealing with the Chinese. Evidence from this paper suggests that any European negotiator should understand Chinese behaviour before entering into a business relationship and to keep it going smoothly.

As organizations are downsized, re‐engineering and the span of control inflates, the need for self‐regulation and control grows. This need has seen the growth in the provision of internal auditing services in the UK. Demonstrates the linkage between ensuring quality by benchmarking, and the required vehicle for understanding the internal audit development needs of UK organizations. Shows the requirements by the use of nine organizations where internal auditing has been developed to give the organization a competitive advantage. Focuses on the critical success elements that are required by developing internal audit departments.

This paper presents the findings of a literature review and survey conducted on sport sponsorship in the UK. The paper seeks to establish relevant material published that addresses the issue of the transferability of techniques and skills from sports to business. The findings of the literature review highlighted the close relationship between the two mediums. The results of the sponsorship questionnaire showed evidence of the transference of mutually beneficial skills between the organisations offering the assistance, and the sporting organisation receiving the funding. The survey indicated that a majority of sports sponsoring organisations offered more than just monetary assistance to their beneficiaries. Sponsors also assisted with the management of specific events, and operated the complicated software and computer equipment required for the smooth running of the sporting activity. These organisations supplied the sports with key personnel, and highly skilled staff who were experts in their respective fields in marketing, public relations, corporate hospitality, and management.

In an increasingly global and competitive environment, an organization’s long‐term survival may depend on improved quality, productivity and customer service. The pressing need to improve competitiveness has resulted in a number of transnational and national quality awards. In broad terms, these awards stress the importance of management process, customer satisfaction, people and total quality to the attainment of superior competitive position. Describes, compares and highlights the key strengths and weaknesses of the following four major national and transnational quality awards: the Deming Application Prize; the European Quality Award (EQA); the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award (Baldrige Award); and the Australian Quality Award (AQA). Discusses the key requirements of each award and their underlying assumptions and impacts. The awards reviewed represent one of the principal devices used to encourage adoption of self‐assessment, total quality concepts, and external focus in four different continents. To spread good total quality practice the awards publicly recognize the achievements of the organizations which have successfully adopted the concepts of total quality management. The winners serve as useful role models for other organizations intent on adopting total quality management practices. The quality awards reviewed are arguably the premier award in their respective continents.

This research outlines the Hong Kong film industry with examination of key actors, directors, films, and production companies within the martial arts genre of Hong Kong Action Cinema. Hong Kong Film Award winners and nominees, core films within genres, and core reference works both general and theoretical from experts in the field of Hong Kong martial arts film research have been highlighted. Web sites are suggested that provide reviews of Hong Kong martial arts films, biographical information on a variety of actors and actresses as well as comprehensive bibliographic information on select films. Also included are commercial Web sites that provide Hong Kong martial arts films.

Freshwater availability is reducing globally, due to increasing demand with population growth and climate change and is disproportionately impacting developing countries. This study aims to investigate the dynamics of water access and consumption across all regions of Thailand with various characteristics and water systems. Understanding the relationship between institutional, economic and climate variables in Thailand’s water management is important for water scarcity planning. Our paper fills a gap in the literature by examining the determinants of water consumption and exploring potential water management policies.

The authors empirically analyze the determinants of water consumption in Thailand, including institutional, economic and climate variables. The authors use data sets from both metropolitan and provincial waterworks authorities (PWA), as well as economic and meteorological macro-level data. The authors also adopt an auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and a Johansen cointegration test to estimate short- and long-run effects of the variables on water consumption.

The authors confirm a negative relationship between water pricing and consumption and verify a positive relationship between economic growth and water consumption across most regions of Thailand. Furthermore, the authors reveal a clear relationship between climate factors and water consumption and an inverse relationship between income and water consumption in metropolitan area. Findings indicate that authorities, especially PWA, should examine high water use in agriculture and develop regulations to ensure equitable water distribution to sustain economic growth. The authors recommend that water prices are increased within specific income thresholds to prevent impacting low-income families and to secure higher public revenue. In pursuit of environmental sustainability, the authors also recommend increasing public awareness of freshwater scarcity through education programs and investment in water-saving technologies. Differences among regions should be considered when developing water management strategies, which could be monitored through the respective water boards.

This study provides deep insight into the key factors that drive both water prices and water consumption in poor and rich areas. The unique nature of the research indicated that the paper will be of interest to policymakers and the academic community. The findings are relevant for water consumption management in Thailand and other developing countries with similar characteristics.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the extant empirical body of knowledge regarding the impact of Guanxi on international Business-to-Business (B-to-B) relationships.

After the collection and refinement of studies that appeared in marketing, business and management literature during 1995-2018 period, a systematic review was conducted to discover the current situation and future research directions on the subject.

Theoretically, vast majority of the reviewed studies lacked a theoretical foundation, with the remainder anchored primarily on the resource-based view, social network theory and social exchange theory. Methodologically, Ganqing, Xinren and Mianzi are the most frequently investigated dimensions, whereas Renqing is the least investigated dimension. Data are mostly obtained from both Chinese and Western counterparts through survey and analyzed through univariate and multivariate data analysis techniques. Empirically, extant research focused on many diverse outcomes including trust, financial performance, cooperation, satisfaction, time orientation, opportunism and liability of foreignness, while under-examining the drives of Guanxi.

This study provides a synthesis of extant line of research on the subject that are published in peer-reviewed international journals, which publish research in English. A meta-analysis may be conducted for providing a further detailed framework.

This study contributes to international marketing literature by providing an in-depth and synthesized inventory of knowledge to scholars; deriving a comprehensive analysis of theoretical foundations, methodological approaches and findings addressed by scholars in the field; noticing theoretical, methodological and empirical gaps to be examined; and providing future research directions.