Jos Gamble (2009) Demanding customers in the Chinese context. Asia Pacific Business Review, 15 (1). pp. 93-105. ISSN 1360-2381
Full text access: Open
This research explores the unexpectedly demanding nature of local customers in foreign invested retail stores in China. Data are drawn from interviews conducted with over 200 local and expatriate staff at UK and Japanese-invested stores. The study briefly outlines China’s retail sector, provides case study examples of ‘demanding’ customers and then suggests factors that might account for these characteristics. In particular, it highlights the extent to which China’s marketplace is characterized by low trust. Finally, the work notes that China’s demanding customers influence the nature of firms’ service provision and have positive consequences for staff training and skills upgrading.
This is a Draft version This version's date is: 01/2009 This item is peer reviewed
https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/8bfa54a2-cfab-82d7-5317-ded00bf3ba74/1/
Deposited by () on 23-Feb-2010 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 09-Jul-2010
(C) 2009 Taylor & Francis, whose permission to mount this version for private study and research is acknowledged. The repository version is the author's final draft.
Akehurst, G. and Alexander, N. (1995) The Internationalisation Process in Retailing,Services Industries Journal, 15(4): 1-16.
Au-Yeung, A. and Henley, J.S. (2003) Internationalisation Strategy: In Pursuit of theChina Retail Market, European Business Journal, 15(1): 10-23.
Benson, S.P. (1986) Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customers inAmerican Department Stores, 1890-1940. (Urbanna, Ill.: University of Illinois Press).
Bolton, S.C. and Boyd, C. (2003) Trolley Dolly or Skilled Emotion Manager? Moving onfrom Hochschild's Managed Heart, Work, Employment & Society, 17(2): 289-308.
Callaghan, G. and Thompson, P. (2002) "We Recruit Attitude": The Selection andShaping of Routine Call Centre Labour, Journal of Management Studies, 39(2): 233-54.
Chaney, I. and Gamble, J. (2008) Retail Store Ownership Influences on ChineseConsumers, International Business Review, 17(2): 170-83.
Croll, E. (2006) China's New Consumers: Social Development and Domestic Demand.(London: Routledge).
Cui, G. and Liu, Q. (2000) Regional Market Segments of China: Opportunities andBarriers in a Big Emerging Market, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(1): 55-72.
Dawson, J., Mukoyama, M., Choi, S.C. and Larke, R. (eds) (2003) TheInternationalization of Retailing in Asia. (London: Routledge).
Du Gay, P. (1996) Consumption and Identity at Work (London: Sage).
Du Gay, P. and Salaman, G. (1992) The Cult[ure] of the Customer, Journal ofManagement Studies, 29(5): 615-33.
Eckhardt, G.M. and Houston, M.J. (2002) Cultural Paradoxes Reflected in BrandMeaning: McDonald's in Shanghai, China, Journal of International Marketing, 10(2):68-82.
Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989) Building Theories from Case Study Research, Academy ofManagement Review, 14(4): 532-50.
EIU (2004) Asia and Australasia: Consumer Goods and Retail, The EconomistIntelligence Unit Limited, October. 31-32.
Ernst & Young (2006) Retail Revolution - A Look at Mergers & Acquisitions in China'sRetail Industry. September 2006 (Available athttp://www.ey.com/Global/assets.nsf/China_E/260906_RCP_Report_Eng/$file/260906%20RCP%20Report_Eng.pdf).
Gabriel, Y. and Lang, T. (2006) The Unmanageable Consumer: ContemporaryConsumption and its Fragmentations (Second Edition) (London: Sage).
Gamble, J. (2001) Consumerism with Shanghainese Characteristics: Local Perspectiveson China's Consumer Revolution, Asia Pacific Business Review, 7(3): 88-110.
Gamble, J. (2003) Shanghai in Transition: Changing Perspectives and Social Contours ofa Chinese Metropolis ( London: RoutledgeCurzon).
Gamble, J. (2006a) Consumers with Chinese Characteristics? Local Customers inBritish and Japanese Multinational Stores in Contemporary China, in F. Trentmann(ed.), The Making of the Consumer: Knowledge, Power and Identity in the ModernWorld pp.175-98 (Oxford and New York: Berg).
Gamble, J. (2006b) Multinational Retailers in China: Proliferating "McJobs" orDeveloping Skills?, Journal of Management Studies, 43(7): 1463-90.
Gamble, J. (2006c) Introducing Western-style HRM Practices to China: ShopfloorPerceptions in a British Multinational, Journal of World Business, 41(4): 328-43.
Gamble, J. (2007) The Rhetoric of the Consumer and Customer Control in China, Work,Employment & Society, 21(1): 7-25.
Gamble, J. and Huang, Q. (2009a??) One Store, Two Employment Systems: Core,Periphery and Flexibility in China's Retail Sector, British Journal of IndustrialRelations Under review, tbc.
Gamble, J. and Huang, Q. (2009b forthcoming tbc) The Transfer of OrganizationalPractices: A Diachronic Perspective from China, International Journal of HumanResource Management.
Gerth, K. (2003) China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Goldman, A. (2001) The Transfer of Retail Formats into Developing Economies: TheExample of China, Journal of Retailing, 77(2): 221-42.
Goodman, D.S.G. (1996) The People's Republic of China: The Party-state, CapitalistRevolution and New Entrepreneurs, in R. Robison and D.S.G. Goodman (eds), TheNew Rich in Asia: Mobile Phones, McDonald's and Middle Class Revolution pp.225-42 (London: Routledge).
Guo, H and Liu, F. (1998) New China's Flagship Emporium: The Beijing WangfujingDepartment Store, in Kerrie L. MacPherson (ed.), Asian Department Stores pp.114-38(Richmond: Curzon Press).
Hanser, A. (2007) A Tale of Two Sales Floors: Changing Service-work Regimes inChina, in C.K. Lee (ed.), Working in China: Ethnographies of Labor and WorkplaceTransformation, pp.77-97 (New York: Routledge).
Ho, S. (2001) Executive Insights: Growing Consumer Power in China: Some Lessons forManagers, Journal of International Marketing, 9(1): 64-83.
Keat, R., Whiteley, N. and Abercrombie, N. (1994) Introduction, in R. Keat, N. Whiteley,and N. Abercrombie (eds), The Authority of the Consumer (London: Routledge).
Korczynski, M. (2002) Human Resource Management in Service Work (New York:Palgrave).
Korczynski, M. and Ott, U. (2004) When Production and Consumption Meet: CulturalContradictions and the Enchanting Myth of Customer Sovereignty, Journal ofManagement Studies, 41(4): 575-99.
Leidner, R. (1993) Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of EverydayLife (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).
Letvosky, R. and Murphy, D.M. (1997) Entry Opportunities and EnvironmentalConstraints for Foreign Retailers in China's Secondary Cities, Multinational BusinessReview, 5(2): 28-41.
Li, H. and Xiao, J.J. (1999) Chinese Consumer Types, Journal of Consumer Studies &Home Economics, 23(3): 171-80.
Lincoln, Y. S. and Guba, E. G. (1985) Naturalistic Enquiry (London: Sage).
Neuman, W. L. (1997) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and QuantitativeApproaches (3rd edn) (Boston: Allyn and Bacon).
Nickson, D., Warhurst, C., Witz, A. and Cullen, A-M. (2001) The Importance of BeingAesthetic: Work, Employment and Service Organisation, in A. Sturdy, I. Grugulis andH. Willmott (eds), Customer Service: Empowerment and Entrapment, pp.170-90(London: Palgrave).
Nolan, P. and Wang, X. (1998) Beyond Privatisation: Institutional Innovation and Growthin China's Large State-owned Enterprises, World Development, 27(1): 169-200.
Parish, W.L. and Whyte, M.K. (1984) Urban Life in Contemporary China (Chicago:University of Chicago Press).
Pfeffermann, G. and Wasow, B. (2005) The US and China - The Global Economy's OddCouple, The Globalist, 4 March.
Rafaeli, A. (1989) When Cashiers Meet Customers: An Analysis of the Role ofSupermarket Cashiers, Academy of Management Journal, 32(2): 245-73.
Richman, B.M. (1970) A Firsthand Study of Marketing in Communist China, Journal ofRetailing, 46(2): 27-59.
Ritzer, G. (1998) The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions (London:Sage).
Robinson, J.C. (1985) Of Women and Washing Machines: Employment, Housework andthe Reproduction of Motherhood in Socialist China, China Quarterly, 101 (March): 52-77.
Schlesinger, L.A. and Heskett, J.L. (1991) The Service-driven Service Company,Harvard Business Review, 69(5): 71-87.
Stross, R. (1990) The Return of Advertising in China: A Survey of the IdeologicalReversal, The China Quarterly, 123 (Sept): 485-502.
Strauss, A. and Corbin, J.M. (1998) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques andProcedures for Developing Grounded Theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage).
Sturdy, A. (2001) The Global Diffusion of Customer Service: A Critique of Cultural andInstitutional Perspectives, Asia Pacific Business Review, 7(3): 75-89.
Taylor, R. (2003) China's Consumer Revolution: Distribution Reform, ForeignInvestment and the Impact of the WTO, Asian Business & Management, 2(2): 187-204.
Taylor, S. J. and Bogdan, R. (1998) Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: TheSearch For Meaning (3rd Edn.) (New York: Wiley).
Wang, S. (2003) Internationalization of Retailing in China, in J. Dawson, M. Mukoyama,S.C. Choi, and R. Larke (eds), The Internationalization of Retailing in Asia, pp.114-35(London: Routledge).
Warner, M. (2001) The New Chinese Worker and the Challenge of Globalization: Anoverview, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12(1): 134-41.
Williams, D.E. (1992) Motives for Retailer Internationalization: Their Impact, Structureand Implications, Journal of Marketing Management, 8(3): 269-85.
Wong, G.K.M. and Yu, L. (2003) Consumers' Perception of Store Image of Joint VentureShopping Centres: First-Tier Versus Second-Tier Cities in China, Journal of Retailingand Consumer Services, 10(2): 61-70.
Yang, M.M. (1989) The Gift Economy and State Power in China, Comparative Studies inSociety and History, 31(1): 25-54.
Yates, D. (2004) China, European Retail Digest, 42: 74-78.