Doing Business with China: Comparative Content Analysis of the Business-to-Business Marketing Literature

A systematic search procedure was used to identify papers concerning B2B marketing to and within China presented at the IMP conference or published in prominent journals during the period 2000 to 2011. Two samples of papers were extracted: 66 papers from the IMP online database and 104 articles from reputable journals selected as the most likely to publish important work in this field. Full text quantitative content analysis was used to explore the frequency with which key theoretical terms were used in these two samples; the key theoretical terms represented the principal paradigmatic approaches used in the field, such as the IMP approach and transaction-cost economics. Notable differences were observed between the relative frequency with which key terms are used in the IMP papers and in the journal articles, with the former making greater use of Western cultural analysis and IMP concepts, and the latter making greater use of transaction-cost economics, the resource-based view, and the commitment/trust theory of relationship marketing. Papers based on Chinese cultural concepts were found in both samples. In general, research in the field was found to be conducted from a mono-paradigmatic perspective. In particular, papers either adopt a Chinese perspective or a Western perspective; there is negligible evidence of cross-fertilization between Western research paradigms and approaches based on Chinese cultural concepts