The use of the Internet for international marketing by Chinese SMEs

Jones, Laurie D. and Tse, Wing Yin (2005) The use of the Internet for international marketing by Chinese SMEs. The Information Institute.

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Abstract

China has become one of the largest exporting countries in today’s global market. China’s small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in exporting and are a major contributor in employment and to the domestic economy. With the use of the Internet, SMEs are promoting their products on a global basis and this research has examined the characteristics of the Internet as used by SMEs in identifying overseas customers in developed counties. Specifically this research used Hamill's (1997) framework to focus on management attitude, communication, promotion and market intelligence. The results are based on the responses from 56 Chinese companies and find that all respondents have installed email and have a company web site. The Internet was not used for the market intelligence but was for communication and market promotion. Proactive management was also found to be important, as was the role of education.