How to reach 1.3bn consumers in China?

International companies in China today are facing stiff competiton from not just other foreign firms but local brands, which have moderate or even matching quality but sell at a far lower prices. They also find it more difficult to reach the increasingly sophistated consumer markets. Communications through the traditional mass media such TV and press become more expensive and less effective. Findings from the survey have shown that event marketing, though still at the early stage, can provide these companies with a good alternative, if used in coordination with other elements in the integrated marketing mix. The sponsorship of popular sports, music and local cultural events are reported to be particularly effective in forging direct contact with the opinion leaders, gatering marketing intellegence and encouraging product trials

Event sponsorship in China

Event marketing is currently at the infant stage in China, but holds a great potential in future. This is concluded from an Internet-based survey. The respondents believe that event marketing provides international companies with a viable alternative to the increasingly cluttered mass media, and plays a key role in the integrated marketing communications (IMC). Sponsoring sports and music events is found particularly effective in reaching the opinion leaders and innovators, and establishing favourable links between the audience and the sponsor’s brand image

Chinese peasant entrepreneurs: an examination of township and village

One of the greatest achievements in China's economic reform is the development of rural township and village enterprises (TVEs). Their importance in the national economy can be seen from the fact that by the end of 1993, TVEs accounted for nearly one third of the agricultural labour force, and one fifth of the total labour force nationwide. Despite some research attention being given to Chinese TVEs, the peasant entrepreneurs, owners and /or managers of these enterprises have remained largely unknown in the West. Who are they? Where are they from? What are their unique characteristics which distinguish them from both managers in the state-owned Chinese enterprises (SOEs) and small business owners /entrepreneurs in the West? What environmental factors contribute to the shaping of these characteristics? What are the problems faced by them and the possible solutions? This paper addresses these questions

Limit Orders, Trading Activity, and Transactions Costs in Equity Futures in an Electronic Trading Environment

The behaviour of limit order quotes and trading activity are studied using a unique and rich database that includes the identity of market participants from a fully automated derivatives market. The analysis is performed using transactions records for three aggregated trader types and three trade identifiers, with trades stamped in milliseconds for the SXF, the equity futures contract of the Montreal Exchange. The identifiers distinguish trades between principals; agency based trades, as well as transactions that are conducted for risk management as opposed to speculative purposes. Agency related trades are shown to represent the largest amount of trading activity relative to other account types. Over 90% of trades in this electronic market are limit orders. The limit order book, especially the depth 1 order, has a dominant role in providing liquidity and in explaining market participants’ trading behaviour. Participants in the SXF reference their trades to the best limit order depth. Hence, investors with large positions or investors who want to build a large position have to strategically split large orders to close/build their position, according to the depth of the best limit order, to ameliorate price impact and information leakage effects. In addition, the results show that traditionally measured spreads have no relationship with trading costs.Limit Orders, Trading Activity, Transactions Costs, Electronic Trading