Do services exporters build relationships? Some qualitative perspectives

Abstract

Investigates whether success factors for Australian services firms that export to Asia are consistent with the theory of relationship marketing, and demonstrates the power of the in‐depth interview methodology for exploring marketing theory. Relationship marketing theory suggests that services firms should adopt a relationship marketing approach while goods firms might use a transactional approach. To investigate this theory, a series of in‐depth interviews were conducted in firms marketing agribusiness products to Asia. We found that growth in the agribusiness services sector could be attributed to their strategy of “pairing” with Australian commodity exporters rather than to entering the market directly. Contrary to expectations, we found that Australian goods firms consider building relationships with Asian distributors and customers crucial to initiating and maintaining an export strategy. Furthermore, Australian agribusiness services firms do not seek to enter the market on their own but build relationships with Australian firms as a means of accessing the Asian market. The results demonstrate the power of qualitative methods for uncovering results that confirm or disconfirm existing theory.

Internal branding: Exploring the employee's perspective

“…Therefore, a qualitative approach was adopted due to it ability to obtain a fi rst-hand description of a specifi ed domain of experience. 38,39 In this sense, understanding is derived from information gained directly from the employee, rather than from the direction of theories, laws and concepts. 40 …”

“…The research questions along with the corresponding umbrella questions are shown in Table 1 . Following a line of thought similar to that of Hastings and Perry, 39 a convergent interviewing technique was used, whereby the interviews continued until there was zero sum gain from conducting anymore.…”

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“…Convergent interviewing is a cyclical data collection, analysis and interpretative technique that uses a limited number of interviews with participants who possess knowledge and experience in the area of interest ( Dick, 1990 ). This process encourages a ' series of successive approximations ' ( Dick, 1990, p. 3 ) leading to a consensus through the development and use of probe questions about important information where interviewee agreement or disagreement is tested ( Hastings and Perry, 2000 ). Using this approach, interviewer preconceptions are (ideally) removed from the information-gathering process by allowing respondents to self-identify salient points that can be tested in subsequent interviews.…”

Impact of firm-level factors and market entry mode on performance: A study of service MNCs in an emerging economy

“…When firms want to build up personal relationships, carry out on-site research, and understand the needs of the host country buyers and markets then high control modes are preferred (Hastings & Perry, 2000). Zahra et al in (2000) indicated that high control foreign market entry modes still remain much more conducive environment for fast technology learning firms.…”