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China′s foreign trade and investment policies have appeared more attractive to Western marketers in recent years. China presents an opportunity for huge market potential and rapid growth for American multinational firms. However, Western marketers have only limited knowledge about Chinese purchasing decision making, particularly the supplier selection and evaluation criteria of Chinese purchasing managers. Highlights six key criteria of supplier selection and describes the responses of a sample of Chinese purchasing managers. Segments the respondents into three clusters, based on similarities in their supplier evaluation processes and differentiates these clusters in terms of whether the managers emphasize reliable deliveries, price/cost considerations, or product quality. While these findings are of a preliminary nature, they reveal that service/responsiveness of a supplier is not a high priority as opposed to purchasing managers in Western industrialized countries. As China moves rapidly towards a market economy, many Chinese purchasing managers will require suppliers to improve their responsiveness, given comparable levels of price and quality. An understanding of this transition will help Western marketers to enhance their market positions in China.

This research focuses on several important strategic concerns for multinational corporations (MNCs) which are exploring strategic alliances in the China market. The results suggest that multinational corporations need to assess and re-assess continuously the business conditions in China, in order to understand this market better and be successful in future business dealings with China, a market that still has great growth potential. The significant differences exist between Western MNCs’ executives and their Chinese counterparts. The results also suggest that MNCs should focus on joint venture partners’ marketing capabilities, and bridge the differences between the joint venture partners.

International marketing is an important topic in business education. However, the traditional lecture class is viewed as inadequate in delivering the topic because of its passive learning style and lack of realism. In this research we examine the effectiveness of an alternative approach to teaching international marketing that emphasizes experiential learning. The results of an empirical investigation show that experiential learning provides the students with better benefits on acquiring various skills and competences in international marketing. The findings shed light on how to invigorate business education with innovative alternatives.