A marketing perspective on the rise of China: monopoly, politics and value

Abstract

As researchers in the social sciences seek an understanding of the spectacular rise of China, the seemingly counterintuitive stance of an autocratic regime attaining such sustained economic performance challenges multiple analytical frames. The relatively ponderous responses of the United States and Europe to recent global conditions, and the democratic uprisings in Arabic states, further represent a glaring contrast. While the marketing literature is rich in the particulars of specific management issues in the China market, no analysis from the discipline has attempted to provide a broad, distinctly marketing contribution to the China phenomenon. Choice is a fundamental construct underpinning theories of politics, economics and marketing, though it is notably absent from Chinese politics. The changing relationship between markets, business and government reveals a question that is clearly important to marketers, and China is a challenging boundary case for marketing management.

Keywords:

• marketing management
• political marketing
• China
• monopoly

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neil Collins

Neil Collins is Professor of Government and Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. He is a past president of the Political Studies Association of Ireland and a former Centennial Scholar at the American Political Science Association in Washington DC. He is the author of several books, including Understanding Chinese Politics, Manchester University Press, 2013.

Patrick Butler

Patrick Butler is Associate Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Executive MBA programmes at Melbourne Business School. Formerly at the School of Business Studies at Trinity College Dublin, he has been a Visiting Professor at Senshu University, Tokyo and has taught and presented in China, the United States and Europe. His research on marketing strategy and public management has been published in international books and journals.