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This paper provides an overview of transition strategy, focusing specifically on the Chinese business world, where the common practice is for founders to pass their companies on to their children, the younger generation. This paper describes how Chinese businesses are invariably adopting the western-style management practice of instituting the various offices of chairman, chief executive officer, president, etc. primarily because the children of those founding fathers have been mostly sent to the USA, the UK and Canada to receive higher education. This paper concludes that these second-generation operating managers have essentially transformed their business environments with great success, modernizing the Asian business community as a whole and competing effectively with the western world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Country-of-origin (COO) effects are concerned with buyers' opinions regarding the relative qualities of goods and services produced in various countries. It is the aim of this study to test a framework for investigating the match/mismatch between consumers' product category and country image perceptions. Specifically, the paper seeks to examine whether consumers perceive all products emanating from a particular country favourably simply because consumers associate favourable attributes with that country or whether this effect is specific to particular product categories. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a structured survey administered through mall intercepts. Data were collected from a sample of 188 Australian consumers. While Australian consumers were the focal country of study, countries selected for evaluation included Japan, Korea, the USA, Canada, China and New Zealand. The products selected included beer, automobiles, watches, leather shoes and stereos. Findings – The findings suggest that when a strong favourable match exists between country and product image then COO will positively influence product evaluation and willingness to buy. Conversely, when an unfavourable mismatch is evident COO would negatively influence consumers' product evaluations and willingness to buy. Originality/value – Given that most products originating in foreign countries are subject to country stereotyping or image effects, it is important for marketers and retailers to understand and manage the potential impact of COO effects. This study tests a framework that can be applied by marketers to determine the effect of product and country matches in relevant domestic or international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper's aim is to analyze changes in the relative importance of Canada as a supplier for its home markets; and, the rising importance of China versus other Canadian trading partners. Design/methodology/approach The market overlap measure (MOM) statistic, developed by Sawchuk and Yerger is used to analyze the Canadian home market shares for Canada and every other nation with sales in the Canadian market for each of 61 different NAIC sectors (56 at the four-digit NAIC level and five at the three-digit NAIC level). Findings The USA remains the most important foreign supplier to Canadian markets with a weighted average 23.6 percent market share as of 2003 (Canadian-based production having a 63.0 percent market share), US market share, however, has been declining by nearly a percentage point per year since 2000. Approximately, half of the lost US' market share has been captured by Canadian-based firms and approximateIy a quarter has been captured by Chinese production. China's growth in Canadian market share places it second behind only the USA in terms of Canadian-based farms' home market competitive exposure. Research limitations/implications - The work does not include an analysis of service sector trade flows due to inadequate data. Practical implications The MOM statistic is shown to be a useful diagnostic tool for analyzing the level of, trends in, and industries driving the competitive exposure a nation's firms have on sales in a specified market. Originality/value The MOM statistic is shown to yield better insights regarding the actual degree of competitive exposure than does the more commonly used similarity indices such as Finger-Kreinen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: It has generally been anticipated that the growth of Internet technology and e-commerce would result in virtual grocery shopping (VGS) becoming a normal way of life for consumers worldwide. However, the adoption of VGS, except in China and other Asian countries, has been quite slow and there is little understanding for this reason. Using Canada as a research context, the purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of consumers towards VGS with a focus on their technological readiness and the impact of the optimisation of consumer learning. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative research methodology was undertaken using cluster analysis with descriptive statistics to segment the different groups of consumers from a sample of 1,034 adult respondents. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was then used to test a theoretical model for consumers' intention to adopt VGS. Findings: The study found that the attitudes of consumers towards virtual shopping, convenience motivation, perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived risk and consumer learning are all factors that impact consumers' intention to adopt virtual food shopping. The research also identified four segments of consumers in the Canadian market based on their attitudes and intention to adopt VGS. These results allow grocers to target the consumer groups favourable to VGS and provide insights on the factors that can be manipulated via marketing strategies to reach these consumers. Practical implications: Retailers are provided with insights on consumers behaviour that will allow them to target specific segments with shopping modalities. Originality/value: This research investigated VGS, focussing on consumer learning as a socio-cultural influence as well as the consumer's technological readiness as an intention to adopt to this modality of shopping for food. These constructs have not been investigated by previous studies on food grocery shopping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]