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This paper describes the experimental use of IMP interaction concepts as (i) a basis for teaching marketing to Russian construction managers and (ii) a research tool for understanding their attitudes to marketing under the command economy and in the current period of transition. These experiences, stemming from close management education involvements with the Russian construction industry suggest that marketing is (a) a particularly difficult management practice for Russian managers to understand and apply, and (b) perceived to be chiefly relevant for Russian firms dealing with Western ones (ie not with other Russian firms.) Although Russian managers do see business development in relationship terms, interaction concepts do not fit in with their experiences in the Soviet period nor seem to allay their general post-socialist misconceptions of marketing. The paper provides an explanation for these findings and concludes that the biggest factor hindering marketing development in Russia is not so much the unsophisticated approach to customer orientation as a serious misunderstanding of the role of information exchange in buyer-seller interactions in marketeconomy conditions.

Considerable insights into Japanese marketing behaviour, especially in its international dimesions, are to be gained by looking at the networking characteristics of Japanese firms. Attention is paid first to the role of networks in Japanese society, then to networks and business development in Japan. Some space is devoted to explaining the content of the Japanese word for 'network'. This sets the scene for a broad characterisation of Japanese international networking behaviour. A typology classifies firms' approaches to international markets as 'frontiersmen', 'social climbers' and 'band-wagonners'. The article concludes with a plea for empirical studies in two main areas: first, studies of the business-social networking behaviour of Japanese managers; second, investigations into the network governance of internationally operating Japanese industrial firms.

An examination of the concept of international!sation in the Japanese business context reveals some unexpected factors which have a great bearing on our understanding of the international behaviour of Japanese corporations. This paper will examine some of these key culture-specific factors including Japanese qualms about themselves as cross-cultural communicators, their visions of 'West-eclipsing' economic and technological grandeur, their sense of uniqueness, and uncertainties about handling relationships with non-Japanese employees. It is argued that these factors will inhibit Japanese companies from achieving 'true' internationalisation for the foreseeable future and that the term 'ethnocentric globalism' best describes Japanese endeavours so far.

A major redefinition of marketing is evolving. This is due in no small way to the global impact of Japanese marketing practices, which still mystify Western theorists and practitioners of marketing. This paper argues that what is still lacking is the capacity to understand what exactly is Japanese about Japanese marketing. To meet this challenge, the IMP Interaction Approach will be used as a basis for highlighting the specifically Japanese features of buyer-seller relationships involving Japanese firms. As well as examining culture-specific phenomena such as exchange-ceremony, obligation and sincerity, the paper discusses how seemingly more general factors such as internationalisation, dynamism or control are associated with distinctive attributes in the Japanese context. It is concluded that the Interaction Approach provides a flexible framework for describing Japanese buyer-seller activity, provided that its variables and elements are reworked or 'reperceived' to take account of Japanese conditions