Case  descriptions

The table 7 summarizes the cases used for this research, and the data collection method.

Hereafter the case companies and organizations are elaborated in context of Chinese business and Chinese social media. The internationalization process is also revealed.

Additionally, the experience and expertise of the respondent is revealed. Three of the case companies interview use social media independently for the purposes of their own operations, one is working globally as a non-profit marketing organization for a regional wine industry through social media agency in China. From the benchmark cases, another one is a provider of social media services for both western and Chinese clients and is considered as an expertise interview and a benchmark case. Another benchmark case – governmental office, operates its social media sites independently with high success.

Case A.

The company is a Finland-based energy and environmental technology company. They have production both in Finland and China. Case A company had the first exporting activities in China in mid-1990s and own factory was set up in 2003.

Interviewee: General Manager of the Chinese business unit, more than two years of business experience in China. Holds personal Chinese social media accounts, company’s social media is taken care by the marketing director. The company holds social media accounts in Sina Weibo and WeChat.

Case B.

A French wine communication and marketing organization promotes the French wines on global basis at three different types of markets: mature, high potential and emerging markets. In their categorization China belongs to the emerging markets and currently 0.4% of the export sales of the Case B’s products come from Chinese market. They utilize an external, international social media agency for their Chinese social media operations.

Interviewee: Export Assistant, responsible for Export Communications in Canada and Asia. The agency taking care of the Case B’s social media runs accounts in Sina Weibo and WeChat.

Case C.

Case C is a Finnish producer and seller of products for ecological farming and green area management as well as environmental products. They have a subsidiary in China, set up in 2008. The Chinese business has had two important areas: Importing products for professional Chinese clients and manufacturing of products for exporting from China to Europe. They sell straight for end customers but mainly operate on business-to-business basis. In China, the importance of sourcing activities has lately decreased and the grab a foothold at the Chinese market has taken a bigger role.

Interviewee: More than twenty years of working history in the company in different positions. From 2010 to 2014 the interviewee lead the Case C’s subsidiary in China, currently works as a managing director of a parent company’s branch in Finland. During the interviewee’s time in China the company made strategic decisions to put more effort on Chinese market in terms of capturing more market size and to create brand awareness at the market. Interviewee holds personal social media accounts, company’s social media is taken care by the marketing staff. The company holds social media accounts in QQ and WeChat.

Case D.

Case D represents a Pan-European company focusing on domain business in China.

They hold a global business license for their operations but are currently waiting for an accreditation from Chinese governmental organization to fully start Chinese operations.

They got the global license in early 2014, opened a representative office in fall 2014.

Interviewee: CEO and partner. Interviewee holds a personal social media account in China, company’s social media will be taken care by the marketing staff. The company holds social media accounts in Sina Weibo and WeChat but the usage has been very narrow due to the accreditation process.

Benchmark cases:

Case 1.

Case 1 was originally an American-Chinese joint venture formed in 2008. The American parent company was founded in the United States of America in mid-1990s. Currently the Case 1 company is independently earned and managed Chinese company. The reason why they were picked up for interviewee for this research was the western roots but also the business field: they serve roughly 200 clients and take care of their social media operations as well. In the beginning they were purely focused on search engine optimization but during the years the demand for other digital services, including social media, has increased.

Interviewee: International Business Development Director. Personal experience to work with many western clients in the case company, as well as in other social media agencies for many years.

Case 2.

Another benchmark case holds as well a great Chinese social media experience.

European country’s presence in Chinese social media has been pretty strong due to their marketing efforts. Due to long presence in China, western origins and successful social media presence, the embassy was chosen as one of the interviews to find out the best practices how to create success stories in Chinese social media.

Interviewee: Counselor, responsible of press and culture. In charge of the embassy’s communication in all of the channels. In cooperation with assistant, they take care of the social media accounts that are set up to promote and make the country visible.

Experienced in communications in China since 2001 in different duties.

Table 7. Summary of the Cases in the context of Chinese business and social media.