Business Information Provision for Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises in China. The Application of Marketing Models
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435129410071363 |
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| Pages | 16-23 |
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
| Author | Margaret Kinnell,John Feather,Graham Matthews |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Context
The Study
The study reported in this article forms part of a
three-year co-operative project being undertaken
by the Department of Information and Library
Studies, Loughborough University, and the
Institute of Scientific and Technical Information
of China (ISTIC), which was founded in 1956 as
an agency of the State Science and Technology
Commission to provide a focus for science and
technology information policy. The project, which
is funded by the British Council through its
Academic Links with China Scheme, began in
1993 and has as its main aims:
(1) To investigate the need for, and provision of,
information services to small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs) in China.
(2) To analyse the results of such investigations
and to make proposals for the improvement
and development of services.
(3) To determine the requirements for the
implementation of such proposals, including
technology and expertise transfer from the
UK to China.
(4) To implement the proposals under controlled
conditions and to evaluate the results.
Essentially, therefore, the purpose of the project is
to develop methods for marketing information
services to SMEs in China, using the marketing
concept in its broadest sense: the design, delivery,
pricing and promotion of services to meet the
needs of the market. Those marketing models
being applied by library and information
managers in the UK are of growing interest
among information professionals in China and
provided much of the theoretical underpinning for
the project design.
With the growth of a consumer-driven
economy in China, a consumerist movement
which has some parallels in the situation in
Western economies in the 1950s and 1960s, a
managerial approach rather than a product
orientation is beginning to emerge. Theodore
Levitt’s definitive analysis of failed industries
proposed that declining or defunct businesses
were in this state because they were product-
rather than customer-oriented[1], a situation now
being faced by businesses in the former command
economies of Eastern Europe as well as those in
China. Consumers in these countries are
increasingly demanding higher quality in their
LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
16
Business Information
Provision for Small and
Medium-sized Enterprises in
China
The Application of Marketing Models
Margaret Kinnell, John Feather and Graham Matthews
Library Management, Vol. 15 No. 8, 1994, pp. 16-23
© MCB University Press, 0143-5124
The authors would like to thank their colleagues from
ISTIC and the State Science and Technology
Commission who have collaborated on the project:
Han Li, Jiao Junwu, Zhao Yangling, Chen Jugeng.
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