AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

Examining Chinese Exhibitors' Motivation towards attending Exhibitions in the United States

by Yingchuan Wang




Institution: California State Polytechnic University – Pomona
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: Chinese exhibitor
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2134623
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/173521


Abstract

This research seeks to identify the underlying dimensions of the Chinese exhibitors??? motivations to attend exhibitions in the United States. Motivational items were identified from the previous literature and then examined by a pilot study with Chinese exhibitors and content-analyzed by a panel discussion with the exhibition organizers. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 1,080 Chinese exhibitors who had attended exhibitions in the United States. At the end of the survey, 314 usable responses were collected, from which five motivational dimensions were extracted using an exploratory factor analysis. These dimensions were the motivations related to sales, social interactions & networking, competition, incentives, and ???guanxi???, a Chinese version of relationship marketing. An independent sample t-test was then conducted to compare the motivations of the exhibitors attending exhibitions organized by United States organizers (destination exhibitions) and by Chinese organizers (outbound exhibitions). A one-way, between-subject analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the differences among exhibiting companies with different characteristics. The results of these tests showed significant differences in the participation motivations of different exhibitors; thus, this study provided managerial implications for exhibition organizers in both China and the United States. Advisors/Committee Members: Lee, Myong Jae (advisor), Lee, Patrick (committee member).