Marketing and Non-Market Based Value Creation: Gifts and “Guanxi”

Abstract

This conceptual paper analyses the general role of long term, non-market based value creation as being fundamental to business ethics and also to marketing concepts in societies in the 21st century. A framework is provided that combines the monetary nature of value in market-based exchange and the more social and emotional nature of long-term relationships. Particular attention is given to gift giving and to business interactions based on personal relationships, as exemplified in the Chinese concept of, “guanxi”. It is argued that they constitute important forms of value creation in a broad range of societies.