| Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are less structured than large corporations. SMEs are lacking in resources, are usually owned by a single owner or family, and favor a "firefighting" style of management. Because of their limitations, SMEs adopt different strategies in selecting communication channels and cultivating relationships to survive. This study, therefore, focuses on how SMEs stay competitive with their limited resources. In addition, the unique relationships between the Hong Kong SMEs and their mainland Chinese business partners provide distinct business and cultural contexts, and therefore, Hong Kong SMEs were chosen for this study.;This exploratory study adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to examine the following relationships among the proposed variables: (a) the correlations among the Hong Kong entrepreneurs' personal characteristics, their communication media preferences, and their relationship cultivation strategies; (b) the correlations between the SMEs' organizational characteristics, the entrepreneurs' communication media preferences, and their relationship cultivation strategies; (c) the correlations between their perceived relationship quality, their communication media preferences, and relationship cultivation strategies, and; (d) the predictive power of all these variables for perceived relationship quality; and (e) the SMEs' subsequent financial performance.;This study adopted a quantitative survey questionnaire method to collect data from the Hong Kong SMEs, which consisted of eight industry types, and was supplemented with qualitative, in-depth interviews with 10 Hong Kong SME entrepreneurs. The survey questionnaire was conducted mainly through a random sampling from a published SME membership data set and was supplemented by a convenience sampling method via email invitations, industry-related organization invitations, and the distribution of questionnaires at the Hong Kong SME Expo. The final valid samples consisted of 323 Hong Kong SMEs that have business relations with mainland China.;Four industry types---including garment, manufacturing, service, and trading and logistics---were selected for analysis and were tested for their differences. This study found that there were major differences among these four industry types in communication media preferences and relationship cultivation strategies. This study also successfully created a new variable, guanxi importance, and a new relationship cultivation strategy, gao guanxi. They were found to be significantly correlated with the Hong Kong entrepreneurs' communication media preferences and relationship cultivation strategies, respectively. In addition, a new three-dimensional variable of perceived relationship quality (i.e., long-term relationships, information sharing, and satisfaction with the relationship) was created that is particularly suitable for SME studies. However, only the long-term relationship dimension was found to be significant and positive in contributing to the Hong Kong SME's financial performance.;Finally, this study found that significant predictors of perceived relationship quality were gender, appropriate disclosure and articulation from communicative adaptability, three routine maintenance strategies: the sharing of tasks, access, and assurance together with one proactive guanxi development strategy: the gao guanxi strategy. Furthermore, this study also revealed that significant predictors of financial performance for Hong Kong SMEs were age, appropriate disclosure and articulation from communicative adaptability, company size, years of establishment, face-to-face (FtF) communication, and the long-term relationship dimension of perceived relationship quality. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations of the study, were discussed. |
