Lifestyle > Train of Thought
my brother, don rizzle, virtouso!...any other academic or intelligent cats!
LyRiCaL_G:
yo this the last time i come in here asking y'all to expand my knowledge and help me out....trust me mang, LAST TIME! i hope I am not making y'all mad, but this is my last and most important project....got hella stuff to do on it...
Anyways the question is about international business and culture....
the question is "how important is the role of culture within global expansion?"
I am doing this hella long project on this and i got some theories and stuff but i need some true knowledge, a catalyst...something to move me forward...some info to get some gas into this project....kinda like how don rizzle gave me examples of protectionism.....
yo i just need anything mang....how important is culture? national culture...work culture....anything mang...what should be considered when expanding globally...with regards to culture....whos work should i use as examples.....yo its all good if y'all aint got much i aint asking y'all to do my work....i just need help and i am not ashamed to ask for it...and i know some of y'all in here know stuff about this considering some of the stuff y'all post in here!haha....
but on the real y'all....help me out one last time!
if its the smallest of info or if its soo much i have a spend a day reading it! its all good and appreciated!
Please!haha....last project....final part of the puzzle for a brother to come good!
haha...
anyways if y'all got anything for me on the topic....drop some info please.......
importance of culture....culture models or some stuff....what should be considered....what type of culture....the positives and negatives of cultural factors within business and expansion...anything else....its all good y'all
thanks y'all
pz........
Elevz:
Ha! You really are taking these projects seriously, and that's mad cool! +1
About culture... Shit, where to start? I'm a student for this (communication: blending the psychological theories with the reality of influencing all kinds of people), but I don't have a clue where to start on international culture...
Basically, you can globally divide peoples cultures into four kinds. There's we-cultures and I-cultures, and they too can be divided into roughly and tightly meshed cultures. In short, these gradations of meshedness define how strict a culture's rules are. Tightly meshed cultures have plenty of unwritten laws that are to be strictly obeyed. They leave little room for personal freedom - that's something these people don't hold tightly onto (ie. Africa and Asia) . Roughly meshed cultures are basically the opposite: there's a lot of individual freedom and not a lot of unwritten laws (ie. North America, Northwest Europe and Australia). We-cultures and I-cultures are based on the aim of importance of the individual in the group process; it's pretty much self explanatory.
If you want me to, I can get pretty deep into the values and reasoning guiding these cultures, as well as defining certain parts of the world more precisely. Thing is, all of this is 'globally accurate', but of course, in roughly meshed cultures the individuals may differ a lot, as does the way they are to be handled. At the same time, tightly meshed cultures require an extremely accurate approach.
As for the influence of culture on global expansion.. Advertising agencies know damn well: in certain situations you can perfectly use one and the same advertising campaign all over the world without having to adapt it to local cultures. A perfect example of this comes from these Coca Cola Christmas advertisements: because of globalism and a growing sense for American values across the world, people all over the world enjoy these ads and they're perfectly able to put it in the right frame of mind. This has enabled Coca Cola to maintain one specific image globally.
At the same time, companies like McDonalds do need specific strategies when approaching people all over the world: someone in Indonesia looks differently at a hamburger than someone in Iceland or Costa Rica.
Anyway, some aspects to take into consideration when judging cultures internationally:
Basic values
What's the nature of mankind?
What's the relationship between individuals?
What motivates people?
How do people feel about their connection to their environment?
What's the relation between man and the supernatural?
Collectivism versus individualism?
Specific versus diffuse
Hierarchy and respect
Particularism versus universalism
Neutral versus emotional
Prestations versus commitment
Feminine versus masculine
Avoidance of uncertainties
Personal space and private territory
Thoughts on past, present and future
Time orientation
Short term verus long term thinking
Conflict handling
Relativating
I know this is a lot to take into consideration, and the theories behind it can be confusing and complicating at times. So if you have any questions about any of this: I'm sure I can help you out, so feel free to ask for further explanations!
Don Rizzle:
This is not really my area so I can't be as helpful as before but the post above is pretty good. but off the top my head I remember reading last year I think the mens magazine FHM or one of them launched in India and it caused them alot of trouble because of content (ie women with no clothes on), but it was all a bit of a hypocracy because there were already indian mags which should the same stuff or even more, however they hadn't recieved the same publicity - this maybe an interesting one to talk about if you can find out about how they are doing now. It may turn out that all the contreversy helped promote the magazine which is quite often the case.
one thing recently which has crossed cultural boundaries is pop idol pretty much every country has their own version, infact in siberia when it is on crime rates actually drop because so many people watch it.
I used to work for JPMorgan which is a global investment bank, they would put alot of money into activities to encourage people to socialise with the colleagues out of work to build better relationships, they were usually heavily family focused too, also they would send you to meet the people who you work with but are based in other countries in order to build better relationships and understand each other better, it was all part of a fusing process to make you act as one even thoough you are physically seperated. all this would go toward creating a global culture rather than an us and them culture.
Oh yes another example to look into i just thought of was i think DaimlerChrysler last year their americanchief economist was critcising the move towards greener cars thinking big 4x4 etc. will come back into fashion while their german counterparts were particularly enthusiastic about making greener cars, what do you do about this clash of cultural attitudes when you own a global business??
just found a link to the story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6247371.stm
Don Rizzle:
maybe it was indonesia not india http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-04-05T143400Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-293244-1.xml
virtuoso:
Jesus this is such a multi faceted question where to start...well firstly I think you need to have a clear definition in your mind of what culture is and then you can expand out from that. Here is a good quote which basically encapsulates what culture is about and you should probably use this quote within your assignment English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871. Tylor said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."
However I think though this a good starting block it only skims the surface in terms of understanding.
1. You also need to consider the upbringing of these people in terms of their lifestyle
2. In terms of what messages been instilled into them
3. In terms of their conformity
4. What drives these people
5. Are they are a collection of individuals or are they primarily an easily identifiable group?
6. what are their needs (Hierarchy of needs)
7. Is the culture stagnant or is it ever changing
8. How will people interpret messages
9. What effect will language have on their understanding
10. How will the marketing mix be affected
11. How does religion affect these people lives? What is their religion, are they secular.
12. Has the culture reached a level of conformity or is the culture unique? i.e. if the country has been so called Americanised then the culture has reached a level of conformity, similarly though an Islamic culture resists such culture.
13. Personal sensitivities
14. Social sensitivities
15. Is the culture deeply rooted in isolationism or does it embrace other cultures. I should probably elaborate on this a little because it does sound very ambiguous lol. Basically is there a culture to support and thereby protect national business and resist outside businesses.
16. How will legislation affect how a product or service can be sold, what products can be sold, will the product have to be modified?
17. Language barriers
18. When considering knowledge it's not purely from a customer point of view you also need to consider knowledge when focusing on the skills base...at this point you could i guess think about it in terms of manufacturing, in terms of skilled I.T etc. For example the culture outsourcing has become prominent because there is a ready made labour supply who are much cheaper than their western counterparts and already have the skills for the job. For an example you might want to look at stats for the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and for that matter I.T.
Basically I think you need to try and take all of the points that have been noted so far and try and branch out from them, consider the impact, the implications, the opportunities, the problems that arise from that.
P.S I realise this becomes quite heavy in depth but if it helps try and relate all of the points that have been raised alongside the 8p's of the marketing mix Product, Price Philosophy Promotion Place, People Physical Evidence Processes.
Here is a link which gives you a very brief summary of each of the above http://members.aol.com/volsector/market.htm however I would recommend that you only use this to give yourself a rough idea and then hit the library to find some books which cover the marketing mix in much more depth. By the way no need to apologise for asking for help business studies, marketing etc is a bitch lol.
Hope this helps.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version