culture

Examples of culture in the following topics:

• Influenced by Overall Culture

  • Organizational leaders must also be cultural leaders and help facilitate the change from the two old cultures into the one new culture.
  • This is done through cultural innovation followed by cultural maintenance.
  • Cultural innovation includes:
  • Creating a new culture: recognizing past cultural differences and setting realistic expectations for change
  • Company culture is one of the key elements leading to success.

• The social/cultural environment

  • A number of factors constitute the international environment: social, cultural, political, legal, competitive, economic, plus technology.
  • Marketers who intend to market their products overseas may be very sensitive to foreign cultures.
  • Failure to consider cultural differences is one of the primary reasons for marketing failures overseas.
  • This task is not as easy as it sounds as various features of a culture can create an illusion of similarity.
  • A number of cultural differences can cause marketers problems in attempting to market their products overseas.

• Doing business across cultures

  • Installing cultural diversity training programs can help accomplish this by defining what cultural intelligence is, teaching employees to accept and work effectively with others from different cultural backgrounds, and taking advantage of advice from those who have cross-cultural experience.
  • Geert Hofstede, a leading expert in cultural values classification, developed a model of five dimensions of natural culture that help to explain basic value differences in culture.
  • Cultural values determine the way people think and behave.
  • Because language is a reflection of culture, some words cannot be cross-culturally translated, which implies that it is often better to have local copywriters write and translate marketing and advertising content to avoid cultural misunderstandings.
  • First, the concept of culture is defined, second, the various components of culture are identified, and third, vivid examples of cultural differences are provided.

• Cultural Barriers

  • It is typically more difficult to do business in a foreign country than in one's home country due to cultural barriers.
  • People from different cultures find it hard to communicate not only due to language barriers but also because of cultural differences.
  • The most recognized and utilized in the field is Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory, which encompasses six cultural deviations highly relevant to business managers.
  • PDI rating represents a stronger acceptance of authority in a given cultural
  • Explain how cultural differences can pose as barriers to international business

• Global marketing: assessing potential markets overseas

  • Each market has unique cultural characteristics and contextual circumstances that must be considered.
  • There are five essential areas within which culture must be continually studied in order to achieve success in dealing with culture as it affects international marketing.
  • Cross-cultural marketing occurs when a consumer's culture differs from that of the marketer's own culture.
  • This simple fact proves the importance of culture knowledge in cross-cultural marketing endeavors.
  • Cross-cultural marketing is defined as the strategic process of marketing among consumers whose culture differs from that of the marketer's own culture at least in one of the fundamental cultural aspects, such as language, religion, social norms and values, education, and the living style (Tian, 2008).

• Acculturation problems when buying companies

  • Every company develops its own culture from the moment it is founded.
  • If other companies are acquired in the course of planned growth processes, the company also takes on their "foreign" firm cultures.
  • The confrontation between two or more incompatible firm cultures makes acculturation essential.
  • The different cultures must be adapted to each other, or the growth of the entire company and its individual departments due to synergy effects is at stake.
  • The synthesis model consists of consciously giving up the old firm culture and creating a new one.

• Values, aesthetics, and time

  • The phrase, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a very appropriate description for the differences in aesthetics that exist between cultures.
  • Americans seem to be fanatical about time when compared to other cultures.
  • However, salespeople who set definite appointments for sales calls in the Middle East and Latin America will have a lot of time on their hands, as business people from both of these cultures are far less bound by time constraints.
  • To many of these cultures, setting a deadline such as "I have to know next week" is considered pushy and rude.

• Defining Diversity

  • A multicultural or diverse organization not only contains many different cultural groups, but it values this diversity.
  • Either model, however, requires an intentional implementation from top leadership for the organizational culture to truly be one of inclusion and acceptance.
  • In a journal article entitled "The Multicultural Organization", Taylor Cox, Jr. talks about three organization types that focus on the development of cultural diversity.
  • The plural organization has a more heterogeneous membership than the monolithic organization and takes steps to be more inclusive of persons from cultural backgrounds that differ from the dominant group.
  • The multicultural organization contains many different cultural groups and it highly values this diversity and encourages healthy conflict to avoid groupthink.

• Complications of Globalization

  • Other commonly raised concerns include damage to the environment, decreased food safety, unethical labor practices in sweatshops, increased consumerism, and the weakening of traditional cultural values.
  • In addition to concerns involving the environment and equality, the rise of a homogeneous consumerist culture is seen as weakening traditional cultures.
  • It is hypothesized that consumerism, where consumption largely exceeds necessity, will continue to accelerate because of expanding global trade and will continue to contribute to a homogeneous global culture that crowds out traditional cultures.
  • Minimizing damage through employing green strategies and protecting cultural integrity are also important strategies as countries continue to conduct more and more global trade.

• Discussion questions and references

  • What adjustments are necessary as you apply marketing principles to various cultures/countries?