Executive Insights: Global Business Exchanges—Similarities and Differences around the World

Abstract

Because cultures differ at a fundamental level, the knowledge, experience, and ability to conduct business successfully in one culture does not necessarily transfer to another. Learning and mastering the cultural nuances of every cultural group in the world is an ideal goal in the global marketplace, but not a realistic one. The Culture Classification Model examines cultural differences from a broad behavioral perspective and provides a framework for comparisons across groups. Each business exchange will be unique and may deviate from this model, but it provides a starting point when preparing for a business exchange with someone from another culture.

Examining Brand Equity Antecedent/Consequence Relationships

“…However, many do not achieve their desired levels of performance in these markets (Homburg et al 2002;Liu and McClure 2001). The disparate cultures that often exist in international markets are sometimes such that we should not assume that a Western fi rm's ability and experience in successfully conducting business in their domestic Western culture will readily transfer to foreign cultures (Homburg et al 2002;Schuster and Copeland 1999). Such studies are supported by scholars such as Erdem, Swait, and Valenzuela (2006), Ganesh, Arnold, and Reynolds (2000), and Liu and McClure (2001), who discuss the need for Western scholars to increasingly focus on studies beyond their own culture in order to strengthen the understanding of consumer behavior in cross-cultural settings.…”

Adolescent consumption autonomy: A cross-cultural examination

“…Schuster and Copeland (1999) in their cultural classification model suggest that the U.S. and France are generally parts of two culturally separate worlds: North American versus Central European. Hall and Hall (1990) describe the French as characteristically preoccupied with status, rank, and formality, characterized as high power distance, while the U.S., in contrast, is a low power distance country where people care about what other people say and think about them but are more casual in their interactions with individuals at different status levels (Hofstede, 1980).…”

Loyalty's influence on satisfaction in cross‐cultural settings

“…Developing an understanding of the best methods that assure a firm's customers are satisfied is an integral step in ensuring that an organization's marketing strategies in cross-cultural settings will be successful, thus leading to increased sales and profits (Homburg et al, 2002). Awareness of the need for such studies is heightened by our knowledge that many firms often do not achieve their desired financial results in foreign markets (Liu and McClure, 2001;Homburg et al, 2002) due to their failure to achieve sufficiently strong consumer satisfaction (Nakata and Sivakumar, 2001;Schuster and Copeland, 1995).…”