International Business

CIA- 1
Article Review

Cultural Imperialism due to International Business

Cultural International
Imperalism Business

Aashish Mishra (1820602)

 Cultural Imperialism due to International Business
Culture can be of two type one is the business culture and another one is the societal culture
and there is no doubt that societal culture highly influence the business culture. Culture plays
an important role in business. In other words culture influence the buying behaviour of the
people. Each and every company today wants to go international and enjoy the benefits of the
international market. Anyhow, a company cannot be successful if it doesn’t known about the
influencing factors of international business. One of the major factor influencing international
business is “culture”.

For Instance: McDonald’s when came to India could not sell their famous pork and beef
burgers as it is against the cultural sentiments of majority of people. We can see how
McDonald’s has to change their product type and other marketing strategies due to cultural
influence present in India. Therefore we can say that there is a direct impact of culture on
international business. When companies goes international they should first hand do an
extensive analysis on whether their product is suitable according to cultural belief or not of the
foreign country market they are trying to expand. Anyhow, culture also have positive effects
in context to international business.

Culture actually helps global and multi-national companies to advance to the final stage of
being called as “Transnational Company”. In other words due to culture influence of different
nation a global or multi-national companies have to change its product range and type to satisfy
the need of different cultural backgrounds of people across the globe. Further I will analyse
four different articles from renowned journals to understand this complex relationship of
culture and international business.
Article 1: Culture study in international marketing: a critical review
and suggestions for future research

Author: Attila Yaprak School of Business Administration, Wayne State University, Detroit,
Michigan, USA

Personal Analysis:

This article revolves around the concept of how culture influence the marketing strategy of
companies. Different culture markets according to author Attila Yaprak requires different
marketing strategies. The author talks about the practice of analysing culture before expanding
has its roots back in 1980’s. He defines culture as “the values, beliefs, norms, and behavioural
patterns of a national group” and House et al.’s (2004) definition as “embedded values (the
way things should be done) and practices (the way things are done) in a society”.

This article implications leads to a deeper understanding of culture’s role in targeting,

segmentation, and positioning and strategy formulation by scholars and managers of
international marketing. The author praises the traditional concept of market culture study done
by Leung but also bring out the shortcomings of the old concept and brings in the modify
concept where he talks about how different approaches of studying the market from cultural
aspect should be done. According to this article this study will help us to understand how we
might be able to combine two or more cultures into cross-cultural teams, to come up with a
unique new product development and launch.

We also learn about how culture is being shaped and reshaped by environmental changes,
western culture is taking over eastern culture all over the globe and major participants of
international market is foreign companies thus we can say that it is a positive sign as they can
target more number of people who follow and belief in similar kind of tradition and similar
lifestyle. Therefore it is very important for an organization to have a extensive study on the
culture of the market in which they are launching their products. Moreover culture cannot be
measured in number but can be understood with the ground level research. In conclusion, this
article guide us through the importance of understanding culture and its variable changes going
on. It states that there is a direct relationship between culture and international business.
Article 2: When culture shapes international business
Author: Andreea Apetrei , Nadem Ishaq Kureshi , Ioana Alexandra Horodnic

Personal Analysis:

The author has given a different term called as regionalization instead for internalization. The
reason behind this is culture. According to the article culture helps organization to adapt and
standardize to different markets of various nations. In the article they talk about two different
method of adaptation: adaptation by indifference and adaptation by submission. Two cases to
explain this concepts are given below:

• Adaptation by indifference defines the strategy of entrepreneurs who delegate authority

to local employees, thereby adapting their companies to the local culture. The English
entrepreneur in Romania expounds this strategy.
• Adaptation by submission refers to the need to adapt to local culture. The case of an
English entrepreneur in Spain exemplifies this approach. The entrepreneur reports that
he adapts well to the Spanish culture by learning Spanish, being aware of religious
issues, and respecting all major holidays. He organizes his activities according to the
Spanish working day. As a strategic move, he tries to bond with customers because he
is aware of the importance of doing so when doing business in Spain.

In my understanding from this article companies who deal with local customers of other nation,
adaptation to the environment is essential for success. But according to the authors this
adaptation is not necessary for all the sectors. For Instance: It sector doesn’t have to adapt a lot
according to culture. Its working structure remain same indifference of culture influence. The
article also briefly focus on the importance of political factors that influence the success of
international business. In conclusion I would say conflict arises between personal cultural
values and local culture, but as an organization you should always come up with a solution and
ensure that customers be of any culture are satisfied with your product or service. Once again
we can see that the importance of understanding different culture is essential for any
organization who wants to go international or are already enjoying the benefits of international
market to sustain.
Article 3: The past is prologue: Moving on from Culture’s
Consequences
Author: Timothy M. Devinney and Jan Hohberger

Personal Analysis:

This article focus on the difficulties while measuring the cultural impact on international
business but also explains how culture research is important for understanding international
market and its potential. The article talks about the importance of cultural research for
organization to grow in international market. The author brings out one of the most uncertain
chance of error while understanding the culture of market. The author says that there are high
chances of ignoring individual level preference as compared to combined perspective under
the tag of culture as a whole.

In other words, When culture is measured at the group level (such as Hofstede, Schwartz, and
Globe do), the assumption is that all that matters is the mean of the group and, to some degree,
the variance across individuals. What is assumed is that the variance within any individual is
not consequential. The article arises the need of new model and methods to analyse the cultural
aspect of the market. It states that perhaps it is time to begin rethinking how we conceptualize
and measure culture and push for a more radical series of approaches in doing so.

In conclusion, this article, examines the theoretical and empirical understanding of culture
within the international business In my perspective, I believe its time that the study and use of
culture in the international business field has become stuck in a theoretical and methodological
rut and more radical thinking is necessary if we are going to advance beyond ‘‘more of the
same’’ science that simply reiterates repeatedly that that culture matters without any coherent
advancement of the key role that it plays in the international arena
Article 4: The propensity to bribe in international business: the
relevance of cultural variables
Author: Rajib Sanyal College of Business, Northern Michigan University, Marquette,
Michigan, USA, and Turgut Guvenli College of Business, Minnesota State University,
Mankato, Minnesota, USA

Personal Analysis:

This article full fill the purpose to examine the extent to which national cultural characteristics
impact the propensity of firms based in the country to engage in bribery to gain advantages
when conducting business overseas. From the results we can observe that the firms from
countries low on power distance or long-term orientation, or high on individualism, are less
likely to engage in bribe giving. However, when the level of economic development in the
home country as measured by per capita income is included, the impact of cultural factors is
muted considerably. Firms from high-income countries are less likely to give bribes.

According to the article, bribery is less a cultural phenomenon and illustrative of business
behaviour occurring in a highly regulated and inward-looking economy. As a country prospers
and the domestic operating environment becomes more hygienic, it will have a salutary effect
on the international behaviour of the firms based in that country. The study of article mediates
the debate between cultural and economic determinism and provides empirical evidence that
bribe-giving is largely an expression of economic imperatives and not cultural predisposition.

In conclusion, from this article although it seems that bribery is not influenced by culture of
people of that nation and rather fully depended on the economical structure. But anyhow
according to my perspective bad culture also play an indirect role in encouragement of bribery,
whereas good culture opposes the unethical system of bribery. Thus one should also take into
consideration of cultural aspect while working to find a permanent solution to the unethical
bribery going on in the international market.
 Comparative Analysis and conclusion from all the four articles

These of the following are my brief understanding from all the four articles
above:

• There is a direct relationship between culture and international business.

Culture does influence international business.

• Culture has both positive and negative effect on international business.

• Culture understanding is a must for organization who wants to go

international.

• The traditional ways of researching the impact of culture on international

business needs to be updated.

• Research on the relationship of culture and international business is a must

to formulate future strategy and scholar should focus on the same.

• Bribery can be a cultural influence so a nation must work towards building

a positive culture which will further attracts organization to come into the

market of that country.

• Understanding culture helps organization easily adapt to the new market.

• Different culture among different nation might result into conflicts and

result to trade wars or political conflicts and further affect the international

business. For Instance: US-CHINA trade war.

 Reference

• Yaprak, Attila. (2008). Culture study in international marketing: A critical

review and suggestions for future research. International Marketing
Review - INT MARK REV. 25. 10.1108/02651330810866290.

• Apetrei, Andreea & Kureshi, Nadeem & Horodnic, Ioana. (2015). When
culture shapes international business. Journal of Business Research. 68.
10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.01.044.

• Devinney, Timothy & Hohberger, Jan. (2016). The Past is Prologue:

Moving on from Culture’s Consequences. Journal of International
Business Studies. 48. 10.1057/s41267-016-0034-z.

• Sanyal, Rajib & Guvenli, Turgut. (2009). The propensity to bribe in

international business: The relevance of cultural variables. Cross Cultural
Management: An International Journal. 16. 287-300.
10.1108/13527600910977364.