The Culture

Environment
TOPIC 5
 At the end of the lesson, the
student shall be able to:
• Define culture and identify the four
characteristics of culture that companies
Learning doing business abroad need to recognize.
Objectives: • Name several elements of culture.
• Distinguish among the cultural dimensions
proposed by Hofstede and Trompenaars.
• Describe the cultural aspects of doing
business in various countries, including East
Asian Countries and Arab Countries.
Introduction:

• As a Business Management student,

what do you need to know when
planning to sell a product or services
in foreign countries?
Defining Culture and Its Characteristics
CULTURE “learned behavior; a way of life for one group of people living in a
single, related, and independent community”.

Four Characteristics of Culture

• First, culture is not inherited.
• Second, it is nearly impossible to change an entire country’s culture; culture is relatively static and
not easily modified.
• Third, it is the responsibility of the global firm to ascertain the level of importance of various aspects
of culture in the foreign markets it serves and recognize these aspects when doing business
overseas.
• Fourth, companies’ operation, chiefly marketing and management, need to recognize and adjust
to the cultural environment existing in the countries the global company serves.

Acculturation is the term used to describe the ability of a firm to adjust to a

culture different from its own.
Elements of Culture

Manners
Values and
Language Religion and
Attitudes
Customs

Material Social
Aesthetics Education
Elements Institution
Language

• is important to managers
when evaluating
employees, communicating
on an intra-company basis
with overseas divisions, and
helping to interpret the
circumstances in which
language occurs.
• is also crucial when
providing access to local
markets through advertising.
Language
• Verbal Communication – a
message’s actual contents
• Non-verbal communication – tone
of voice, gestures, eye contact,
body positions, facial expression and
other body languages that
accompanies verbal
communication.
Religion
Values and Attitudes
 • The way society does
• It affect both the management and
marketing operations of a company.

Manners and
Customs
Discussion Question: In general, is gift giving
appropriate?
Material Elements

• Material culture is often a direct result of technology.

• Demonstrated by economic infrastructure – transportation,
energy and communication
• Social Infrastructure – housing, medical services and
educational institutions
• Financial Infrastructure – banks
• Marketing infrastructure - marketing research and
advertising forms
Aesthetics Education
• Color • The level of education
held by people in foreign
• Form
countries is a major in
• Music explaining growth.
(taste and beauty as
perceived by a society)
 Refer to the way people relate to one another
within group settings in a society.

• Examples: Families, churches, workplaces and friends

Social Reference groups – groups that are important

to you as sociologists stated. It can be those
Institutions people are already a member or those to
which people aspire to belong.

Social stratification – groups at the top of the

social pyramid exert a great deal of control
over others at lower levels of the pyramid.
Clustering Countries and
Regions by culture
Hofstede’s Research
Trompenaars’s Cultural Dimension
The GLOBE
Project
• Global Leadership and
Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness
• Surveying 61 different
countries about 9 cultural
dimensions
The GLOBE Project
Discussion
Question:
WHERE DO YOU THINK WE CAN
SOURCE CULTURAL INFORMATION?
Cultural Dimensions of
conducting business in
Individual Countries
Your Turn!
EXPLAIN WHY IS CULTURE IMPORTANT IN
GLOBAL MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING.