Culturel distance: how is it defined, how is it measured, and what is its relevace to global marketers

Cultural Distance and the Global Marketers

Definition of Culture

Culture is the interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influence a group 's response to its surroundings (Hofstede 1980 , 19

Culture may be reflected in universal tendencies of persistent preference for particular states of affairs over others , persistent preferences for specific social processes over other and general rules for interpretation of environmental cues , selective attention and responses (Tse . D , Lee K . Vertinsky I Wehrung D . 1998 , 82

Introduction

It is generally known that culture may provide thorough prescriptions (norms ) for specific

classes of situations while leaving other spheres relatively unregulated . National and ethnic cultures are thus distinguished in their degree of regulation of attitudes , behaviour and values , the domain of regulation , and the consistency and clarity of regulation and forbearance of other cultures

Culture influences attributions , values and emotions , which in turn influence the perception of product and service attributes . It is well known that ethics influence the importance to product attributes and culture-specific elements have been identified in the content and organization of values . Culture has been shown to influence attributions in explaining real-life events . Culture is the basic viewpoint and values cherished by a society as a whole and handed down from one generation to the subsequent generations

The world has become a global village and the increasing globalization of economic activities in recent years has extended opportunities for the marketing of goods and services abroad . As foreign markets become more and more important contributors to an organisation...