CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

International business is no longer the exclusive realm of the large multinational corporation; small businesses are creating marketing niches for themselves in particular product or service areas. Because of this greater interest in the global economy, companies which are seeking to build long-term strategic plans must consider whether or not international marketing is a critical part of those long-term plans. Included in that consideration is the culture of the destination market as well as the culture of the company considering the expansion. This research considers the internal and external cultural considerations that influence a multinational's success.

Multinational corporations are those companies which offer products or services in different countries throughout the world, adapting their products to the countries in which they are selling. Global companies are companies which operate with a high degree of consistency regardless of the country in which the operation occurs (Aizenman, 1994). At multinational companies, internal practices are also changed to reflect the environment of the various countries. The result is that multinational companies have higher relative costs associated with their international operations than their global counterparts.

Companies with successful products in one market may decide to venture into the international arena in order to increase their sales, profit

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ng of cultural biases that does not yet exist on a widespread scale. Disney encountered this problem when it opened a theme park in France, and found that its prohibition against facial hair was problematic. Today, the company allows facial hair at all of its theme parks ("Disney Shaves," 2000). This increased globalization is likely to lead to new ways of doing business; certainly the traditional business strategies that resulted in large multinational organizations that ignore the different environments in which they operate will no longer suffice. Instead, corporations need to consider all of their stakeholders: customers, employees, vendors and shareholders. Each of these constituents has a stake in the organization, and the corporation must be responsive to all of them, not merely to the shareholders. Because of the increased competition that globalization brings with it, failure to take all of these constituencies into account can result in an overall loss to the organization. The corporation must also recognize that they are less important than the individuals who compose them, and that the corporation needs to see itself as an integral part of the community, or communities, in which it operates (Freeman & Liedtka,

Category: Business - C