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Lesson#14
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INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL AND SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENTS
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INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS
Defining Culture
Nation as a definition of society:
A society can be defined on a variety of parameters, regional,
linguistic, ethnic, religious etc. Nation is a
more useful definition of a society for international marketing
perspective due to the following reasons;
– Business employs,
sells to, buys from, is regulated by and is owned by people
– Human differences
give rise to different business practices in various parts of the world
– Nation is useful
definition of society
– similarity
among people is cause and an effect of national boundaries
– laws apply
primarily along national lines
Within a nation
– People share
essential attributes perpetuated through rites and symbols of nationhood -
flags,
parades, rallies, common history
– Nation may
include various subcultures / groups and is legitimized by being mediator of
different interests
– Nation comprises
people whose attributes vary widely, usually some characteristics dominate
which influence how business is conducted
The concept of culture:
Is the
collection of values, beliefs, rules, behaviors, customs, attitudes,
institutions and artifacts
that characterize human population
Characteristics
of culture:
– learned
patterns of behavior common to members of a given society
– elements of
culture are interrelated
– it is adaptive
– defines
membership of the society
Elements of a culture:
The elements of a culture that define it are in the following;
Social structure describes a culture
– individuals
and their attitudes, families, groups
– social
stratification, and
– social
mobility across the social/ economic stratas
Language is a cultural mirror (words and discourses and
their use and meaning in a particular
culture)
Communication
Page
45
– low context vs
high context cultures
– nonverbal
communication constitutes over 80% of a social communication
– gift giving &
hospitality
Attitudes & beliefs
Attitudes and beliefs also vary across culture on various
aspects. Some of the key cultural aspects
of attitudes are given below;
attitudes towards:
• time
• work & leisure
• achievement
• change
• jobs
• religion
• aesthetics
• moral /
ethical issues
• other cultures
& races
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