The Influence of Culture on Global Marketing Strategies: A Confirmatory Study (original) (raw)

2017, The International Journal of Business and Management

Background to the Study The revolution of technology has bridged the gaps between and among nations and continents. Thus, countries are now closer and interconnected than ever before. This phenomenon of interconnectedness is called globalization. Globalization is now a dominant force driving business and marketing strategies in the world today. That is, globalization of the world's economy and markets are leading companies and nations to become global players and investing across nations and continents (Ocansey & Enahoro, 2014). Several firms (including medium-scale to large scale) around the world (developed and emerging markets) are expanding their production and marketing activities beyond national and continental boundaries. Chatterjee (2016) posits that, due to the movement of people around the world and the widespread use of the internet, there has been an extensive interaction which is making the world a single society and has called for a global trade. What is really propelling the globalization of the world markets? The converging needs and wants of customers around the world have created the opportunity for globalization of markets and have stimulated global competition for global resources and customers. Djordjevic (2014) succinctly explains that, "regional economic agreements, converging marketing needs and wants, technology advances, pressure to cut down cost, pressure to improve quality, improvement in communication and transportation technology, global economic growth, and opportunities for leverage" (p.1) are the forces driving globalization. Many firms or organizations are established with the intention to expand and grow without any restriction to grow. The desire to grow stimulates the formulation of business strategies that help these firms or organizations to expand their marketing strategies beyond national and continental boundaries. In order for firms to be successful in global trade requires global marketing strategies. According to Djordjevic (2014), the use of various marketing efforts has created global markets from the common needs and wants of human nature around the world on cultural universality as differences. The continuous growth of this cultural universality has brought to bear "the emergence of international markets for consumers" (Naghi & Para, 2013, p. 2). Notwithstanding the globalization of the world, there are still differences in the way people live in different nations and continents. Thus, different cultures exist in different countries and difference continents. Cultural elements such as language, food, clothing, beliefs and practices differ from country to country and continent to content. Because firms seek to expand to other geographical boundaries, their global marketing strategies meet the barrier of culture. The fundamental shaper of consumer behavior is culture (Cleveland, Naghavi & Shafia, 2017). As asserted by Hart (2014) cultural study embodies the knowledge of custom and social behavior. The influence of culture on marketing strategies has highly been debated in academic literature in recent years. Articles published in ten renounced journals during 1996-2001 revealed that almost 10% of the articles used culture as the explanatory variable