Culture Case

Culture comprises of a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, practices, belief systems, religion, morals, perception about world and customs which have been passed down for generations and characterizes an institution, organization, or group. Various features of culture are easy to see, such as clothing, music, language, food, architecture, ways of greetings, religious practices and other behaviors. However, in order to understand and appreciate the deeper and invisible characteristics of culture, such as religious beliefs, gender relations, styles of communication and beliefs concerning the roles and importance of family in society, one needs to study and immerse in a particular culture. For example, American people constantly change their way of living, their images, homes, products and services and way of doing things. To Americans, change is always good as it means improvement. As opposed to this, European and Asian people do not discard their long and proud histories. To them, patience and the conventional way of doing things are merits, not weaknesses (Hill and Dulek, 1993).

Since culture has an immense influence on the way people perceive, process and understand information, it will not be irrational to say that culture will have a great impact on an organizations' international operations. A lack of awareness about the host country's social customs and practices can weaken a company's position in the international market and eventually lead to failure. According to David A. Ricks, author of "Blunders in International Business (2006)," "Because so many potential communication barriers exist, it is especially difficult for companies to effectively communicate with potential buyers. Messages can be translated incorrectly, inappropriate media used, regulations overlooked, and economic or taste differences ignored .Sometimes the potential customer never receives the company's message, and at other times the message arrives but because of its ineffectiveness is of little value. Every once in a while the buyer receives the message but, to the company's dismay, the message sent was incorrect." For example, former president of American Express, Japan, was sent home because of an advertisement which appeared on new year's 1985.The ad featured a full page photo of himself, wearing a Japanese kimono. Apparently, no foreigner had done this before and many Japanese suspected it as an intend to make fun of local culture.

The rapid innovations in technology, demographics, political events, and economic forces have changed over time. Global businesses do not survive in vacuum. They arise out of the need of home country and the host country.The host country requires particular services or products and home country needs market expansion, product diversification, increase in profits, decrease in costs and exploiting growth opportunities. In 1997, the total monetary value of all