The impact of national cultures on international marketing strategy and subsidi...

• Author(s): Antunes, Isabel Cristina Martins ; Barandas-Karl, Hortênsia ; Martins, Francisco Vitorino
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/4779
• Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico do Porto
• Subject(s): International marketing strategy; National cultures; Subsidiaries; Performance; Case study
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The dynamic of the international business and its multidimensional nature requires the understanding of the complexities of different contexts dictated by cultural differences between countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, in depth howsmall and medium-sized companies develop their international marketing mix strategy in their overseas subsidiaries. We use the theoretical construct of Hofstede (1980, 1991) in the dimensions of Power Distance (PD), Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Individualism (IND), Masculinity (MASC) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO) to assess the cross cultural differences between countries and the business practices to analyze the adaptation or standardization of the international marketing mix strategy of foreign Portuguese subsidiaries. Ourstudy uses an exploratoryand qualitative methodology. We conducted semi-structured interviews in order to achieve a good understanding ofinternational marketing mix strategy of four companies from different sectors. Our results show that the national cultural differences have great influence in the marketing strategy of the subsidiary. The business practices adjustments in the subsidiary company that proved to be necessary conditions for their performance are conducted by the products augmented offerings concerning the characteristics of the product, design and brand name in order to meet the requirements and specificities of the host country of the subsidiary.