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InternationalMarketing ­ MKT630
VU
Lesson # 14
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, religiousetc. Nation is a
more useful definition of a societyfor international marketing perspective due to the following reasons;
­  Businessemploys, sells to, buys from, is regulated by and is owned by people
­  Humandifferences give rise to differentbusiness practices in variousparts of the world
­  Nation is useful definition of society
­ similarity among people is cause and an effect of national boundaries
­ lawsapply primarily alongnational lines
Within a nation
­
People share essential attributes perpetuated through rites and symbols of nationhood - flags,
parades,rallies, common history
­
Nationmay include various subcultures / groups and is legitimized by beingmediator of
differentinterests
­
Nationcomprises people whoseattributes vary widely,usually some characteristicsdominate
whichinfluence how business is conducted
Theconcept of culture:
Is the collection of values, beliefs, rules, behaviors, customs, attitudes,institutions andartifacts
thatcharacterize human population
Characteristics of culture:
­
learnedpatterns of behavior common to members of a givensociety
­
elements of culture areinterrelated
­
it is adaptive
­
defines membership of the society
Elements of a culture:
Theelements of a culture thatdefine it are in the following;
Social structure describes a culture
­ individualsand their attitudes,families, groups
­ socialstratification, and
­ socialmobility across the social/economic stratas
Language is a cultural mirror (words and discourses and their use and meaning in a particular
culture)
Communication
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InternationalMarketing ­ MKT630
VU
­ low context vs high context cultures
­ nonverbalcommunication constitutes over 80% of a social communication
­ giftgiving & hospitality
Attitudes & beliefs
Attitudesand beliefs also varyacross culture on variousaspects. Some of the keycultural aspects
of attitudes are givenbelow;
attitudestowards:
· time
· work & leisure
· achievement
· change
· jobs
· religion
· aesthetics
· moral / ethical issues
· othercultures & races
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