INTRODUCTION
The debate of standardization versus adaptation has lasted for the last 52 years.(The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2003) . To standardize or adapt when going or planning to go international is the most difficult and delicate decision to make for any company. This decision may affect all the operations of businesses of the company i.e. Human Resources, Marketing, Research & development, Production and Finance. Every company has a different outlook towards foreign markets, this outlook is explained by three models which help the company analyze whether they should standardized or adapt in international markets.
THREE MODELS TOWARDS FOREIGN CULTURE
ETHNOCENTRIC MODEL
Ethnocentric is defined as evaluating others culture according to the preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture. (Oxford Dictionary) Ethnocentrism is a social – psychological dynamic term used to describe human behavior in diverse cultures. The heart of ethnocentrism is belief system of one’s own company, culture, or country. The term ethnocentrism has a set of principles, which are used to different people between different groups or culture on basis of superior-inferior, strong-weak, or trustworthy-untrustworthy. Ethnocentrism is embedded in numerous areas of communications among diverse set of people. Ethnocentrism decides the fate of company’s behavior while conducting business globally. According to trade and marketing experts, to standardize a product can be harmful as consumers from assorted cultures would not accept product that do not match their culture.
POLYCENTRIC MODEL
According to Calof.L, ‘Polycentrism is an individual’s attitude towards going international which is linked consecutive stages in...
... middle of paper ...
...or change to suit local customer needs. Using this strategy can slow down the speed of execution but the companies can have a single, harmonized brand. E.G.: when ‘DOVE’ a Unilever brand creates an advertisement, the set, the colors, the concept remains the same but only the actors and language differ from country to country so that the audience can relate to the commercial.
CONCLUSION
The world is now a borderless for companies who wish to go global to offer their products or services. The most important decision a company has to make is whether they should standardize or use an adaptive strategy to enter and appeal the market. In today’s time the competition is cut throat and the it is most appropriate that a company uses a combination of both standardization and adaptation in its approach as it would integrate the companies both regionally and globally.
Ethnocentrism is defined as the process of ignoring other cultures, and specifically focusing on the culture one is accustomed to.
Each culture has a certain level of ethnocentrism which can have positive and negative consequences. Ethnocentrism provides a feeling of unwillingness to change one’s culture or specific institution by placing them in a box. They can only see things through their specific lens and when something differs from what they know, they believe that it is a violation of the ways things should be. They become ignorant of the cultures that they may be right in the middle of by comparing them to the culture that they are familiar with and grading it on a scale. This causes a level of unwillingness to change institutions within a society because they are the standard. This makes it exceedingly difficult to relate to other people and the world as a whole because when someone is always trying to look at something while envisioning it as something else; they will never fully see the beauty of what they are observing. They limit their own experience for the sake of comfort and security, for the safety found within the familiar. Ethnocentrism is the safety blanket for many people yet the enervation that prevents them from fully experiencing the world and all of its different
Ethnocentrism is the view that one's own culture is better than anyone else's culture. As a practice, it consists of evaluating other cultures from the perspective of one's own. William Graham Sumner coined the term ethnocentrism in 1906; today many sociologists identify ethnocentrism as a feature of all cultures.
Having an ethnocentric attitude changes how we view other cultures and limits our capability to be culturally relative to others not a part of our own. Ethnocentrism by definition is the “evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of
Ethnocentrism can be defined as an individual’s belief that the ethnic group or cultural they identify with is superior to all others. “The ethnocentric person judges other groups and other cultures by the standards of his or her own group” (Schaefer 34).
Ethnocentrism is when one culture judge’s another culture by the standard of their own (Health, 2001). Stereotypes, biases, and prejudices against other people are all in a sense a form of ethnocentrism (Astle, Barton, Johnson, & Mill, 2014). It is okay to be proud of your own culture, but you need to remember to do so in such a way, that you are not putting down any other culture (Arnold, 2016).
Today, many companies enter the global market, and some companies have become extremely successful in the global marketplace and others still struggling. In Theodore Levitt’s article “The Globalization of Markets”, he states that a well managed corporation focuses on selling standardized products with high quality and low priced instead of focuses on selling on customized products with high cost. Levitt defines the differences between multinational corporation and global corporation, and adopts many specific examples to proves his view. He defines the multinational corporation who operates in many countries and adjust its product based on the taste of specific region. This will result in a high cost to produce the product because company have to input more resource into each individual product. However, global corporation sells similar product worldwide at relative low cost. According to Levitt, the cultural differences are becoming more and more “homogenized”; therefore, becoming a global corporation will lead to the successful of the company in the global market.
Ethnocentrism is when a person judges a group by the standard of their own culture. Ethnocentrism come in many shapes and forms and takes place in all cultures. The example I found to be the best representation and explanation of ethnocentrism, was the TedTalk: Chimamanda Adichie The Danger of a single story. In her talk she relays times in her life where she thought all books had to have white British characters in them because she only read books, which had those types of characters. She also relayed the story of here first time in college where she had an American room mate who assumed she would have no idea how to do simple tasks like use a stove (Adichie). Ethnocentrism is like having a single story we see other cultures only as our culture
More than two decades ago, Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt provocatively declared in a 1983 HBR article, "The Globalization of Markets," that a global market for uniform products and services had emerged. He argued that corporations should exploit the "economics of simplicity" and grow by selling standardized products all over the worl...
We create bias toward our culture and form an idea that one's own culture is the main standard to evaluate another group leading to view. They make the measuring stick. This means that people believe and feel in the superiority of one's own ethnic culture over other cultures. This behavior is known as ethnocentrism. This concept was created amongst different nations earlier than cultural relativism, which has to be devised to counter ethnocentrism.
When one encounters a culture that has little in common with own, one may experience culture shock. This is a sense of confusion, anxiety, stress and loss one may experience. One of the barriers in effective intercultural communication is ethnocentrism. It stems from a conviction that one’s own cultural traditions and assumptions are superior to those of others. It leads to a tendency to look the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. It is one of the fastest ways to create a barrier that inhibits, rather than enhances communication (Jandt, 2012).
For example, if you see someone dressed to a fashion style you don’t like and that is different than yours, you automatically judge them for it which is an example of ethnocentrism. According to the textbook, cultural relativism is “understanding a groups beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making judgements.” (Guest,
... its proper expressions, structure and grammar. Moreover, each language is linked to a specific dialect which is associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Moreover, cultural variations also exist in the rules for general discourse in oral communication. Similar to verbal communication, there are also variations in non-verbal communication between cultures. Gestures, facial expressions, sense of time and personal distance take different forms in different cultures. Furthermore, there is an infinite number of cultural diversities which are at the root of intercultural miscommunication. Variations in values , social relationships, religion, economy and politics consist of only a few of these diversities. These differences can be the source of ethnocentrism, if one becomes over patriotic in regards to one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism, is the concept which states that we tend to judge other cultures through our own. Ethnocentric behavior, can cause racism and chauvinism, as in the case of the Second World War. However, intercultural problems can be avoided if we all develop mindfulness, a sense of flexibility and seek information about the other culture.
Ethnocentrism, as stated above, means the belief that one’s own culture is above and beyond all other cultures. Although this is somewhat of a shallow definition, it still provides an adequate explanation of a very complex issue. We see ethnocentrism every single day, in all aspects of life. The United States of America is a prime example of ethnocentrism is action. The people of this country have a tendency to disregard other cultures, instead believing that American culture is the only way to go. This is not to say that this is how everyone thinks, although most people, at one time or another, have had thoughts along these lines.
Culture refers to the collection of values, customs, and attitudes of a group of people belonging to certain area, country or a place. It shapes individuals’ habits, knowledge, experiences, and their perspectives. It is important to avoid ethnocentricity since it creates a bias in which, one views their own culture to be superior over other cultures. In the age of globalization, such single-minded bias can prove to be costly as it can lead to undermining positive characteristics of other cultures. This in return can create negative relationship with citizens from other cultures as well as their governments.