The Cultural Environment

1
The Cultural Environment

• Case in Point Disney and Internationalization
• Model Recontextualization

2
External Influences on International Business

• Understanding a Companys Physical and Societal
  Environments
• Managers in the worldwide environment must
  understand
• Social science disciplines
• All functional business fields
• Each country has its own laws regulating
  business. Agreements among countries set
  international law.
• The Competitive Environment

3
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is the pattern of shared values,
expectations, and behaviors developed and learned
by a group of people interacting over time.
4
David Lettermans Top Ten Rejected New Names for
Euro Disney
From the Home Office in Wahoo, Nebraska... 10.
Euro Disaster 9. El Biggo Mistake-o 8.
Never-Never-Profit Land 7. La Veal de Guys in
Big Smelly Costumes 6. Gumpworld 5.
Beaucoup de Crap Americain 4. Johnny Depp's
Hotel of Destruction 3. Boutros Boutros-Goofy
2. Have-You-Forgotten-We-Saved-Your-Ass-In-The
-World-War-Two-Land 1. Ooh-La-Lame
5
GLOBAL VERSUS MULTIDOMESTIC STRATEGIES
Hi
Benefits of Global Integration
Lo
Hi
Lo
Benefits of Local Responsiveness
6
Prerequisites for International SuccessorHow
does a firm overcome its"Liability of
Foreignness"?

• Motivation
• Strategy
• Organization
• People

7
Disneys Internationalization Strategy

• Tokyo Disneyland Global Integration (?)
• 125 million visitors since opening
• 8 out of 9 visitors are repeat customers

• Euro Disney Local Responsiveness (?)
• Net loss 87 million
• Hong Kong Disneyland (??)

8
The Ten Most Visited Amusement Parks
9
Euro Disneys Central Location
10
Understanding Culture

• Artifacts On the surface, that can be sensed
  easily
• Values That can be inferred or articulated
• Assumptions Hidden -- about man and the
  environment, about human nature, human roles
  relationships, reality, time, risk-taking..

11
The Case of Disney

• Artifacts
• Values
• Assumptions
• How do each of these affect
• internationalization?

12
RECONTEXTUALIZATION
Evolution of meaning within a new cultural
environment.
13
RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF FIRM OFFERINGS
14
SYSTEM OF SIGNIFICATION
Signifier
Signified
Sign

• Signifier Image word, script, object
• Mickey Mouse, Cowboy, Disney University
• Signified Concept or MeaningAll-American Boy,
  Rugged Individual, Militaristic boot-camp for
  Disneys cast members
• Sign Associative total of the Image (signifier)
  and its Meaning (signified)

15
RECONTEXTUALIZATIONS OF THE DISNEY FORMULA
Products
FRANCE
US
JAPAN

• SouvenirsCustom

Low Sales Child-rearing moves
High Sales Materialist norm
Highest Sales Senbetsu Gift-giving needs

• Mickey MouseImage

Low Profile Minnie, Boop
Disney Symbol All-American Boy
High Profile Kawaii-- Mickey Minnie as Best
Couple

• CowboyImage

Carefree Independent
Rugged Individualist John Wayne
Team Player Rawhide Karaoke
Practices

• PersonnelManagement

Invasive
Hypernormal
Normal

• ServiceOrientation

Abnormal
Hypernormal
Cultural Norm

• Crowd Control/Queuing

Totalitarian
Efficient
Paternal/Social
16
Recontextualization and The Three Levels of
Culture

• How are these related?
• Examples??

17
DOES CULTURE MATTER?
18

• When Im angry I.......
• If I dont agree with an idea I.......
• When someone in my team has done a good job
  I.......
• If someone hasnt been pulling his/her load
  I.......
• A meeting is to...........

grin and bear it say that its interesting and
Ill think about it reward the group leave it
up to group pressure formalize a decision
19
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is learned H.E.L.P.
H abits E xpectations L anguage P erception
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CULTURAL ZONES
Hyper-normal Cultural norm(al) Marginall
y normal
Outliers within the culture holding more extreme
beliefs. (HN) The dominant attitude set.
(CN) Outliers not so committed to normal
beliefs. (MN)
22
PERSON-FIT WITH CULTURAL NORM
23
CULTURAL LEVELS
National
Organizational
Occupational
24
PERCEPTION
The cultural perspective that people bring with
them to an interaction affects not only their own
behaviors, but also their perceptions of the
behaviors of others.
25
HOW OTHERS SEE AMERICANS
GROUP B
GROUP A
RESERVED RUSHED/ TIME CONSCIOUS REALISTIC/
HARD-HEADED TEAM WORKER QUALITY
CONSCIOUS UNEMOTIONAL SERIOUS/ BUSINESSLIKE SELF-C
ONTROLLED
FRIENDLY/ OUTGOING RELAXED/ EASYGOING OPTIMISTIC I
NDEPENDENT OUTPUT-ORIENTED EMOTIONAL FUN-LOVING/JO
KING SELF-INDULGENT
26
NEGOTIATED CULTURE
Culture in global ventures is negotiated over
time between members having differing cultural
orientations regarding work. THUS, given
cultures A and B, A B ? AB or AxBBUT,
an adaptation of both A and B
27
COLLABORATIVE SPACES
Norms and Values
28
CULTURAL HYBRID
- People who are experienced in moving from
one cultural frame of reference to another.
NATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONAL
- Learned another H.E.L.P. system.
- Acquired bridging skills.
OCCUPATIONAL