International Marketing – Gilly, Cateora, Graham Chapter 3 Questions and Answers

• In the context of international marketing, culture

Affects the way consumer prioritize the things they desire and the things they need.

• In what way is the culture changing in most countries?

It favors smaller families.

• Which statement is true of culture?

It exists in the mind of each person.

• Marketers adapt to changes in their business circumstances through

Innovation.

• Which of the following statements about Jared Diamond’s research regarding the influence of geography on international marketing is true?

He claimed that new ideas moved more quickly from east to west than from north to south.

• Which of the following statements regarding culture in international marketing is true?

The marketer’s interaction with the local culture determines whether the marketing will fail or succeed.

• Countries have been transitioning from agricultural to industrial to service economies. The result has been _____

A drop-in birthrate.

• ______is the sum of the values, rituals, symbols, beliefs, and thought processes that are learned and shared by a group of people, then transmitted from generation to generation.

Culture.

• The emergence of cola brands such as Mecca Cola and Arab Cola in the Middle East in the 2000s is a reflection of which of the following?

Historic events affecting culture.

• Which of the following are characteristic of global marketers who understand cultural differences that affect their business operations?

They anticipate changed in markets where they are presently doing business

They pay attention to cultural differences in markets they are attempting to enter.

• Which of the following is the geographical argument used by Jared Diamond to theorize why Euro-Asian cultures have sometimes dominated African and American cultures?

It was easier for ideas and information to travel over the Silk Road instead of crossing the Sahara or the Isthmus of Panama.

• Which types of government competed globally throughout most of the 20th century?

Democracy, Fascism, Communism, Colonialism.

• Which of the following statements about the origins of culture is true?

Historic events can affect technology, social institutions, culture, and behaviour.

• How has birth control changed social institutions and cultural values?

People now have smaller families. School children are now discussing topics such as abstinence.

• Interpersonal relationships are strongly affected by _____ such as family, religion, schools, the media, government, and corporations.

Social institutions

• How has the availability of birth control affected families throughout the world?

More women are waiting longer to get married. Many women are waiting longer to have children. Families have fewer children.

• Which of the following statements about social institutions and their effect on a country’s culture is true?

Religion has an enormous effect on a society’s values.

• Which of the following best describes how birth control techniques have affected the lives of women in the past 50 years?

Women have more time to spend on their careers.

• How do social institutions affect cultural values?

They influence people to live in peace together. They teach each new generation how to act in an acceptable way.

• Which of the following statements about education as a social institution is true?

Nationwide literacy tends to help a country grow its economy rapidly.

• Which of the following statements regarding the change in family as a social institution is true?

Women are delaying marriage, especially in Asia.

• In most cultures, an infant’s first experience with a social institution other than the home is most likely to be

Religious

• What change has happened to American culture and social institutions?

People are spending time with media such as television and the internet instead of socializing with their families,

• Before the birth control pill became widely available, men and women spent more time dealing with

Large numbers of children.

• Which of the following statements regarding international marketing is true?

It is easier to communicate with consumers who can read and write than with people who can understand only symbols.

• Which of the following have the greatest effect on values and culture?

The media

Families

Schools

• Corporations alter cultures and prompt new ideas by

Skilfully distributing innovation products and services.

• What are the four primary dimensions along which the cultures of nations differ, according to Geert Hofstede?

Power distance index

Individualism/ Collectivism Index

Masculinity/ Femininity Index

Uncertainty Avoidance Index

• Unlike individualistic societies, collective societies

Link people strongly together close-knit groups,

• Which of the following statements about social institutions and their influence on culture is true?

Societies become acquainted with most new products via businesses.

• Cultures that score low on the Individualism/Collectivism Index tend to

Subdue the individual and favour the group.

• Match each dimension (in the left column) with its corresponding feature (in the right column).

The Individualism/Collective Index.   It focuses on self-orientation

The Power Distance Index.    It focuses on authority orientation

The Uncertainty Avoidance Index.    It focuses on risk orientation

The Masculinity/Femininity Index.    it focuses on assertiveness and achievement.

• The ______ Index denotes an inclination toward behaviour that advances a person’s self-interest.

Individualism/ collectivism.

• Unlike a collectivist society, an individualistic society is one in which people

Are connected to others, but only in a loose way.

• An individual who scores low on the Individualism/Collectivism Index is most likely to

Think in terms of “we” instead of “I”.

• A high score on the Individualism/Collective Index indicates

A culture that encourages individual ambition.

Which of the following statements regarding cultures that score high on the Individualism/Collectivism Index is true?

Personal ambition and free will are valued and encourage in these cultures.

• Which of the following statements about individuals from cultures with high Power Distance Index scores is true?

They tend to distrust people who are not part of their groups.

• Individuals from cultures that have low Power Distance Index scores

Are likely to hold egalitarian beliefs.

• Cultures that score high on the Power Distance Index

Are often hierarchical.

• Cultures that score high on the Individualism/Collectivism Index tend to

Embrace an “I” mentality.

• The degree to which a culture will tolerate social inequality between superiors and subordinates is measured by the

Power distance index.

• People from cultures with low Power Distance Index scores often say that _____ is a source of power.

Achievement.

• People who come from cultures with high Power Distance Index scores often say that power and social status are derived from

Inheritance

Manipulation

Social roles

• Which of the following statements regarding cultural values is true?

Cultural values can help marketers predict which consumers are most apt to buy something on impulse.

• Which of the following is true of cultures that have low Power Distance Index scores?

They usually think people should be treated equally, and they say power comes from knowledge.

• Patterns of cultural behaviour and interaction that are learned and repeated are known as

Rituals

• Cultural values have nothing to do with a consumer’s likelihood of griping about defective products and service failures.

FALSE: This statement is false. Cultural values can predict whether a consumer is apt to complain and how that person might react to service failures.

• The loss of various spoken languages is part of a general

Decrease in cultural  distinctiveness around the world.

• The beliefs of one individual can seem amusing and silly to someone else.

TRUE: one person’s beliefs are sometimes another person’s funny story.

• Which of the following statements about rituals is true?

The most obvious rituals take place when people are experiencing turning points in their lives.

• Which of the following is a feature of language?

Around the world, the number of spoken languages has been dwindling.

• Which of the following is a mistake sometimes made by marketers?

when doing business in a foreign country, ignoring how seriously the local people take their superstitions.

• When evaluating a situation, a Westerner is more likely to

focus on the central figures and not see much of the background.

• True or false: Marketers must be aware that their own cultures affect how they perceive other cultures.

TRUE: This statement is true. Marketers must understand how their own cultures influence their assumptions about another culture.

• To be culturally sensitive, an international marketer should

understand how a culture began and what its essential beliefs are.

know how people resist change within their cultures.

recognize how cultures change.

• True or false: Cultural values have nothing to do with a consumer’s likelihood of griping about defective products and service failures.

FALSE: This statement is false. Cultural values can predict whether a consumer is apt to complain and how that person might react to service failures.

• Which of the following statements about cultural change is true?

A marketer assessing a society should remember that cultures are constantly changing.

• A responsible effort to learn from the cultural ways of others in the quest for a solution to a society’s problems is known as

Cultural borrowing

• In the context of thought processes, Asians

tend to see the entire picture rather than just the foreground when evaluating a situation.

• Paying attention to the fine distinctions of culture so that it can be studied in an open-minded way, assessed, and admired is known as

Cultural sensitivity

• Which of the following is true of the similar-but-different aspect of culture?

It can lead people to think that cultures have more in common than they actually do.

Which of the following are advantages of cultural sensitivity in international marketing?

It reduces strife between marketers and their customers.

It enables communication between marketers and consumers.

• Cultures are always changing, and yet

they also resist change, which is one of their fundamental attributes.

• Which of the following statements regarding cultural borrowing is true?

When people are introduced to a belief or practice from another culture and they approve of it, they incorporate it into their own culture.

• Which of the following statements regarding similarities among cultures is true?

Two cultures that speak the same language might interpret certain phrases or words in a very different way.

• True or false: International marketers must remember that what appears on the surface of a culture may be different in its cultural meaning because a culture adapts and customizes borrowed cultural facets to its own needs.

TRUE: This statement is true. A marketer must remember that a culture borrows and then adapts and customizes to its own needs and idiosyncrasies. Thus, what may appear on the surface may be different in cultural meaning.

• Innovations most easily incorporated into a culture are those that

generate the most interest within society.

• Which of the following will cause the countries within the European Union to become increasingly similar in what they need, what they want, and how they behave in the economic market?

global mass communications

countries depending more on one another, both economically and socially

• A culture is most likely to accept something new when _____. (Select all that apply.)

people have some reason to be quite interested in the innovation

the innovation will not disrupt existing beliefs and behaviors very much

• In the context of best marketing practices in the European Union, international marketers must

avoid the belief that consumers throughout Europe want to purchase the same products.