Rekommendations

Research into countries values, cultures and beliefs – Hofstede and critics of his work
When companys are expanding or entering new markets its important to examin this markets
because all societys has different culture and buying behavior. Walmart has over all had quite
successfull strategies when entering most of the markets, but also made some mistakes. By
using Hofstedes theories might have been helpful for them. Though his theories has also been
criticized mostly because of his functionalistic approach. For example he is criticized for
adding too much focus on national cultures and is this way forgetting about other important
factors and subcultures. Other researches in the field believes that in this approach is risking
to make stereotypical judgments of people and events on the basis of national origin (Berthoin
& Friedman, 2005). Sackmann and Phillips (2002) also believes that in today's complex
society requires more complex approach than that a functionalistic perspective can offer.

Examin which models in terms of low price, high quality etc successful businesses in the
country are using
Companies in different countries use different types of models to succed. As mentioned
earlier Japanese consumers for example are quite demanding in terms of quality and
appearance of the products, rather than whether the products are well-functioned and easy to
use or not (Johansson, 1986, p.38). this means company can use a high quality model in this
culture.

References

Berthoin, A. & Friedman, V. (2005) Negotiating Reality: A Theory of Action Approach to

Intercultural Competence in Management Learning. Management learning, 36, 69-86.

Sackmann, S. & Phillips, M. (2004). Contextual Influences on

Culture Research: Shifting Assumptions for New Workplace Realities. International Journal
of Cross Cultural Management, 4, 370-390.