Implications of Culture in Global Business. Business & Marketing Essay

Implications of Culture in Global Business
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Nike Inc. has been ranked among the profitable companies in athletic footwear. The company started as a local company based in Oregon town in the United States. In a strategy to diversify its operations and command a large customer base, the company has partnered with athletics, teams, manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers. It enjoys a fruitful collaboration with all its partners in the market. The company has a tremendous and unique opportunity to expand its opportunities all over the world. To capitalize on global opportunities, a company needs a comprehensive diversification strategy that gives the company direction. Culture is among the factors that a company needs to consider before diversifying its operations to oversee countries. The paper discusses the implications of culture in multinational business.
As the global acquisition manager of Nike Inc., I recommend that the company expands its operations in China. According to Roddy (2018), China is the leading consumer of athletic footwear. Having the opportunity to diversify and capture the market gap in china, Nike will have a competitive advantage over its competitors. Research indicates that China leads the world in consumption of footwear. In 2018, china had over 4.1 billion consumers of footwear. A breakdown of the statistics suggests that 54% of the total consumers are athletics. China is also a highly populated country; thus, consumption of the products is too high.
Culture plays an integral role in the growth of a multinational. Nike Inc. has to work with Chinese employees; thus, the approach to open oversea branches has to comply with the cultural norms of the country. The fundamental diversity dimensions to consider in operation include age, language, civilization, age, education, lifestyles, attitudes, race, among other factors (Uslu & Hancıoğlu, 2017). Global multinationals should be able to communicate and adapt to the uniqueness of the environment. For instance, women in China do not work at night. Employing women in china to work at night will be contrary to the norms of the country.
Culture is vital for any society. It represents a standard set of values that makes the citizens socially acceptable. Culture involves aspects of education systems, family, religion, and social class. According to Geert Hofstede, differences in cultural dimensions affect the preferences of people (Roddy, 2018). Language as an aspect of culture is also a challenge for multinationals. Marketers have to be careful when selecting product names and sending promotional messages to customers. For instance, a company like Mitsubishi had to change the name of its Parejo model cars as it referred to sexual activity in the Spanish language.
Countries have varying customs and traditions that determine the behavior and practices of customers. Cultures influence business negotiations. Opening a footw...