Current Situation Analysis
Cultural underpinnings are considered to be one of the major aspects that the corporate houses must follow in their market orientated decision making process. The problems are emerged when a multinational or foreign company enters into a new market with different kind of customers and cultural base. In this case, the stated BeautyPro Company also faces the same problem while expanding its business in Chinese market. The BeautyPro Company is an Australian multinational company distributes organic cosmetics in domestic and overseas market. However, the Company faces some challenges in the Chinese market with cultural diversification. In response to this given scenario, the role of this report is to identify the cultural issues that corporate organisations are facing in their foreign market expansion. It is in fact, can be argued that the cultural perception guides the customers and the organisation as well to develop a better market and service facilities. In course of the discussion, the report encapsulates the literature review on the different cultural values and cultural norms that are responsible to influence the decision making process in the context of business.
Cultural values as considered to be an important aspect for doing business in a foreign country. According to Ahern, Daminelli&Fracassi (2015),it can be argued that it is important to understand the willingness of the customers whether they are attracted by the product or reluctant to purchase it. In this regard, the cultural values play a pivotal role to convince the consumers to purchase the particular product and the organisation must have great deal of understanding regarding the cultural values of the region. In his study, Turró, Urbano&Peris-Ortiz (2014) have put a great deal of emphasis on two cultural values in the name of indulgence and individualism. Indulgence can be identified as the utilitarian needs that bestows into the mind of the customers. On the other hand the individual aspect is very unique and try to differentiate the perception among the purchaser on the basis of their distinct specifications. In response to this, Zhouet al. (2015) advocated that the role of cultural values and etiquette have a long drawn impact on the financial outcomes in global markets. The instances regarding the role of cultural impacts in business can be seen in terms of foreign direct investment, equity investment and the venture-capital flows. Therefore, as per the viewpoint of Demuijnck (2015) it can be ascribed that the cultural values formulates a commonness among the borrowers and lenders related to expanding business in different regions. Therefore, it will be beneficial for the multinational organisations to have a cross-border merge where the organisation and the target customers are able to create a flexible approach to understand the culture of one another. Furthermore,Welbourne, Gangadharan&Sariol (2015) described cultural values as a major factor in the effective decision making in relation to the organisational policies and regulation to maximise the market in a foreign country. In this regard, it can be argued that the foreign market at first seems to be an unknown chartered for the newly entered organisation. However, the gradual interaction with the people and the business associates will give them the light to understand different aspects of the cultural beliefs and the organisations will get benefits from it by expanding its business extensively.
Different Cultural Norms in Decision Making
Therefore, Demuijnck (2015) opined that cultural values are so important in dealing with business ethics. Corruption is always be a threat to the healthy business environment and business organisations are keen to generate maximum profits by any means. As a result of that it becomes inevitable for the corporate houses to take opportunities of the situation and bribing people and government in order to extract more profit. In response to that the cultural values and ethos play significant role to restrain the company in doing illegal immoral tasks (Chipulu et al., 2014). Moreover, the cultural values and virtues are entitled to influence the cross cultural moral relativism that inspires a clear ground for business ethics. In addition to this, the role of the cultural values and etiquettes encompass the concept of healthy workplace environment (Real, Roldán& Leal, 2014). As a matter of fact, it can be seen that attitude and behaviours have correlation with the workplace incivility and the unique cultural facets will provide information regarding the development of a better workplace practice. Welbourne, Gangadharan&Sariol (2015) argued that one of the major factors behind the workplace incivility is the lack of cultural values in the workplace practice. This, in return caused great damages to lowered the job satisfaction and unable to identify any opportunities for the progress of the workers. Cultural values helps them to develop certain practices that facilitates values and moral standpoint in course of shaping better workplace environment (Wu&Shen, 2018).
Based on this understanding, it can be argued that the cultural values are considered to be one of the determinants regarding the behaviour of the Chinese consumers. As far as the research of Zeng & Greenfield (2015) is concerned, it can be stated that the rising consumer awareness in China with the progress in technology, communication and information new forms of behaviours have emerged that is based on the Cultural values. As a matter of fact, the shared values and beliefs in culture puts impact on the purchasing attitude of the customers in China (Ahammad et al., 2016). In this regard, Liu et al. (2016) advocated that the cultural values and ethos are poor in condition in countries like China but the cross cultural significance has immense impact on the digital buying practice of the Chinese people. Therefore, it can be stated that the Chinese culture be an important aspect for the foreign and multi-national companies in order to increase the market capitalisation. On the other hand, He & Wang (2015) revealed that the Chinese luxury fashion market has a deep influence of the cultural values and the customers are liked to be opt for the best products that is resembled with their culture. Therefore, most of the luxury fashion companies tries to go with the Chinese culture and tried to maximise their market capitalisation (Di Guardo, Marrocu&Paci 2016).
Decision has a long drawn impact on everyday lifestyle. However, the decision making process does not retrain itself in everyday lifestyles only rather it transcends its dynamics in the professional world as well. For an instance, nowadays it becomes a popular practice among the corporate business organisations to accept the importance of decision making. In addition to this, Li et al. (2015) showed that the cultural implications have a deep rooted impact on the role of the decision making in business. The logical approach and the analytical framework of the decision making process finds its way to develop with the cultural norms. As a matter of fact, the recent studies has revealed that the characteristics of decision making has been influenced by the rich cultural norms. In his studies Vohs et al. (2018) pointed out that in Asian continent the cultural underpinnings leads to support fast, effective and efficient decision making and with the help of the cultural variations it will be caused a significant impact on the decision making process. In addition to this, choice is considered to be an intricate part of the decision making process. As far as Betsch et al. (2016) is concerned, it can be argued that there are a number of influential factors that are entitled to influence the decision making process in personal life as well as in business as well. In this context, culture is undoubtedly one of the major aspect that can deliver a strong impetus to the process of decision making. The person having a strong cultural background possesses a different decision making procedure in compare to an individual without cultural dominance (Wach, 2015). Therefore, the cultural dominance over decision making process is very important for an organisation to get acknowledged with.
Beyond the general understanding of the cultural impact on decision making process Ashman, Solomon &Wolny (2015) showed more clearly the professional approach of culture in the decision making process. In his words, Dutta & Islam (2016) ascribed that the role of culture can be best seen in the healthcare management system that witnesses a strong thrust on the professional decision making process. In course of the research, cultural norms has been used as a professional factor to influence the decisions taken by the medical practitioners and the medical staff while taking important decisions. It can be related to the health and safety of the patients or completely encompasses the paradigm of healthcare management and change in the course of the medical practices and administrative measures. In relation to this, the customers’ decision making also considered to be another important aspect that can be facilitated by the digital culture. Chang & Lin (2015) argued that with the advent and new development in the technological objectives, a change is also made in the course of the perception of the culture. In the post-modern era the digital technology is also identified as a part of the culture in the name of the digital culture. Therefore, the digital culture and its facets help to shape the decision making of the consumer decision by making them more agile and interested to some specific products. Besides this, technology in terms of the big data is also included in the paradigm of culture that enables the organisation to develop and plan their decisions accordingly (Nasim et al., 2018). Therefore, it can be argued that the role of culture in decision making is extensive and dynamic. In fact, technological penetration makes it more important and essential for the companies to use digital tools in order to take decisions accurately.
In this context, a pertinent question comes in mind that how far the technological methods can be defined as culture. Henceforth, culture can be defined as a continuous process that can be developed with change in time and also has a reflection of the past. Culture is a practice that determines the role of the decision making through the glance of the tradition, beliefs and trust. Therefore, there is a high possibility for the organisations to use culture as a strategic tool in order to attack the customers as much as they can (Soo-Hoo&Bakar, 2018). In case of the Chinese people, they have some strict cultural norms and most of their decisions are vested upon their cultural beliefs (Sagi, 2015). Therefore, using culture will be a beneficial measure for the multi-national companies to capitalise the Chinese market rigorously. Moreover, the cross cultural perspective is also a useful tool for influencing the decision making process. For an example, cross culture formulates an environment where people from different culture can share their tradition and norms. As a result of that it becomes a blend of culture where both the culture can be attracted to each other (Nouri, Georgila&Traum, 2017). However, one must keep in mind that respect is one of the major aspect to focus on. Any kind of disrespect can contribute to the hostile environment for business.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be asserted that there are a number of factors that can influence the business in a foreign market with different environment in terms of customers and their purchasing behaviour. Therefore, it is important for the organisations to perceive a deep insights of the customers’ behaviour. As a matter of fact, the decision making of the customers in terms of purchasing attitude and the marketing strategy of the foreign company in order to capitalise the market robustly will depend partially on the cultural factors. Therefore, the purpose of this report was to figure out the impact of culture on the decision making process. For a better understanding, the report sought help from the empirical information and scholarly works to portray an extensive and effective impact of cultural norms and beliefs in business and issues that can be created due to lack of understanding of the cultural factors.
Communication can be identified as a strategic step to get more information regarding the existing culture of a country. Language differences can be a serious challenge in this regard. Therefore, non-verbal communications are the best way to develop communication in foreign business. In case of capitalising the Asian market culture is identified as an important aspect to understand. Therefore, it will be beneficial for the organisations to open themselves up so that the people of the foreign country could feel friendly environment and in result it will help the company to expand its business successfully in the foreign market.
It can be argued that the cultural themes can be played a strategic role in this regard. Every society has its cultural theme that creates distinctiveness. For an example, the Chinese follow the Confucian values that is based on belief and trustworthiness. As a result of that the BeautyPro can leverage this factors and at the same time injects its own culture so that it will be a blend between the existing and new culture. However, it has to be keep in mind that the existing culture will never be harmed. Equal respect and mutual understanding will be the cornerstone of doing business in China.
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