Impact of Cultural Adaptation on Sales Performance: A Comparative Study on Marketing Practices of Multinational and Local Pharmaceutical Companies in Bangladesh
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Date
2014-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
CRP, International Islamic University Chittagong
Abstract
Culture has been an influential force to affect
the performance of an organizational activity including sales. Cultural differences impede the harmonization and replication of marketing mix elements for sales performance. So, understanding and adapting to the culture and cultural differences play pivotal role for success by the MNCs. There are several multinational pharmaceutical firms that have been operating in Bangladesh for the last three decades. But their sales performance are not expectedly growing as per the sales growth rate of local firms in Bangladesh. This research has been taken to identify the cultural adaptation inmarketing practices in host country considering both home and host country culture of MNCs. To identify the cultural consideration and adaptation, the marketing practices of two local companies and one MNC operating in Bangladesh have been studied using the Hofsted's cultural dimensions and rankings (Hofstede, 1991) on the basis of cultural analysis since these dimensions were identified as the most widely accepted (Sondergaard, 1994) framework to know the cultural context of countries. The findings of the study revealed that the failure in successful adaptation or partial adaptation of marketing mix elements is responsible for poor sales performance of multinational pharmaceutical firms in Bangladesh. The study identified the effect of cultural congruency in marketing mix on sales performance of local firms.
Description
Business Review Vol-3, Article 07, June 2014 (Page-103-120)
Keywords
Cultural Adaptation, Marketing Practices, Sales Performance, MNC, Local Pharmaceutical Firms