1.Why, when doing business in other countries, is it important to analyse the impact of culture at the national, the industry and the firm levels as well as the personal level?

2. Discuss how you would compensate for the self-reference criterion when marketing in Vietnam

3. Consider Majlegaards critique of Hofstede.

If you think Hofstedes empirical research matches the variety of the population then think again. His research was based on the male, white IBM employees in the 1960ies. How diversified do you think that group of people is? I can assure you that this group of people is not very diversified. IBM had a very strong corporate culture and either you fitted in or you left. And again only white mens cultural preferences were researched.

People who are referring to Hofstede when they are trying to make a point are assuming that the national culture is only or dominating culture that influences peoples behaviour. That is a false assumption. Each of us has many different identities. You have a gender identity, an age group identity, a professional identity, a family identity, a religious identity, a political identity, a social group identity and many many more. Most people have around 20 identities that they are aware up and rarely the national identity is the most dominant one.

• Compile a list of your socio/cultural identities
• Explain how these can inform a marketer in launching a product in a new country. How would knowledge of these inform a marketing campaign?