1.

0 INTRODUCTION

In this group assignment of International Marketing (GC20103), we decided to choose

Article no. 4 which is “A five-country study of national identity: Implications for international
marketing research and practice.” Next, we will provide an analytical report and critique on
article. More specifically, we will try to offer our own insight when criticizing the article. As a
guideline, there are several questions that we will address in our report.

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2.0 OBJECTIVES

1) To explain the objectives of the article

2) To determine the main arguments of the article
3) To compare and contrast the present research share similar line of argument with
previous studies
4) To verify the research provide ample and valid evidence
5) To briefly discuss the article contribute to our understanding on international marketing
6) To identify and evaluate the practical knowledge in the article to offer for international
managers
7) To improve our research in assignment

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3.0 DISCUSSION IN ARTICLE
3.1 QUESTION 1

OBJECTIVES OF THE ARTICLE

Generally, there have 2 main objectives. First is to develop and measure the national
identify of several different cultures in order to establish a means by which similarities and
differences can be applicant and used for international marketing decision making. Next is
to establish initial generalizable national identity norms for making broad cross-cultural or
cross-national comparisons.

In article, the result was based on a five-country samples which are from United
States of America (USA), Mexico, Japan, Sweden and Hong Kong. Thus, it also showed about
the theoretical framework of national identity it is possible to identify such differences.
Implications for both academic research as well as managerial decision making in an
international marketing context are presented. As we can see, national identity was made
up by 4 different components such as cultural homogeneity, belief structure, national
heritage and ethnocentrism.

In this article, it is to define and consider several fundamental issues if the construct
is to be fully developed in a useful form. One of the issues is including a definition of
national identity and its subcomponents. However, it is definitely to measure the national
identity of 5 countries in different ways such as 4 components from national identity in
different nation. Thus, it also used the 4 international samples for reliability and validity
analysis. Next, it is also to establish national identity norms.

In overall of this assignment, as we can see is about this study reveal 2 results of
fundamental importance to both international marketing researchers and practitioners.
First, analysis of the data show that across a range of nationalities, identify levels of
reinforce are placed on individual respondents respective for national identities. A second
key finding of this research is that it is possible, through the measurement of the NATID
scale, to empirically specify the aspect, or aspects, of national identity which a given
national culture may emphasize.

3.2 QUESTION 2

MAIN ARGUMENT OF THE ARTICLE

The main argument of the article is the current study focuses on to develop and
measure the national identify of several different cultures in order to establish a means by
which similarities and differences can be useful for international marketing decision making.
Unlike the other studies, this study will be more specific as it had listed out a few criteria
which were belief structure, cultural homogeneity, national heritage and ethnocentrism in

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forming national identity and how the criteria will affect the international marketing. This
study will take US, Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong and Mexico as target country because they
represent the major global market regions.

USA is one of the countries with strong relative national identity. According to the
study, it has a higher cultural homogeneity and national heritage. Foreign firms will have to
change their local marketing strategy to global marketing strategy for make the product
relate with the culture of USA in order to be able to penetrate the market of USA . For
example, the study shows that a company may advertise their product to USA in associate
with “Americans” activities such as baseballs or uniquely American geographic locations
such as Grand Canyon in order to penetrate market of USA.

Sweden is one of the countries with weak relative normal identity. Same as USA, it
has the higher cultural homogeneity and national heritage compared to belief structure and
ethnocentrism. However, the emphasis is lower than USA. This shows that a company may
penetrate the market without many efforts on entry marketing strategy, such as changing
the attribute, elements, aesthetics of the product for meet the local people’s culture.
People of Sweden will have high tolerance for foreign products which may contain other
different culture and yet they will not reject it and will accept it.

Japan, Hong Kong and Mexico are all considered as medium relative normal identity.
As for Japan, it has lower belief system and consumer ethnocentrism compared to national
heritage and cultural homogeneity. Due to Japanese less emphasize on Shinto belief system
in the aspect of purchasing intention on foreign product, foreign company will have less
impact while penetrating the Japan market. Low ethnocentrism of people in Japan also has
increase the foreign business opportunity and acceptance for foreign product.

Hong Kong has the higher level of consumer ethnocentrism. Despite Hong Kong is a
free degree of autonomy and being the important global trading point and has wide range
product offerings, the foreign firm’s marketing strategy will have to focuses on quality of life
of society.

Mexico also has the higher level of national heritage and cultural homogeneity. As a
proof, Mexico has the strong belief system on Catholic church which enhance the high level
of national heritage and cultural homogeneity. Same as USA, the foreign companies will
have to recognize the sense of cultural homogeneity of Mexico while penetrating the
Mexico market.

As a conclusion, most country emphasize on national heritage and cultural

homogeneity. Thus, foreign company will have to focus on different of cultures and applied
those differences as one of the considerations while penetrating the other markets.

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3.3 QUESTION 3
Does the present research share similar line of argument with previous studies?
Overall, the present research focus on the different between culture and also
identify or establish one possible means by which culture similar and differences can be
placed into a particular applicable context and the generalizable norms of national identity
for use in making cross-cultural/cross-national comparisons. But the previous studies do not
represent a foundation upon which a more generalizable understanding of the international
market environment can be constructed.
There are some basic components of the national identity which is belief structure,
culture homogeneity, national heritage and ethnocentrism. In this case, this study is
different from the previous study which is the previous studies on focus on the
identification the similar and differences between culture and nations is less valuable and
useful compare to the present research. Besides of same research with the previous study,
the present research has the important placed by a given culture or nation on its uniqueness
and the specific elements that define the uniqueness. The studies about the uniqueness of
the culture and nations are useful for businessman and international investment to access
the foreign market with a strong position and stable.
In aspect on measuring the national identity, the previous research contrasting the
measurement instrument, the initial pool which is consist 114 items that measuring the
components of belief system, national heritage, cultural homogeneity and ethnocentrism.
This measurement is using five examples of countries which are US, Japan, Sweden, Hong
Kong and Mexico. But the item has been reduced to 17 items for the present research
measurement. Although this cut-offs might be appear somewhat arbitrary, but this cut-offs
helps saving more times and more efficient. There is two type of measurement which is
means and standard deviation for calculate the either strong or weak national identity and
the NATID scale. The NATID scale using to identify the basic elements of national identity
and emphasize would provide a mechanism for more effectively tailoring operation within a
country.

3.4 QUESTION 4
Does the research provide ample and valid evidence? How does the article contribute to
your understanding on international marketing?
First, the research had provides valid evidence that measuring national identity from
4 perspective. It includes national heritage, cultural homogeneity, belief system and
consumer ethnocentrism.

Besides, in constructing the measurement instrument, an initial pool of 114 items

built around the 4 elements but it reduces to 90 items due to redundancy. These items were
generated using personal interview with business professional from US, Japan and other
countries. The disadvantages of personal interview might have limited in its ability to

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identify all countries. This investigation is to develop a standardized approach which could
be applied in a variety of setting.

Follow by six expert judges evaluated the 90 items for clarity and appropriateness in
capturing the intended national identity dimension. The judges were selected based on their
expertise in the area of international marketing research. In order to retain 1 item from the
list only if at least five judges considered the item is easily understandable and theoretically
relevant. Some of the items were modified and eliminated from the list. This resulted in a
pretested scale of 70 items. For the purpose of easily administered to respondent which
leads to the elimination of 53 items.

The article is also examined the national identity by calculation in mean and
standard deviation. The test was combining and weighting the four dimensions mentioned
in national identity which enables the process in analysing to be more accurately.

Secondly, through this article, I learnt the different cultures and nations have a
variety of characteristics affecting the decision making process in the aspect of international
marketing. According to the article, national identity has provides usable information
because there are only 4 perspective or core traits, included national heritage, cultural
homogeneity, belief system and consumer ethnocentrism. The descriptive of investigations
in the article provides practical insights to the decision maker attempting to do business
within a given culture. However, they do not represent a foundation upon which a more
generalizable understanding of the international market environment can be constructed.
The cultural paradigm is the “global market” concept which the firms need to standardize
their product. Unfortunately, international market would be in different cultural
preferences, national tastes and standards, and business institutions are vestiges of the past.
Therefore, the firms most likely to be successful in international markets are those which
can understand and utilize according these differences to enjoy the competitive advantage.

3.5 QUESTION 5

What practical knowledge does the article offer for international managers?

We should understand the competitive environment that associated with

international business within or across countries. International managers should help firms
to identify and match the differences to accomplish competitive advantages in international
market. Although firm is managed to sustain the competitive advantages but difficult for
competitors to neutralize the advantage in the market. In article, national identity
framework allow practical and substantial international market segments to be developed
within more clearly delineated boundaries than may be possible from a purely cultural
perspective. There are few fundamental issues of this framework to be construct in a useful
form, this include the definition of national identity, function of national identity, elements
to define unique characteristic of a given culture’s national identity and usefulness of
national identity concept to international market operations.
This framework is not only considered about behavioral and personality
characteristics but also emphasized influence on the international marketing environment.

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International managers also need to understand the basic component of nation identity
such as belief structure. The national identity norms also provide a rough guideline for a
country’s responsiveness to their own national identity, it could be one of the guideline for
marketing strategy decisions on certain country.
The study of the article reveals few results. First, analysis show levels of emphasis
are placed on their respective national identities by individual respondents. While cultural
differences exist across nationalities, these differences will not be relevant to international
marketing activities. Through the use of the NATID scale, aspects of national identities were
empirically specified which a given national culture may emphasize.
With different level of national identity of the country, international manager should
emphasize different type of marketing strategy. For a strong national identity country such
as US, firms require adjustment to enter the market and implement marketing strategy from
the perspective of brand image that associated with some ‘Americans’ activities. For a weak
national identity country such as Sweden, firms will enjoy a business environment that open
for foreign firms as being reasonable tolerant in operating. For country that with a high level
of national heritage and cultural homogeneity but weak influence of belief system and
consumer ethnocentrism such as Japan, firms need to explicitly incorporate traditional
culture in their business and consumer interactions. National identity in Hong Kong contrast
with Japan, Hong Kong is having a lower of national heritage and cultural homogeneity but
high influence of belief system and consumer ethnocentrism. Firms should reveal
promotional activities which focus on positive aspects of a product offering while avoiding
comparisons and other confrontational marketing tactics that suitable for this kind of
market. Mexico is same as US, that having relatively high national heritage and cultural
homogeneity scores and the relatively low belief systems. Focus on national heritage or
cultural homogeneity is the key to enter Mexico market because Mexico culture is unique
and deep tradition.
The study of national identity of these five countries could be a guideline for
international managers to enter their targeted market. Since this study is given better
understanding on national identity and how to emphasize marketing strategy into countries
with different level of national identity.

3.6 QUESTION 6
How can we improve the research?
The author has notified several limitations in this study. He analysed data by using
population and sample as his methodology which has been conducted by choosing sample
carefully as the selected sample reflects the characteristics of population which it is drawn.
He was so tactful and considerate of choosing USA, Japan, Sweden, Hong Kong, and Mexico
as his sample countries as these countries have the superior position of representing the
major global market regions of North America, the Pacific Rim, Europe, Asia, and
Central/South America respectively. However, in the event of searching areas of
comparative commonalities other crucial characteristics may be ignored and lead to the
failure to full capture all corresponding construct related to any given national identity. To
ameliorate this limitation, further consideration is necessary by doing deeper research

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about the selected countries. Undergone exhaustive research can avoid misstep occur in
this study.
Furthermore, the cut-offs can appear somewhat arbitrary when developing the
norms. In this study, the process of establishing norms involves assessing the total
distribution of scores and it is summarized by calculating mean and standard deviation for
the group. To reduce the limitation, the formula of calculating mean and standard deviation
is required to record.
The sampling plan employed in this study is the third limitation faced. Although the
90 items were generated using the personal interview with international marketing
executives in combination with a review of the existing international business literature, it
may be somewhat limited in its ability to identify all issues related to national identity in the
200-plus countries in the world. However, six expert judges were asked to complete a
questionnaire in the personal interview phase. In order for research data to be meaningful,
the questionnaire and the procedures used to collect the data must be valid.
Thus, it is a substantial challenge to collect and gather data of a reasonable quality
from the five selected countries. Meanwhile, it can likely be argued that the representative
nature of the respondents for each nation relative to the entire population could be
increased. To improve such circumstance, one researcher is elected to gather and analyse
the data in one country so that data collected is more efficient and detail. In the process of
obtaining responses, the validity of a method is significant as it refers to how accurately it
measures what it is supposed to measure. Validity is threatened if respondents do not
provide accurate or honest answers.
Finally, the scale produced reliability scores which were slightly changeable,
especially in the case of Hong Kong. This results in a limitation when the nature of the Hong
Kong national culture is varied with native Hong Kong, Chinese, and European influences,
may affect the measurement of national identity somewhat constituting a difficulty in this
market. To improve this research, the author is encouraged to study the variety of cultures
thoroughly for better cognition. This can eventually minimize the sampling error.

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CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we manage to complete each objective in assignment. Overall, one of
the objectives in article is to establish initial generalizable national identity norms for
making broad cross-cultural or cross-national comparisons. Second, main argument of the
article is the current study focuses on to develop and measure the national identify of
several different cultures in order to establish a means by which similarities and differences
can be useful for international marketing decision making. Next, one of the differences
between present research and previous study is previous studies do not represent a
foundation upon which a more generalizable understanding of the international market
environment can be constructed. Furthermore, the research had provides ample and valid
evidence. However, one of the practical knowledge is understand the competitive
environment that associated with international business within or across countries. Finally,
the author has notified several limitations in this study. For example, he analysed data by
using population and sample as his methodology.

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REFERENCE

1) Barkema, H., Bell, J. and Pennings, J. (1996), ``Foreign entry, cultural barriers, and
learning'', Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 17, pp. 151-66.

2) Drucker, P. (1997), "The global economy and the nation-state'', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 76
No. 5, pp. 159-71.

3) Keillor, B. D., & Hult, G. T. M. (1999). A five-country study of national identity:

Implications for international marketing research and practice. International Marketing
Review, 16(1), 65-82.

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