Page 445 - Cultures and Organizations

410 IMPLICATIONS

the product of an uncertainty- avoiding design culture; the Boeing version
respects the pilot’s supposed need to feel in command.
In 1983 Harvard University professor Theodore Levitt published an
article, “The Globalization of Markets,” in which he predicted that technol-
ogy and modernity would lead to a worldwide convergence of consumers’
needs and desires. This presumed convergence should enable global compa-
nies to develop standard brands with universal marketing and advertising
programs. In the 1990s more and more voices in the marketing literature
expressed doubts about this convergence and referred to Geert’s culture
26
indexes to explain persistent cultural differences. Chapters 4 through 8

provided ample evidence of significant correlations of consumer behavior
data with culture dimension indexes, mainly based on research by Marieke
de Mooij. Analyzing national consumer behavior data over time, de Mooij
showed that contrary to Levitt’s prediction, buying and consumption pat-
terns in affluent countries in the 1980s and ’90s diverged as much as they

converged. Affluence implies more possibilities to choose among products

and services, and consumers’ choices reflected psychological and social
influences. De Mooij wrote:

Consumption decisions can be driven by functional or social needs. Clothes
satisfy a functional need, fashion satisfi es a social need. Some personal
care products serve functional needs, others serve social needs. A house
serves a functional, a home a social need. Culture influences in what type

of house people live, how they relate to their homes and how they tend to
their homes. A car may satisfy a functional need, but the type of car for most
people satisfi es a social need. Social needs are culture-bound. 27

De Mooij’s analysis of the development of the market for private cars across
fifteen European countries shows that the number of cars per one thousand

inhabitants depended less and less on income: it was strongly related to

national wealth in 1969 but no longer in 1994. This finding could be read
as a sign of convergence. However, the preference for new over secondhand
cars in both periods depended not on wealth but only on uncertainty avoid-
ance: cultures that were uncertainty tolerant continued buying more used
cars, without any convergence between countries. Owning two cars in one
family in 1970 related to national wealth, but in 1997 it related only to mas-
culinity. In masculine cultures husband and wife each wanted an individual
car; in equally wealthy feminine cultures they more often shared a car. In
this respect there has been a divergence between countries. 28