Cross Cultural Management(61) - Series Test (Re-test)

Part A

(Write Short answers to all questions; Each question carry 2 marks)

1.       Cultural Stereotype

2.       Elucidate organization of Culture or specific parts integrate to shape culture

3.       List any three consumer cultures and  reason behind its diffusion across the world

4.       List why Cross-Cultural Teams need particular attention for effective performance

Part B 

(Answer any two of the three questions ; Each question carry 6 Marks)

1.       Explain Edward T Hall’s Model of cultural Dimensions.Distinguish between High-Context and low-context Cultures from the point of view of

A.      Lawyers

B.      A person’s word

C.      Responsibility for Organisational error

D.      Space

E.       Time

F.       Competitive bidding

2.       Narrate Product-Communication strategies in Cross-Cultural Environment

3.       Narrate cross-cultural impacts on use of Expatriates in staffing

Part C

(Compulsory question; The question carries 10 marks)

Six-Year-Old Machi Nishiyama was shopping for dolls in a Ginza toy store in December 1996 when she was shown two models. One was a glamorous doll named Barbie, a replica of a 1960's model, with a stunning figure, heavy eyeliner, a bare-shouldered dress and a pearl choker. The other, named Licca, was a smaller doll with big eyes and a plain, knee-length dress.

''I want Licca,'' Machi said without hesitation. Asked why, she pointed to Barbie and said, ''Because her eyes are scary.'' While Barbie has adult, if stylized proportions, Licca has an oversized head with the big doe eyes that are so popular in Japanese comic books. She was meant to be a fifth grader, not a teenager. So it has gone for Barbie in Japan. Here, the world's most popular doll has always been a distant also-ran to Licca. With her bright blond hair, big blue eyes, white toothy smile and long legs, Barbie is simply ''too beautiful for the Japanese,'' said Atsuko Tatsumi, executive director of the Weekly Toy News, a Japanese industry newsletter. And Barbie's creator, Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy company, is not even in the top 20 suppliers in Japan, the world's second-largest toy market.

''Kids don't aspire to be older in this market because when you get to be a teenager you study all the time,'' said R. Eric Weber, the president of Mattel K.K., the company's Japanese subsidiary. If Barbie wins acceptance in Japan, it would be like a homecoming. Barbie was born in Japan, in that Japan was the original manufacturing site for the doll in 1959.

But when Mattel tried to sell Barbie here, it flopped. In the 1960's, as Japan was still rebuilding from the devastation of World War II, Japanese rarely saw foreigners and considered blond hair strange, said Soichi Masabuchi, who teaches doll esthetics at Japan Women's University. Moreover, Japanese felt inferior to Americans. ''Americans had big cars and air conditioners when Japanese homes didn't even have refrigerators,'' Mr. Masabuchi said.

Lesson one for Barbie: Keep your mouth shut. This is a country where women still cover their mouths with their hands when they laugh so as not to expose their teeth. After doing some consumer research, Mattel decided to soften Barbie's look for Japan. The main change was to close the mouth. Her skin color was also lightened.

Lesson two: Present Barbie in family settings, not as a professional woman-on-the-go. The rollerblading Barbie, a big hit in the United States, failed in Japan. But Barbie wheeling her baby sister Kelly in a stroller is a big hit here, as is Barbie's camping minivan.

1. What is Self Reference criteria? Elucidate inthe context of Mattel’s entry to Japanese Market                                                                                              (2 marks)

2. List Elements of Culture? and narrate how Mattel failed to capture it in the case of Barbie                                                                                               (4 marks)

3. Elucidate Product - Communication strategies ? Narrate how Mattel’ s approach to  Japanese market proved wrong?                                                     (4 marks)

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