A five-country study of national identity - Implications for internationalmarketing research and practice

A number of studies in the international marketing literature have focused on the identification and discussion of differences across nations and cult ures. Unfortunately, the majority of these investigations focus on existing differences without addressing which of these differences have the potenti al to substantially affect international operations or how to make comparis ons within a framework which allows some measure of flexibility across nati ons and cultures. The objectives of this study were twofold: (1) to develop and measure the national identify of several different cultures in order t o establish a means by which similarities and differences can be placed int o a practically applicable context for international marketing decision mak ing; and (2) to establish initial generalizable national identity norms for making broad cross-cultural/cross-national comparisons. The results based on a five-country sample (ie. the USA, Mexico, Japan, Sweden and Hong Kong) show that, within the theoretical framework of national identity it is pos sible to identify such differences. Implications for both academic research as well as managerial derision making in an international marketing contex t are presented.