Instituting the marketing concept in a multinational setting: The role of national culture

A growing concern among international marketing managers is how to increase the market orientation and thereby performance of their transnational orga nizations. This study broaches this issue by investigating how the marketin g concept, the heart of the market orientation, may be established in a mul tinational setting and the effects of national culture on that process. Fro m a wide array of literature, the authors construct a theoretical framework and propositions on how global organizations may transform this philosophy from an abstract platitude to an operational reality. Their findings sugge st that the process consists of complex, interdependent steps-interpretatio n, adoption, and implementation of the marketing concept. Cultural values s hape interpretation and facilitate or impede adoption and implementation. T he overall framework and findings can be used to guide institutionalization of the marketing concept across the organizational span, in particular by anticipating culture-based reactions from international subsidiaries.