3.1 Understanding the Global Environment

In the light of increasing globalization of the world economy, global marketing is a necessity for the survival of all organizations, big or small, rather than a luxury traditionally reserved for the multinational corporations (MNCs).

Several significant forces are reshaping today's global environment.

Important features of the global environment include regional trading alliances and different types of global organizations.

For successful globally move, management have to monitor changes in their global environment and must take specific characteristics of their location into consideration as they plan, organize, lead and control.

When managers enter the global arena, we may find them to hold different global perspectives.

Businesses managers might have one of the following perspectives or attitudes toward international business:

Ethnocentric attitude

Polycentric attitude

Geocentric attitude

Parochial Attitude

Monolingual Attitude

3.1 Understanding the Global Environment

Monolingual Attitude

Monolingualism is the condition of being able to speak only a single language.

Citizens of countries like Sudan, Germany, Italy and Malaysia speak two to four languages and this would be helpful in achieving competitiveness in the field of international business.

Parochial Attitude

Parochialism is a narrow attitude of people thinking that their local ways are better than the foreign ways, and thus, such managers would find difficulty to compete with other companies that are seeking to understand differences.

People with parochial attitude do not recognize the different ways other people live and work.

Parochialism is a barrier for managers who world in the global business arena.

3.1 Understanding the Global Environment

Ethnocentric Attitude

An ethnocentric attitude is a parochialistic belief that the best work approaches and techniques are those of the home country, the country in which the company's headquarters are located.

Managers with this attitude belief that people in foreign countries do not have the needed skills, expertise, knowledge, or experience to make the best business decisions as people in the home country

Polycentric Attitude

A polycentric attitude is the view that the managers in the host country, the foreign country in which the organization is doing business, know the best work approaches and practices for running their business.

Managers with such attitude view every foreign operation as different and hard to understand. Therefore, these managers are likely to leave their foreign facilities alone and let the foreign employees figure out the best way to do things.

3.1 Understanding the Global Environment

Geocentric Attitude

A geocentric attitude is a global attitude, which is world oriented that focuses on using the best approaches and people around the globe.

Managers with this type of attitude believe that it is important to have a global view both at the organization's headquarters in the home country and in the various foreign facilities.

Using geocentric view, major issues and decisions are viewed globally by looking for the best approaches and people regardless of origin.