Abhijit Roy

Toward Intercultural Competency in Multicultural Marketplaces

Intercultural competency plays a pivotal role in creating a more equitable and just marketplace in which situations of marketplace vulnerability are minimized and resilience is enhanced. Intercultural competency is the ability to understand, adapt, and accommodate anothers culture. In this essay, the authors present a framework of intercultural competency development in multicultural marketplaces. They discuss resilience-building actions for multicultural marketplace actors, specifically, consumers, companies/marketers, community groups and nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers for three phases of intercultural competency development.

Immigration, culture, and ethnicity in transformative consumer research

Immigration, culture, and ethnicity (IC&E) research has a lengthy history in consumer research, though most research focuses narrowly on identity (and related topics) and has been done at the individual level of analysis. First, the authors discuss the need for research focused on assessing well-being at the collective level and highlight the important role of social networks and communities in improving consumer well-being and creating effective policy interventions. Next, they explore the utility of the emerging intersectionality conceptual framework for research on well-being and IC&E. They offer specific suggestions for designing policy-oriented research using this approach and illustrate the process by taking a well-regarded IC&E study and reimagining its design using a process-centered approach to intersectionality.

Predictors of Social Entrepreneurship Success: A Cross-national Analysis of Antecedent Factors

Abstract Even though the practice of social entrepreneurship has a long history, the field has only begun to gain academic attention in the past few decades. However, most of the literature to date focuses on theoretical and conceptual issues, and there continues to be a paucity of empirical work in this discipline. Using the number of social entrepreneurs in a country as a proxy for prevalence of the phenomenon is a strong predictor – the validity of the results was confirmed using two reputable databases of social entrepreneurs, i.e., the Ashoka and Schwab Foundations. Furthermore, the components of national-level attitudes for general entrepreneurship, i.e., perceived opportunity, no fear of failing, and aspirations of new technology, were found to be positively correlated with social entrepreneurship at the country level. Yet, national-level attitudes for networking and opportunities for start-ups, generally correlated with general entrepreneurship, were negatively correlated with social entrepreneurship. We also discuss the implications of our findings and discuss their consequences as well as suggestions for future research.

Managing and Leveraging Poverty: Implications for Teaching International Business

Over half of the worlds population lives on less than

Omission and Commission as Marketplace Trauma

2 a day, and yet international business education to date has continued to ignore the not so well-off customers. We propose a holistic pedagogical approach to studying this market by considering the historical background of the growth of inequality and poverty in different regions of the world, as well as the criteria for segmenting various levels of poverty. A two-pronged approach is then suggested to addressing poverty issues: first, showing how traditional international business principles can be adapted to address the needs of the impoverished market segment using a macro (top-down) approach, and second, how this untapped market can be harnessed for profits while simultaneously uplifting them out of poverty using principles of social entrepreneurship as a micro (bottom-up) approach. Exemplar case studies are used to illustrate these strategies, as are catalytic factors such as investments in technology, education, and capital, which help alleviate poverty in both cases. Finally, a debate about which of the strategies is more effective is outlined with respect to the salient issues.

Strategic social marketing

This article discusses the concepts of omission and commission as marketplace trauma within the theoretical framework of cultural trauma theory. The authors identify the meanings and processes of the people, activities, and outcomes likely when marketplace omission and/or commission occur, as well as the factors that elevate these events from collective to cultural trauma. The authors use concepts of social structure, collective practices, and collective discourse in exploring the interconnectivity of marketplace traumas and their actors, victims, and consequences (i.e., constrained consumption, damaged marketing systems, and institutional privilege). They then leverage the same framework to propose further research and corrective actions.

The New Emerging Market Multinationals: Four Strategies for Disrupting Markets and Building Brands

With the field of social marketing at a crossroads, there is an urgent need for newer paradigms and ways of thinking about marketing solutions to societal problems. Jeff French and Ross Gordon present an excellent book that seeks to provide frameworks for exploring such issues. In Strategic Social Marketing, the authors explore the why, what, and how of social marketing. The first section, which deals with the “why,” begins by outlining the importance of social marketing for social policy. Definitions of social marketing by Lazer and Kelly, as well as the European and Australian Social Marketing Associations, are presented, followed by a historical development of the field in the second half of the twentieth century. This includes Kotler and Zaltman’s pioneering definition in the early 1970s, which catapulted the overall movement to broaden the marketing concept. This is followed by discussing the three core elements of all social marketing programs—participant (consumer) orientation, exchange, and a systematic planning approach— as well as the six critical benchmarks for good social marketing interventions, including behavior change, consumer research, segmentation and targeting, the use of the marketing mix, and consideration of competition. A hierarchical model is proposed in studying social marketing problems where the first layer of the pyramid consists of the social marketing principle involving the creation of social value through exchange and social offerings, followed by a layer of social marketing concepts, including social behavioral principles, citizen/civic society orientation focus, social offerings, and relationship building. Finally, the top layer of the pyramid considers social marketing tools and techniques, including integration of the intervention mix and cocreation through social markets. The second part of the book deals with the “what” questions—the authors begin by introducing four interesting social marketing strategies, i.e., “hug,” “nudge,” “shove,” and “smack,” and discuss them in the context of five key types of intervention clusters, i.e., control, inform, design, educate, and support, and provide contingency frameworks for when a particular strategy is applicable and appropriate. The concept of the social marketing mix is discussed beyond the four basic elements of the marketing mix, including social media, branding, advocacy, and lobbying, among other components. The strategic social marketing planning process is discussed within the context of social program design, and several examples are given about how the selection and delivery of social programs can be optimized in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, the importance of creating value is discussed in the context of various dimensions, including functional, economic, emotional, social, and ecological ones. How such values can be created passively, actively, cocreated, destroyed, and codestroyed is also considered. The third and final part of the book discusses the critical “how” issues of implementing social marketing programs. The authors introduce the significance of systems thinking and how it helps deliver value and engender social good and assess how individuals, stakeholders, institutions, structures, and systems interact to create social forces for overall impact. Assemblages and actor network theories are used for further addressing the influence of these policies. The utility of theories and models used in program planning and research are suggested, and their respective strengths and weaknesses are identified. Research paradigms and approaches to tackle social marketing problems are also discussed in detail. The book has a mix of practical examples coupled with the theoretical underpinnings. Each chapter has a case study from a different region of the globe—examples include fighting childhood obesity in France (EPODE International); implementing family planning in Bangladesh via the Social Marketing Company (SMC); using intervention strategies and exploring social change management via Breast Screen Queensland (BSQ); evaluation of a smoke-free Scotland social marketing assemblage; and implementing the Water campaign in Rotterdam, Netherlands, among others. For those wishing to use this as a textbook in the classroom, a companion website has ready-made Power Point slides and other pedagogical resources. This book is a welcome addition to the existing collection of texts on social marketing, like those by Andreasen (1995) and Lee and Kotler (2015), among others. It is distinctive because of the greater coverage of global social marketing issues (assisted by the diverse nationalities of the authors—French from the United Kingdom and Gordon from Australia), as well as the systematic diagnostic approach (“why,” “what,” and “how”) to addressing social marketing problems. If the book does go into future editions, I would recommend that at the outset, the authors distinguish between several related terms such as societal marketing, cause marketing, etc. How does social marketing intersect with Yunus’s (2011) notion of social business? Most importantly, how should we prevent the misuse of the term in the mainstream media? Several popular books (see Braun 2014 as an

The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational by Nick Robins

Though rarely discussed in International Business textbooks, the age of the multinational began with the East India Companies in the early seventeenth century, dominated by the seven European corporations (i.e., British, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese, and Ostend [Austrian Flemish]). The second half of the twentieth century saw the advent of the multinationals from the United States, Europe, and Japan. In their book, Professors Chattopadhyay, Batra, and Ozsumer (henceforth CBO) discuss the new multinationals from the emerging markets (EMNCs) and four strategies for success in the twenty-first century. CBO based their recommendations on their own field research by interviewing top executives of 39 EMNCs including Apollo Tires, Bajaj Auto, Dabur, Godrej, Indian Hotels Company, Infosys, Mahindra, Marico, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Motors, Titan Industries, and Wipro from India; Chigo Group, Haier, Lenovo, and Midea from China; Arcelik, Evyap, Mavi, Temsa, Turkish Airlines, Ulker, and Vitra from Turkey; HTC and Mitac from Taiwan; Jim Thompson and Vara Food and Drink Company in Thailand; Aramex from Jordan; Asia Pacific Breweries from Singapore; Dilmah from Sri Lanka; Grupo Britt N.V. from Costa Rica; Grupo Modelo from Mexico; LG Electronics from South Korea; Mobile Telesystems from Russia; Natura Cosmeticos from Brazil; Pollo Campero from Guatemala; and Savola Foods from Saudi Arabia. They were then augmented by extensive use of secondary data, including media articles, case analyses, and conversations with experts in mergers and acquisitions. It is worth noting that the EMNCs originated in relatively poorer countries with per capita incomes of

Reengineering an urban slum: a case study of Dharavi, India

10,000 or less, while the triad-based MNCs (TMNCs) were from G7 countries with

The interrelationships between television viewing, values and perceived well-being: A global perspective

34,000 or more. Based on their research, the authors seek to answer three key questions: how are the up-and-coming EMNCs expanding their businesses globally, what lessons can other aspiring EMNCs learn based on the overcoming of resource and country-of-origin challenges of their successful counterparts, and what can TMNCs learn from the analyses and proactively respond to the new challenges? Some theorizing on these issues began in the last decade (see Ramamurti and Singh 2009 as an example); CBO have further provided informative and insightful frameworks for analyzing their success to date and their potential for growth in the future. The four strategies discussed are Cost Leaders, Knowledge Leveragers, Niche Customizers, and Global Brand Builders. The first two strategies are traditional, focusing on country-specific advantages, whereas the later two are new firm-specific advantages that shift gears and elevate the EMNCs to the next level of competiveness with the TMNCs. The four strategies are identified in a 2 £ 2 matrix with one dimension focusing on the differences in their approaches to markets and competencies, i.e., whether their focus is on similar emerging markets, where successes are easier to achieve or on lessfamiliar developed markets, where success is less guaranteed and more difficult. The first strategy comprises Cost Leaders like Arcelik in Turkey, which owns more than half of the country’s large appliance market, India’s Ranbaxy and Mahindra Tractors and China’s Midea and Chigo, all of which relentlessly focus on driving down costs, often through innovations. They arbitrage the country-specific advantages of lowercost labor, cheaper natural resources, and large-scale demand that primarily contribute to their global competitive advantage. The second strategy involves Knowledge Leveragers like Tata Motors and Asian Paints of India, Savola Foods in Saudi Arabia, and Pollo Campero in Central America, which apply their expertise of emerging market environments to their indigenous knowledge of these markets. They meet the demands in these markets for low-priced, functional, and durable products with a specific ethnic or regional character. They also have a familiarity with these markets, specifically the poor infrastructure, economic volatility, and less-transparent political and legal systems. The third strategy encompasses Niche Customizers, who take advantage of their cost structures to adapt and customize their self-owned flexible manufacturing facilities given their localized frugal innovation R&D abilities. For example, Godrej of India focuses primarily on hair color, soap, and household insecticides and sells primarily in South Asia and Africa. Similarly, Dabur focuses on the same markets but targets a different product, i.e., natural herbal products. The final strategy, Global Brand Builders, is the most ambitious of them all, since it involves either: (1) building own brands via focused innovation, like HTC of Taiwan, currently the fourth-largest mobile phone maker in the world and known for their innovative Android and Windows mobile products, and Brazil’s Natura, which