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Managing cultural specificity and cultural embeddedness when internationalizing : cultural strategies of Japanese craft firms

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Sasaki, Innan, Nummela, Niina and Ravasi, Davide (2020) Managing cultural specificity and cultural embeddedness when internationalizing : cultural strategies of Japanese craft firms. Journal of International Business Studies . doi:10.1057/s41267-020-00330-0 (In Press)

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00330-0

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Abstract

When entering international markets, manufacturers of consumer products are expected to adapt their products in order to meet local consumption practices. Doing so is particularly challenging for producers of culturally-specific products—that is, products that are little known, understood, or valued outside their original cultural milieu—whose operations are often deeply embedded in local conventions and traditions. To examine how SMEs navigate tensions between the cultural specificity of products and the cultural embeddedness of operations when expanding internationally, we conducted a multiple case study of Japanese producers of heritage craft located in Kyoto. Our findings reveal three strategies available to address these tensions—namely, selective targeting, cultural adaptation, and cultural transposition—and highlight the pivotal role played by local distributors and foreign designers, serving as cultural intermediaries, in bridging systems of domestic and foreign cultural practices and meanings. Our findings portray product adaptation as an ongoing process that unfolds along with a firm’s international expansion, as producers and intermediaries explore ways to bridge cultural differences. They illuminate the lengthy processes of learning and unlearning, adjusting, and rethinking that underlie managers’ efforts to strike a balance between standardization and adaptation as they internationalize.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Small business -- Japan, International trade -- Japan, Handicraft -- Japan, Export marketing --Japan, Cultural industries -- Japan

Journal or Publication Title:

Journal of International Business Studies

Publisher:

Palgrave Macmillan

ISSN:

0047-2506

Official Date:

2020

Dates:

Date	Event
2020	Published
8 May 2020	Available
2 April 2020	Accepted

Date of first compliant deposit:

20 April 2020

DOI:

10.1057/s41267-020-00330-0

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Publication Status:

In Press

Publisher Statement:

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of International Business Studies. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [insert complete citation information here, 10.1057/s41267-020-00330-0 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00330-0.

Access rights to Published version:

Restricted or Subscription Access

Description:

当进入国际市场时, 消费品制造商预计会让他们的产品去适应市场, 以满足当地消费行为。这样做对那些通常嵌入当地惯例和传统中运营的特定文化产品的生产商(即那些在其原始文化环境之外鲜为人知、理解和重视的产品)尤其具有挑战性。为了研究中小企业如何驾驭产品的文化特殊性与国际扩张时运营的文化嵌入之间的紧张关系, 我们进行了京都传统工艺日本制造商的多案例研究。我们的研究结果揭示了可用来解决紧张关系的三大策略, 即选择性靶标、文化适应和文化换位, 并强调了当地经销商和国外设计师作为文化中介在连接国内外文化实践和含义系统中所发挥的关键作用。我们的研究结果将产品适应描绘为当生产商和中介探寻如何弥合文化差异的途径时随着公司国际扩张而展开的一个持续的过程。他们阐明了经理人在国际化时实现标准化和适应之间的平衡所做努力背后的漫长的学习与忘却、调整与反思的过程。

RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:

Project/Grant ID	RIOXX Funder Name	Funder ID
296411	Academy of Finland	http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002341
PUT1003	Estonian Research Competency Council	http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005189
UNSPECIFIED	Liikesivistysrahasto	http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100008579