Standardization versus Localization with Impacts of Cultural Patterns on Consumption in International Marketing

For a company to go global, a primary question to be answered is what should be a suitable approach in international marketing strategy, whether they standardize or localize their marketing strategy to adapt to the out-of-country markets that they want to penetrate in. It also is the challenge for global corporations to decide what marketing strategy to adopt (Kotler, 2009). Nevertheless, the issue is not whether to go global but how to tailor the global marketing concept to fit each business and how to make it work (Quelch & Hoff, 1986).  In the international marketing, a number of elements including macro and micro economic environment, legal issues, culture and infrastructure should be thoroughly considered. Among these elements, the culture plays a vital role in developing the international marketing strategy for a firm.This paper is to discuss about the standardization and localization in the international marketing strategy with advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. The further discussion of impacts of cultural patterns on consumption is addressed in both standardization and localization marketing strategy. Keywords: International Marketing Strategy, Standardization, Localization, Adaptation, Customization, Culture, Acculturation, Cultural Patterns

Sorting into Outsourcing: Are Profits Taxed at a Gorilla's Arm's Length?

This article analyzes profit taxation according to the arm's length principle in a new model where heterogeneous firms sort into foreign outsourcing. We show that multinational firms are able to shift profits abroad even if they fully comply with the tax code. This is because, in equilibrium, intra-firm transactions occur in firms that are better than the market at input production. Transfer prices set at market values following the arm's length principle thus systematically exceed multinationals' marginal costs. This allows for a reduction of tax payments with each unit sold. The optimal organization of firms hence provides a new rationale for the empirically observed lower tax burden of multinational corporations

Productization and interntional product strategy of K-12 education-related services – a case study

Service business has been fast-growing industry during the past decades. Recently, scholars and executives have realized the service industry's dominance in growth of the global economy. However, service development has received remarkably less attention compared to manufacturing. Finnish government officials have newly perceived the opportunity to exploit high appreciation of Finnish education in growing, international education market. The case company aims at increasing its international presence with K-12 education-related services. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to theoretically and empirically analyze the combination of productization and international product strategy with strong focus on K-12 education-related services. The author built the theoretical framework based on literature review that analyses different stages of productization of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) and the characteristics of the international product strategy. The productization process includes three main phases: service offering standardization, service offering tangibilization and concretization, and service process standardization and systematization. In international product strategy, high importance is given to standardization-adaptation dichotomy. The empirical data for this thesis was collected through interviewing the case company professionals and external experts in the field. The results show that K-12 education-related services can be productized to some extent through applying the named methods. Standardization has multiple benefits that can be achieved by developing a core product and supplementing it with more customized or preferably standardized parts and modules. However, flexibility is required in order to match the specific requirements of the target country in terms of culture, legislation and regulations

The Economics of Internet Markets

The internet has facilitated the creation of new markets characterized by large scale, increased customization, rapid innovation and the collection and use of detailed consumer and market data. I describe these changes and some of the economic theory that has been useful for thinking about online advertising markets, retail and business-to-business e-commerce, internet job matching and financial exchanges, and other internet platforms. I also discuss the empirical evidence on competition and consumer behavior in internet markets and some directions for future research.internet, market, innovation, advertising, retail, e-commerce, financial exchanges

Sorting into Outsourcing: Are Pro ts Taxed at a Gorilla's Arm's Length?

This article analyzes profit taxation according to the arm's length principle in a new model where heterogeneous firms sort into foreign outsourcing. We show that multinational firms are able to shift profits abroad even if they fully comply with the tax code. This is because, in equilibrium, intra-firm transactions occur in firms that are better than the market at input production. Transfer prices set at market values following the arm's length principle thus systematically exceed multinationals' marginal costs. This allows for a reduction of tax payments with each unit sold. The optimal organization of firms hence provides a new rationale for the empirically observed lower tax burden of multinational corporations.outsourcing; profit taxation; transfer pricing; arm's length principle; multinational firms

Sorting into Outsourcing: Are Profits Taxed at a Gorilla's Arm's Length?

This article analyzes profit taxation according to the arm's length principle in a new model where heterogeneous firms sort into foreign outsourcing. We show that multinational firms are able to shift profits abroad even if they fully comply with the tax code. This is because, in equilibrium, intra-firm transactions occur in firms that are better than the market at input production. Transfer prices set at market values following the arm's length principle thus systematically exceed multinationals' marginal costs. This allows for a reduction of tax payments with each unit sold. The optimal organization of firms hence provides a new rationale for the empirically observed lower tax burden of multinational corporations.outsourcing; profit taxation; transfer pricing; arm's length principle; multinational firms