تاثیر تفاوت های فرهنگی در اتحادهای استراتژیکی ایالات متحده آمریکا در کانال صادرات بازاریابی بنگاه به بنگاه

Given slower growth and fierce competition in the domestic market, combined with increasing opportunities in many overseas markets, more and more U.S. companies are going international. While many doing so may initially use a direct exporting approach that relies on foreign channel members to distribute the product in the host country, over time, strategic alliances among distribution partners may form based on trust, commitment, and cooperation. For these alliances to succeed, the partners' perceptions of these variables need to be congruent so that expectations on each side of the dyad are reasonably similar. However, what happens when the cultural backgrounds of each channel partner are substantially different? This study empirically examines whether cultural differences do affect trust, commitment, and cooperation in international marketing channel alliances between U.S. exporters and their foreign distribution partners. Based on the survey responses from 149 U.S. exporters with marketing alliances abroad, cultural differences do affect trust, commitment, and cooperation. The greater the cultural differences between channel partners, the lower the levels of trust, commitment, and cooperation. Managerial implications are discussed, and study limitations are identified.

In the first decade of the 21st century, the U.S. economy is experiencing slower growth in domestic markets and fierce foreign competition. Entering foreign markets is no longer just something to think about, but rather an action that must be taken without delay by more and more U.S. companies. Many firms that enter international markets use a direct exporting approach that relies on overseas channel members taking products manufactured for the home U.S. market and making them available to final customers in the foreign countries to which they are exported. The use of such overseas distributors as an entry strategy for international marketing is usually quicker, less risky, and less capital-intensive than setting up joint ventures or establishing international subsidiaries to manufacture the products in foreign markets. On the other hand, using foreign distributors poses a formidable channel management challenge: the U.S. exporter needs to turn foreign distributor channel participants, who are essentially strangers, into partners willing to cooperate enthusiastically in promoting and distributing the U.S. manufacturer's products. Consequently, the foreign manufacturer must not only develop an inter-organizational channel structure for reaching final customers in overseas markets, but must build strategic alliances with these channel members as well. According to Webster (1992), strategic alliances require that channel partners share the same long-term strategic goals as well as commitment of capital and management resources. Building and managing these strategic alliances can be a difficult task. In the context of marketing channels, even though a written agreement may be signed by each channel partner, strategic alliances are usually not legally defined entities governed by state, national, or international laws. Rather, the real foundation underlying the relationship is based on trust, commitment, and cooperation between the parties. To work together successfully, the channel partners have to believe each other (trust), be willing to assist each other on a regular rather than on an ad hoc basis (commitment), and work together to achieve their goals (cooperate). Thus, the creation, nurturing, and sustaining of strategic alliances in international export channels must be based on substantial degrees of trust, commitment, and cooperation on the part of all channel members. Given that such strategic alliances are based on trust, commitment, and cooperation, the channel partners' perceptions of these attributes need to be congruent so that the expectations on each side of the dyad will be reasonably similar. For example, both sides of the dyad would need to perceive essentially the same long-term strategic goals and share similar views about what each is expected to contribute in terms of capital and management resources (Webster, 1992). When both channel partners in a strategic alliance come from the same cultural background, such consistency in expectations should be a matter of course because each would most likely share the same culturally defined norms of what constitutes trust, commitment, and cooperation. But what happens when the cultural backgrounds of each channel partner are different, as is often the case when exporters use foreign distributors with very different backgrounds? In the context of strategic alliances in international business-to-business export channels, this is a common occurrence. The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically whether cultural difference affect trust, commitment, and cooperation in international business-to-business export channels between U.S. exporters and their foreign distributors.

To continue to grow, more and more U.S. firms have looked overseas in recent years to find markets for their products and services. Yet, international marketing may still be a mysterious universe for many of these firms and so they tend to look for foreign market entry strategies that minimize risk and financial commitment. The use of foreign distributors to penetrate unfamiliar overseas markets has thus been an appealing approach for many U.S. companies. Foreign distributors presumably have the market knowledge and logistical capabilities to introduce the manufacturer's products to his customers while reducing the risk for the exporter. In theory, this is a win–win situation; the exporter can gain access to overseas markets relatively inexpensively while the foreign distributor gains access to a desirable product or service that adds to his revenues and profits. The problem arises from the mechanism used to implement this foreign market entry strategy and the marketing channel that ties the exporter and foreign distributor together. As this marketing channel emerges, all of the issues associated with inter-organizational management emerge as well. These include no clear lines of authority, no defined loci of responsibilities, and no explicit superior/subordinate relationship. In an attempt to overcome these challenges, partnerships and strategic alliances have been developed in recent years as the basis for channel relationships in both domestic and foreign marketing channels. Such strategic alliances, by their very nature, are based on trust, commitment, and cooperation between the channel members. Strategic alliances in an international marketing channels are essentially a meeting of the minds between channel members in that each will perform the tasks expected of him in such a way as to enhance the performance of his exchange partner. When cultural differences exist between exporters and their foreign channel partners, the alliance can be undermined if the cultural differences are significant enough to affect the communication process between the channel partners. Managers responsible for developing exports via foreign distributors need to pay close attention to the challenge of cultural differences in the channel.