Process Standardization across Intra- and Inter-Cultural Relationships
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Process
and
Inter-cultural
Intra-
Relationships David A. Griffith* UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
Michael Y. Hu** KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
John K. Ryans,Jr.*** KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
Theoiy suggests that culture may hinder the ability to effectively standardize the process of relationship development strategies across intraand inter-culturalrelationships.Construct relationships between trust, commitment, conflict and satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships are examined intra- (i.e., within a single cultural type) and in-
The
appropriatenessof using a glo-
bally standard strategy has been the subject of intense academic debate and research for several decades (cf., Jain 1989). In fact, a lengthy body of literature and research has been developed concerning the extent to which marketing mix elements can be effectively transferred, in total or in part, from one coun-
ter-culturally(i.e., between different cultural types) with a sample of distributorsfrom Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States. Results support theoretical differences in the consequences of the trust-commitment relationship between intra-cultuml and inter-culturalrelationships. The results suggestprocess standardization based upon cultural type. try to another (see Baalbakiand Malhotra (1993) for a comprehensive literature review). Managers have long been interested in the standardization issue, since among other things, it suggests operational economies and the development of uniform best practices. Standardization has two fundamental aspects: program and process (Sorenson and Wiech-
*David A. Griffithis assistant professor of marketingand OU Associates Teaching Fellow at the Michael F. Price College of Business, The University of Oklahoma. * *Michael Y. Hu is professor of marketingat the GraduateSchool of Management,Kent State University. ** *JohnK. Ryans, Jr.is Bridgestone professor of international business at the GraduateSchool of Management,Kent State University. The authors would like to thank the editor and the three anonymous reviewers for their encouragement and comments on earlier drafts of this article. In addition special thanks go to RobertF. Lusch and Michael G. Harvey for their comments and support. JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONALBUSINESS STUDIES,
31, 2 (SECONDQUARTER2000): 303-324
303
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PROCESS STANDARDIZATION
mann 1975; Jain 1989; Shoham 1995).
While much research has centered on program standardization, e.g., the economies of scale-localization trade-off, little has been done to investigate process standardization, i.e., the tasks that aid in program development and implementation (Shoham 1995).
Process standardization involves the development of a common approach to such activities as establishing (and evaluating) a distributor network and translating currency equivalents. A standardized process for developing relationships is quite different from a standardiz
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