Intercultural Competence - The Key to Successful International Marketing:Intercultural Behavioral Training as an Approach to Market Development

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: A, Comenius University in Bratislava (Faculty of Management), language: English, abstract: In todays globalized world, international marketing becomes more and more important for businesses aiming to be successful on a global level. As Monika V. Kronbügel shows in her up-to-date dissertation, attaining cross-cultural competence has therefore become a key factor in ascertaining businesss success. Cultural differences may lead to specific preferences and require an adaptation of the marketing strategy to secure a products profitability. Accordingly, already during the phase of product development, it is helpful to analyze the cultural and social context of certain customer groups. Especially in supersaturated markets with comparable company goods and services, economic success can depend on such comparatively slight product differentiation. However, the relevance of intercultural competence has often been overlooked. This dissertation introduces a 4-phase-model for intercultural training - the ITMC-Method. It is designed to support businesses in their intercultural development. The author investigates how far businesses already make use of their possibilities to meet the cross-cultural and developmental requirements. Monika V. Kronbügel is an expert on the subject of international marketing as well as on working with such a diversity approach. She has collected valuable experience in international business development for many years and is now managing her own internationally oriented company dealing with organizational & people development. Key words: marketing, culture, international marketing, intercultural marketing, cross-cultural, intercultural, management, global marketing, globalization, leadership, diversity, mentality, behavior, attitude, communication, training, learnings, ITMC