The Cultural Challenges of Doing Business Overseas - Essay Example

The main differences between the US and Czech culture are found in food preferences and style of life. In contrast to American consumers, Czech families prefer to eat at home which helps them to save time and money. Fast food and snack bars are not so popular in Czech Republic. The main target audience of Chicago Style Pizza would include young people and students, middle income families and busy professionals. Cultural differences cover the state of intellectual development of the people and the state of commercial development of the nation.

The major risks are underdeveloped fast food culture and strong cultural eating and food patterns. Steve can reduce these risks locating its snack bars in big cities and high populated areas, in business and students centres (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1999). Country-of-origin image can be positively perceived by Czech consumers. In theory, "country of origin based stereotyping may be universal in nature; however, the degree to which it is applied and the prominence given in the evaluation of the product varies" (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1999, 51). . Customer reactions to price and the judgments that customers make will be conditioned by their perceptions and attitudes toward the country of origin of Chicago Style Pizza.

On the one hand, consumers will be influenced by an American origin of the new venture and image of Italian cuisine (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1999).The comparative advantage is underdeveloped fast food market segment which proposes great opportunities for a new entry. Unique image of pizza and unique perception and attitude towards Italian food could have a positive impact on consumers' behavior. Taking into account fast food experience it is possible to say that it creates and develops its global image using American origin supported by the decision to extend and adapt new features influenced by the socio-cultural, economic, and political environments of the other countries.

For Chicago Style Pizza, the key to meeting market share or unit sales objectives is making product design changes in response to local market conditions. However, the benefits of achieving such objectives are weighed against the cost of changing a product's design and testing it in the market (Czech Culture Overview 2005). Attention to language skills in recruitment and opportunities for employees to learn another language are commonplace solutions which need no discussion. The understanding of social behavior and good manners in each country is also a very important sphere of IHRM practices.

While cultural differences may be regarded as a barrier to the achievement of a truly harmonised single market, they do not act as a barrier to doing business abroad. By adapting to local cultural conditions firms can operate successfully across the nations (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1999). Indeed, it is possible to argue that the