Culture‐sensitive adaptation or global standardization – the duration‐of‐usage hypothesis

Seeks to identify the dimensions which are relevant in the shaping of strategies for international marketing; it thereby addresses business managers. Considers the extent to which the marketing mix can be standardized in various different configurations of international marketing. Presents seven postulations about international (and global) marketing and about the standardizability of the marketing mix; as regards the latter, it points to the vast differences in international standardizability between the various product (or service) categories. Offers a hypothesis about the reason for the huge differences in the internationalizability of products, labelled the “duration of usage” symptom. Ends by pointing out that occasionally there is scope for a “cross‐cultural leap” for products with unpromising antecedents within the hypothesis of the duration of usage symptom.