Developing and Marketing New Products in the Multicultural Global Environment : Recognizing and Managing Risks

The goal of this study is to help a multidisciplinary audience - product designers, engineers, business managers, marketers, etc. - better understand why the culture factor plays such an important role in contemporary marketing and why a development process of every new product - tangible or intangible - has to include cultural analyses of future customers. The paper reviews extant literature, discusses various concepts in cross-cultural research and connects them to the processes of development and marketing of innovative products. The study examines sources of business risks and socio-economic costs of new product development and introduction to global markets and formulates propositions for future research. It focuses on the challenges presented by the multicultural global environment related to differences in business ethics, negotiation styles, power of personal networks and the needs of diverse consumers. Analysis of B2B, B2G and B2C markets is illustrated by examples from high tech and consumer goods industries, and serves as a basis for managerial implications