Introduction
In the assigned case, an Argentinean food business failed to succeed as a dessert manufacturer in Uruguay despite having only one competing entity. This report will apply Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (CD) theory to explore Uruguay’s cultural environment and the target market’s culture-related preconceptions. From the analysis of four relevant CDs, Uruguayans are more likely than Argentineans to share preconceptions against alternatives to traditional cooking and offers that limit women’s ability to demonstrate commitment to families through food preparation.
Hofstede’s CDs: Market Environment and Cultural Preconceptions in the Case
The Argentinean business wrongly assumed that its original and intended markets were culturally identical. Hofstede’s CD theory posits that culture involves the mind’s collective programming and creates situations in which the members of one society tend to share similar values (Gerlach and Eriksson, 2021; Jackson, 2020). Overall, Argentina’s and Uruguay’s Hofstede CD profiles allow classifying the two as cultures from one group (Hofstede Insights, 2022). However, none of their scores on the various CD scales are identical (Hofstede Insights, 2022). It creates Uruguayans’ preconceptions regarding women’s roles, housework, and time-saving food preparation practices that the Argentinean team has failed to take into consideration.
Uruguay’s CDs, including power distance, differ from Argentina’s, making Uruguayans predisposed to sharing preconceptions regarding women’s self-esteem tied to the amount of time devoted to caring for their families. On the power distance (PD) scale, Uruguay scores higher than Argentina (61 versus 49), implying that Uruguayans are less disapproving of inequalities and treat them as a fact of life (Hofstede Insights, 2022). Thus, the business’s target market in Uruguay, middle-class women, are a bit less likely than Argentineans to challenge the status quo and protest against what could be called “kitchen slavery.” This preconception might contribute to the Uruguayan audience’s unwillingness to break power barriers, at least in their mind, by purchasing ready-made desserts that would enable them to invest more time in education and career growth.
Masculinity also contributes to the target population’s preconceptions and the market environment. Uruguay has lower scores on the masculinity scale compared to Argentina (38 versus 56), meaning that the first culture is more feminine (Hofstede Insights, 2022). In Hofstede’s theory, femininity increases the value of caring for others and conformity (Gerlach and Eriksson, 2021; Hofstede Insights, 2022). In terms of preconceptions regarding attitudes to cooking, this difference predisposes Uruguayan women to be more consistent than Argentineans in sticking to the traditional expressions of care, such as cooking all food without assistance. From the Argentinean manufacturer’s focus group research, Uruguayan women follow cooking traditions even in the preparation of gelatin. In Uruguay, the conformity element of femininity can create psychological barriers to violating traditions and purchasing ready-made food without any urgent reason.
Uruguay’s individualism and long-term orientation (LTO) also affect this foreign market’s environment, creating prejudice against non-traditional products and offers that seek to save an individual’s time, thus affecting his/her image in the group. Uruguay scores lower than Argentina on the individualism scale (36 versus 46), and its low LTO (20) makes it a normative society (Hofstede Insights, 2022). Similar to femininity, these two CDs make Uruguayan women share preconceptions concerning the importance of traditions and collectivistic values. In collectivistic societies, women purchasing ready-made products can be perceived as people trying to limit their investment in their family’s well-being and allocate more time to achieving individual aspirations, which will not be accepted positively. Thus, Uruguay’s market can be expected to treat time-saving foods without enthusiasm, and the case proves this tendency.
Conclusion
Finally, Hofstede’s CD theory explains the differences between the two markets and Uruguayan customers’ prejudice against desserts that require no cooking. In fact, the dissimilarities in CD profiles between the two markets can contribute to preconceptions that are manifested in Uruguayans’ purchasing decisions and peculiar attitudes to solutions aimed at saving housewives’ time. Therefore, CD scores represent a useful tool to spot even subtle cultural differences and make demand predictions.
Reference List
Gerlach, P. and Eriksson, K. (2021) ‘Measuring cultural dimensions: external validity and internal consistency of Hofstede’s VSM 2013 scales’, Frontiers in Psychology, 12, pp. 1-9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.662604
Hofstede Insights (2022) Country comparison. Web.
Jackson, T. (2020) ‘The legacy of Geert Hofstede’, International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 20(1), pp. 3-6. doi: 10.1177/1470595820915088