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MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVES FOR GLOBAL BRAND MANAGEMENT

IN MULTINATIONAL CONSUMER BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES

Gehan D. Shanmuganathan, DBAAdjunct Professor of Business and Management,

School of Management, Metropolitan College of New York, USA

gshanmuganathan@mcny.edu

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Introduction

• Globalization and branding

• Importance of brand customization

• Consideration of multicultural factors of immigrant employees of multinational consumer banks operating in the United States

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Study focus

• Whether leaders in multinational consumer banks operating in the United States consider cultural factors (values, beliefs, colors, religion, taste, rituals, and symbols) of their immigrant employees in developing their global brand strategy when going global in order to reap above-average profits

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Conceptualization

Effective Global Brand Management as

Organizational Core Competency

Effective Leadership and Application of

Multicultural Perspectives of Immigrant Employees

in Global Brand Management

Above Average Profits for Corporate Growth

Independent Variable

Mediator Variable

Dependent Variable

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Research Question• “What multicultural factors (values, beliefs,

attitudes, education, religion, myths, colors, taste,

and rituals) are considered when designing global

brand strategy by multinational consumer banks

where there immigrant employees are employed

AND the magnitude of the consideration of each

cultural factor in comparison to indigenous banks

with their implications to the industry”?

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Research Hypotheses

• Hypothesis 01 – effective leaders consider cultural factors such as values, beliefs, education, religious values, symbols, and myths of immigrant employees of multinational consumer banks operating in the United States in their global brand strategy development.

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Research Hypotheses

• Hypothesis 02 – Multinational consumer banks operating in the United States utilize multicultural perspectives such as values, beliefs, education, religious values, symbols, and myths of immigrant employees in their global brand management compared to indigenous consumer banks operating in the United States.

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Research Hypotheses

• Hypothesis 03 – Charismatic leadership style is the most effective management style when considering cultural factors such as values, beliefs, education, religious values, symbols, and myths of immigrant employees in their global brand management.

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Summary of Literature Review

• Adams (2008), Asser (2009), and Gaal (2009) contended that multinational organizations significantly use multicultural perspectives in their international business

• Franken (2009), Bolten E, Liza (2010), and Shitaro (2010), argue that multicultural perspectives of immigrant employees in multinational organizations affect leadership in global brand management

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Summary of Literature Review

• Vadivelu, M. (2008), Whiteaker (2006), and Small, (2008) argue multinational organizations use values and attitudes as most critical cultural factors used in global brand management compared to indigenous organizations

• Niranjan, Michael, and Grasse (2008, 2009, and 2009) argue that charismatic leadership style is the most effective leadership style when conducting international business

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Summary of Literature Review

• Javidan, 2006; Kelly, 1988; Lewis, 1999; Morhart, 2009, have concluded that there is no specific leadership style that could be applied in managing global brands in organizations, and it depends on market size, potential, competition, potential market share, industry mechanism, demand, cultural aspects to demand, marketing capability of the organization, team dynamics, organizational structure, strategy, shared values, systems, and skills of the employees managing global brands

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Identified Gaps in Literature Review

• There were certain areas that were not available for survey in the literature and these areas are,– Application of cultural factors in

financial industry

– The importance of immigrant employees in organizations

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Methodology • A mixed, non-experimental, correlation

(explanatory) and causal-comparative

(exploratory) cross-sectional survey

research design was used to examine the

explanatory variables (global brand

management, cultural factors of immigrant

employees, and effective leadership)

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Methodology cont… • Sample size is 60 consumer banks branches (30

local banks and 30 multinational banks)

• Online Questionnaire was used to gather data

• Sample units were drawn under quota sampling

method from three strata and they are senior

managers (senior level), immigrant employees

(operational Level), and brand managers (functional

level) employed in multinational and indigenous

consumer banks operating in the United States

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Methodology (statistical aspect)

• ANOVA - indigenous and

multinational banks

• Regression analysis -Y=a+bx

• Correlation- r

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Results • Total number of participants were

175

• Total valid responses were 160 (complete responses) used for analysis

• Response rate was 91.43%

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How culturally diverse is the organization in terms of

employees on 1-10 Scale?

Answer Options Response Percent Response Count IB MNCB Total

1 4.50% 7 2 5 7

2 4.50% 7 3 4 7

3 6.50% 10 8 2 10

4 8.40% 13 1 12 13

5 11.70% 18 4 14 18

6 8.40% 13 2 11 13

7 13.60% 21 1 20 21

8 21.40% 33 0 33 33

9 5.20% 8 2 6 8

10 15.60% 24 1 23 24

answered question 154 24 130 skipped question 24

N=154

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Cultural Diversity of Employees in Indigenous and Multinational Consumer Banks

Operating in the United States on a 1-10 Scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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8

1

4

21

0

21

54

2

12

14

11

20

33

6

23

IB MNCB

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Consideration of Cultural Factors When Developing Global Brand Strategy

IB MNCB0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

12

75

23

40 YesNo

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Cultural Factors and Degree of Usage when Developing Global

Branding Strategy

Values Beliefs Attitudes Colors Taste Symbols Rituals MythsValues Beliefs Attitudes Colors Taste Symbols Rituals Myths

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

21

14

25

1

63

73

9289

92

86

93

8891

IBMNCB

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Correlation between Charismatic Leadership and Cultural Factor

Consideration Correlation between Charismatic Leadership and Cultural Factor Consideration

Charismatic Leadership (V1) Cultural Factor Consideration (V3)

VAR00001

Pearson Correlation 1 0.607

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.393

Sum of Squares and Cross-products 148448.55 1960229

Covariance 7813.082 653409.667

N 20 4

VAR00003

Pearson Correlation 0.607 1

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.393

Sum of Squares and Cross-products 1960229 2.66E+08

Covariance 653409.667 8.86E+07

N 4 4

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Multi Regression Analysis

Effective Global Brand Management (V4)

Charismatic Leadership (V1)

Cultural Factor Consideration (V3)

Types of Commonly Used Leadership (V2)

Pearson Correlation

VAR-4 1 0.415 0.152 -0.478

VAR-1 0.415 1 0.607 0.118

VAR-3 0.152 0.607 1 -0.501

VAR-2 -0.478 0.118 -0.501 1

Sig. (1-tailed)

VAR-4 . 0.293 0.424 0.261

VAR-1 0.293 . 0.196 0.441

VAR-3 0.424 0.196 . 0.25

VAR-2 0.261 0.441 0.25 .

N

VAR-4 4 4 4 4

VAR-1 4 4 4 4

VAR-3 4 4 4 4

VAR-2 4 4 4 4

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Discussion • Compared to indigenous consumer banks,

multinational consumer banks operating in the

United States reported a higher cultural diversity

• The consideration of the cultural factors such as

values, beliefs, attitudes, education, religion, myths,

colors, taste, and rituals when developing global

brands is significant in multinational consumer

banks compared to indigenous consumer banks

operating in the United States.

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Discussion • Despite the degree of consideration of

cultural perspectives of immigrant

employees in multinational consumer

banks, most critical cultural factors are

not considered with a significant

magnitude when developing global

branding strategy-Zheng (2009), Tyler

(2009), Snow (2005), and Sebenius (2002)

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Discussion • Mostly used cultural factors with a high

significance by the multinational

consumer banks are beliefs, colors,

symbols, and myths compared to other

cultural factors such as values, attitudes,

taste, and rituals that constituted a higher

degree of cultural importance for global

branding

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Discussion • Multinational consumer banks do not consider the

most critical cultural factors such as values and attitudes that play a critical role in global brand strategy development, compared to indigenous consumer banks

• Contradicts with study conducted by Vadivelu, M. 2008; Whiteaker, 2006; and Small, 2008 (argument -multinational organizations use values and attitudes as most critical cultural factors used in global brand management compared to indigenous organizations)

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Discussion • Data suggest commonly used leadership style

is situational leadership (delegating leadership style with the recorded response rate of 29.13% followed by coaching 25.59%, directing 22.89%, and facilitating 22.38%)

• Delegation with the ample authority of the leader induces the commitment level of the followers, especially in succeeding global brand management in multinational consumer banks.

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Limitations • Lack of literature and previously

conducted seminal work on key variables– Cultural factors for branding

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Implications and Relevance to Business Industry

• Efficient local and global brand management

• Use of cultural factors that serves as secondary data for other decision making (human resources)

• To increase stakeholder value

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Recommendations • Leaders of multinational and indigenous

consumer banks both must maintain a human resources data base to collect, analyze, and retrieve information for their brand management either locally or globally in order to manage their respective brands effectively in achieving above average profits

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THANK YOU….