Go Shopping with Geert Hofstede

This week's activity will use the framework of Hofstede's dimensions of culture to a retail business in comparison to your own national culture.  Think of a large retail outlet, such as a supermarket or a department store, and the products and services they provide.  Take each dimension in turn and try to think of how it might be illustrated by the products and services available for sale.  

For example, from the De Mooij (2003) reading, in a country that scores high on masculinity, more ‘status’ items such as expensive watches and jewellery are sold.  De Mooij also shows that the percentage of food expenditure is negatively correlated with individualism (i.e. individualist cultures spend less on food, while collectivist cultures spend more on food). She argues that European collectivist cultures spend more on food than individualist cultures do because, in the former, food plays a key social function.

Take a moment to think about your previous visit to a business retail store.  How do the products and services illustrate the national culture through the cultural dimensions.  Find examples and post them in this week's forums.