Marketing Policies in Multinational Corporations*

The growing involvement of American business in international production and marketing has caused both practicing managers and professors of business administration to ask themselves whether international management really differs from the management of domestic operations. It is tempting to argue that the principles of good management surely are not culture-bound, and that the sensitive and perceptive professional can readily transport his managerial skills to another environment and operate successfully. On the other hand, anyone familiar with the experience of major firms in foreign operations is aware of the many stories of decisions, which viewed ex post, were clearly cases of bad judgment or miscalculation. Although domestic operations are by no means free of unfortunate managerial decisions, one does have the impression that any attempt to construct a box score of successes and failures at home and abroad would show that management decision making is more hazardous in the out-of-country operations. Some firms have been operating abroad for so long that they can be as sure-footed in their international as in their domestic operations (perhaps even more so in some local markets where competition might be less intense or of a different character than at home); but especially for the corporation relatively new at the international game, the pitfalls in the path to profitable operations can be particularly troublesome.© 1970 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1970) 1, 1–20