Chapter 5 Culture, Management Style, and Business Systems 153 than R-rated American movies with their sex and violence. In China, missionaries and reli-gious movements are viewed by the government as potentially dangerous and disruptive. Many in sub-Saharan Africa view Western intellectual property laws as a kind of exploita-tion that prevents treatment of AIDS for millions. During the 1997–1998 financial crisis, many government leaders in Southeast Asia decried currency speculation as the worst kind of corruption. To this point, studies show that countries high in collectivism, such as Asian countries, perceive higher levels of corruption in bank lending practices than individualis-tic cultures, regardless of government policies and other possible explanations.65 Finally, please recall the 2003 homogenization of Barbie described at the beginning of the chapter. Here’s what we predicted in a previous edition of this text: “And then there is Barbie having great fun in Japan these days. We hope the love affair lasts, but we are not confident it will. The article does describe the extensive marketing research Mattel did with kids. But there is no mention made about marketing research with their parents.66 We guarantee that selling a big-busted, blonde doll to their daughters will be viewed as a kind of corruption by some Asian parents, and perhaps governmental officials as well. Particularly, if America is perceived as pursuing military and economic hegemony, a strong reaction against symbols of America will follow. Watch out Barbie, GI Joe, and your other toy store friends.” Our criticism of Mattel then was on the mark in three ways. First, sales of Barbie declined worldwide after the global standardization. Second, parents and governments did react. Most recently the Iranian authorities began enforcing a ban against sales of Barbie, literally remov-ing products from toy store shelves in Tehran. The government’s reasoning involved the “destructive cultural and social consequences” of the marketing of the American product.67 Third, Mattel’s strategy boosted the sales of its competitors, MGA Entertainment, Inc.’s, multiethnic Bratz, Razanne, and, in the Arabian Gulf states, Fulla. Razanne and Fulla were both designed with Muslim girls and Muslim parents in mind. Fulla has waist-length black hair with red streaks, a round face with big brown eyes, a tan, a flatter chest than Barbie, and clothes that conceal her elbows and knees. We will again touch on this topic as it pertains to marketing research in Chapter 8. But for now, we switch from Barbie to bribery, another kind of corruption. Pope Benedict XVI wrote that the Harry Potter books and movies can “deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.” Meanwhile, Antonio Banderas perhaps helped improve European acceptability for Shrek 2 when he showed up for the Madrid premiere. In any case, products and services directed at kids get special attention from parents and regulators around the world. 65Xiaolan Zheng, Sadok El Ghoul, Omrane Guedhami, and Chuck C. Y. Kwok, “Collectivism and Corruption in Bank Lending,” Journal of International Business Studies 44 (2013), pp. 363–90. 66Lisa Bannon and Carlta Vitzthum, “One-Toy-Fits-All,” The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2003, p. A1. 67Alexandra Sifferlin, “‘Morality Police’ Officers Give Barbie Dolls the Boot in Iran,” Time, newsfeed .time.com, January 18, 2012.
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