In focusing on the need for a new mental model, we cite two issues of central concern to transnational business firms. These two issues are 1) recognizing the influence of national culture on the normal life of customers and the ways culture affects marketing plans and product development for that market and 2) recognizing the impact of global influences such as worldwide television culture on the environment of customers in foreign markets and how global TV culture influences values, lifestyles and the very perceptions of the firm's customers, and the firm's reputation in foreign markets. These customer-oriented issues have been neglected in the business literature or inadequately realized because of the absence of a conceptual model for dealing with the rapid, almost unconscious, influence of information on the perceptions of the customers
Cultural intelligence as a basic capability of transnational business is a significant competitive advantage. It allows decision-makers to go the first step beyond 'hard' quantitative techniques and linear conclusions to the consideration of 'soft' intangibles that lead the way toward the mastery of the art of global strategy, negotiation and marketing.
Michael Porter suggests that a nation's firms are often international leaders in industries that are related to the nation's national passions. A firm developing product for demanding and sophisticated consumers in the home market gets an earlier picture of emerging buyer needs and can often anticipate foreign demand. The American entertainment industry is such a leading-edge industry, successfully anticipating foreign demand. American movies, music, and television sit-coms. ubiquitous in worldwide TV culture, spread the themes of U.S. culture around the world, communicating a sub-text of American valuesâ American Expressive Individualism. Absorption of American values via TV culture is a major source of sociocultural change around the globe.