Abstract:

This paper illustrates the main findings of a multi-country study carried out by Market Dynamics International between May and September 1999 on behalf of RAI International, the content provider for the international market (via cable and satellite) of RAI - Radio Televisione Italiana. The paper explores the issue of what cultural identity means in today’s global world; what superficial and deeper changes cultural identities undergo (the original, the current, the local) when transplanted elsewhere (or inherited or adopted); how the original identity gets integrated into and combines with other cultural identities (within the same person, or a cultural community, and in different countries); and which identity features are the strongest and the weakest. It illustrates the benefits of using a rather unconventional, although rigorous, methodological approach to culture-specific multi-country research, from both the client's and the researcher's points of view.