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Whirpool Corporation is the world’s leading marketer of major appliances. Its growth in the last ten years from a mostly domestic manufacturer to a global player is the result of a customer‐driven strategy adopted in which the company’s strengths are leveraged for growth around the world. Ivan Menezes, vice president, group marketing, Whirlpool Europe, talks about strategies and approaches that have made Whirlpool succeed not only in the fragmented European market but also in the emerging markets of central Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The key is to combine talent and best practice across borders to provide customers with value.

This article discusses the increased trade interdependence between nations and its implications. Both domestic and international economic policy‐making have to anticipate and accept the interlinkages between export and import flows. In setting economic goals, a long‐term global orientation is needed to cope with these interdependencies to maintain the cohesiveness of the free‐trade system.

A number of studies have assessed problems involved in introducing new products abroad and marketing them effectively on a global scale. This article focuses on the product‐development process and ways to make it multinational in scope. Data collected by interview from four industrial companies are used to discuss the means and objectives of multinational program management.

East European marketing progress has followed a series of economic reforms in different countries of the region. Changing marketing systems in these countries can be depicted as a move away from an authoritative to an integrative macro system. Most of the countries are at different points on this particular spectrum. Marketing reforms are more specifically related to both economic and managerial decentralisation. Most marketing decisions are beginning to be made at the enterprise level rather than at the central governmental level. U.S. and other Western practitioners must understand these changes so that they can expand their business with this potentially large market.

In every country, specific cultures exist. In comparison most businesses have a variety of different cultures because there are different people working within the company. People with the same religion, language, beliefs and values share a culture. This, in turn, is shared with all types of people in the same cultural system. Here the author examines the art of managing people who are from different cultures, taking into account their different set of values, traditions, and ways of achieving various goals. It exposes some of the problems inherent in the host (local) country where a home (parent company) manager refuses or is incapable of internalizing the local culture in which the expatriate operates. Business tactics are enforced and implemented differently depending on the culture the decision‐maker is from. Therefore, one should always think globally and act locally.

The importance of analytical techniques in international marketing is illustrated. An overview of related research is given. The question is asked, “Which way will research on the subject go in the future?”

Background to International Counterfeiting It has been estimated that counterfeiting, the unauthorized imitation of goods or services with intent to deceive (6), was responsible for approximately $60 billion in lost sales of consumer and industrial products in the United States in 1985. In comparison, $3 billion in sales were lost in United States market in 1978 due to piracy of reputable merchandise. Currently, counterfeiting has been estimated as increasing at an incredible rate of thirty percent a year. One of the fastest growing product counterfeit segments is in industrial products. Close to five percent of the total world trade consumer industrial products is accounted for by the importation of fraudulent goods and services. The counterfeit market in the United States exists and continues to thrive due to the immense demand for copies of well‐known, reputable brands, but at a fraction of the cost of the real item. By forging goods, counterfeiters reduce their costs by denying the royalties that rightfully belong to the originator of the forged item. In another aspect, if existing technology is copied from another firm, the counterfeiting organization has virtually no research and development costs while the firm that produced the technology costs are significantly higher than those of the counterfeiter.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of culture in international business studies, viewed from the perspective of textbooks in the field.

This paper analyses the separate chapters on the role of culture in 19 survey texts in international business at three levels: factual assertions; social and historical interpretations; and application of general theories.

Although all textbooks in international business emphasize the importance of culture, the survey reveals serious weaknesses at all three levels, including straightforward errors of fact, more subtle errors of interpretation, and serious problems with definitions and application of theories of cultural difference. The weaknesses are strikingly consistent, and the paper examines a range of possible common causes. Imbricated in the professional structures of the field, the authors appear to be under pressure from publishers, they share a US‐centred bias, and they appear professionally isolated.

Parallel to theories of nationalism and some postcolonial theorists, it can be argued that the implicit purpose of the texts is not to engage sympathetically with actual cultural differences, but rather to mould the next generation of American managers into a common pattern, by identifying an exotic cultural Other against which students will form their new identity. One of the consequences is that it does not matter greatly to the authors whether other cultures are presented accurately, or not. In practical terms, however, cultural differences are important and are recognized as such in international business studies, and so there is reason to hope that the texts will be improved.

Cork stoppers may taint as many as one in 33 bottles of all domestic US wines. Yet, because tradition is thought to play such an important role in shaping expectations regarding acceptable premium wine packaging, marketers have felt little need to test whether cork closures are indeed a critical consumer expectation. This paper serves as a guide toward understanding the obstacles which must first be overcome by those producers who wish to adopt cork substitutes for fine wines. This paper also offers insight into grappling with the implementation of problem solutions; shows why desirable solutions may not always be practical; and provides insight into why conflicting intrafirm departmental viewpoints, consumer expectations, and the competitive environment in which the firm or industry operates, can combine to lead the marketer to reject money‐saving superior product innovations. Preliminary work indicates that consumers reject label message conditions as a means of achieving acceptance of cork alternatives. The main objective of future research should therefore be to provide specific findings on how much positive and negative impact is likely to occur by changing the product design.