Self-reference criterion: – A person’s understanding or perception of market needs is determined by his or her own cultural experience. James Lee – developed a systematic framework to reduce perceptual blockage and distortion. This framework is known as the self-reference criterion (SRC) – which addresses the problem of unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values. In order to reduce cultural myopia or short sightedness, James Lee proposed a four-step framework which is as below:
(1)Â Â Define the problem or goal in terms of home-country cultural traits, habit and norms.
(2)Â Â Define the problem or goal in terms of host culture, traits, habits and norms. Make no value judgments.
(3)Â Â Isolate the self-references criterion influence and examine it carefully to see how it complicates the problems and
(4)Â Â Redefine the problem without the self-references criterion influence and solve for the host-country market situation.
An important skill that an international marketer needs to possess is that of unbiased perception. The framework of self-references criterion brings out this important skill to be learnt by international marketers. The use of SRC and the tendency towards ethnocentrism is widespread and it can become a strong negative form in international business. The international marketer must check this tendency to avoid misunderstanding and failure. In order to avoid SRC, a person needs to forget assumptions based on earlier experience and success and be prepared to acquire new understanding and knowledge about human behaviour and motivation.
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