¶ … economy may indeed seem borderless, borders do exist: what ethical boundaries have arisen in the New World Order of marketing, voluntarily imposed by individual organizations and nation states, and involuntarily imposed by circumstances?

International marketing: Barriers in a world without boundaries: Preliminary research proposal

My proposed research will center on identifying the specific issues in international marketing that are arising in the modern age. Technological advancements have made the dissemination of information and other non-tangible goods virtually borderless, and the increasing interconnectivity of the international community has also made trade in tangible goods more accessible.

Research into this area is incredibly necessary given the identified policy gap between many supply and consumer countries, as well as the cultural differences and general trading etiquette and custom that could present significant barriers to international marketing (Czinkato 2003). A general vagueness surrounding the field of international marketing also persist, largely due to the fact that the fields is often seen as an offshoot of other marketing strategies and scholarship rather than an independent field requiring its own pool of research and study (Czinkato 2003). This research will help to solidify the unique problems and challenges inherent to international marketing and attempt to suggest methods for overcoming these obstacles.

Limiting the scope of the research to ethical barriers and challenges in international marketing will make the scope of the project more manageable, and will still provide ample ground for research from various cultural perspectives (Saeed et al. 2001). It might even be necessary to limit the scope of the project to several common intercultural exchanges, examining only the ethical issues that arise from specific international relationships and the marketing that occurs between them.

References

Czinkato, M. (2003). "An international marketing manifesto." Journal of international marketing 11(1), pp. 13-27.

Saeed, M.; Ahmed, Z. & Mukhtar, S. (2001). "International marketing ethics from an Islamic perspective: A value-maximization approach." Journal of business ethics 32(7), pp. 127-42.