The comparison of intercultural marketing differences in the selected markets of the EU and the Eastern Europe with a focus on industrial organisations behaviour

Intercultural marketing is a constant process of marketing programs adaptation to the national or international target markets. Intercultural differences play an important role in the process of implementing marketing strategies, hence while doing marketing research, market segmentation and selection of suitable target groups, developing brand positioning and implementing marketing mix -- product, price, distribution and communication. The dissertation work of David Hrbek provides a reader with a complex of characteristics of cultural divergences in selected countries of European Union and Eastern Europe -- Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus -- with a goal to define manners of behavior of industrial (B2B) subjects in these countries, to analyze business environment and to synthesize the main findings about the ways of leading business negotiations. Based on numerous practical examples the author comes to the conclusion that in spite of the fact business negotiations in B2B markets have been determined mostly by rational data - product description, services, price, terms of delivery, payment conditions, etc. - it more and more appears, that knowledge of cultural disparities of particular countries, selection of appropriate methods of business negotiation with a foreigner, and ability to adjust business habits and ethics in foreign environment, significantly influence results of the business transactions. Without knowledge of local environment, language, hierarchy of values, historical and cultural heritage, and at last but not least careful selection of strategy and tactics of business negotiation, it would be very difficult to realize large and organizationally complex business contracts. The work has a highly practical use due to extended collection and synoptic comparison of business environments in seven selected European countries. The author offers broad analysis of political, legislative and economic factors, and describes specific conditions for selling Czech goods into the above mentioned markets. These data, collected in close cooperation with the Czech embassies and commercial representation abroad, are universally applicable for Czech exporters and establish a frame for further analyses in the area of social-cultural environments and leading business negotiations with foreign partners.