Reference no: EM132970120

Religion can impact international trade in several ways. Religion is a cultural institution that directly guides human behavior. If a religion encourages production, hard work, and commercial activity, it is likely to also encourage international trade. On the other hand, many religious cultures discourage the short-term "pursuit of happiness", and this could suppress people's desire to engage in short-term welfare-enhancing economic transactions. The relative strengths of religion's positive and negative institutional effects on international trade differ from one religious culture to another because each provides somewhat different incentives for human behaviour. Nowadays, many firms produce and sell worldwide and employ workers from different nations. Religion is a factor in global economic growth, perhaps more so in the Asian Pacific markets. Successfully accounting for it requires a corporate culture capable of engaging regional contexts where local elements such as religion can be like the air: unobservable to the eye but of tremendous influence and impact. There are several incidents that serve as evidence of the extent religion impacts upon international marketing. Mecca-Cola has become the drink which has come to be seen as "politically preferable" to Pepsi or Coke in many Muslim countries. Danish products were boycotted in many Islamic countries in protest over an offensive cartoon that was printed in a Danish newspaper. Mc Donald's Big Mac was a failure in India. 4 MIB603 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 0918

Given these pieces of evidence, explain, with examples, the influence of religion on international marketing.