Building Trust in a Cross-Cultural Context: The National Investor in United Arab Emirates and Egypt

• Main Authors: Bouazzi, Cherif, Lawal, Suleiman Nadabo
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan i Gävle, Företagsekonomi 2018
• Subjects: Trust; network; adaptation/standardization; cross-cultural context; international marketing; financial services.; Economics and Business; Ekonomi och näringsliv
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-27534

Aim: The aim of the study is to examine trust development in international marketing of financial services marketing of the National Investor (TNI) in UAE and Egypt. To achieve this, the researchers adapted Fregidou_Malama and Hyder (2015) framework of international services marketing that explains cultural influences on Adaptation/Standardization, network and trust formation in international services marketing. Method:  A single case study approach is used as the research strategy and qualitative research using semi-structured interviews. The research uses qualitative interviews as the primary source of empirical data. Results and Conclusion: This study indicates that cultural values play a major role on the way people communicate, interact and conduct their businesses within the financial services sector in UAE and Egypt, and that cultural values, origins, policies, rules and regulations are factors that can affect how international companies build trust relationships within local cultures. Our results show that cultural dimensions such as power distance, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/feminity affect trust building, networking and adaptation strategies in international marketing of financial service of the company. Research Contribution: This study contributes and shows the implication of the need for adaptation to satisfy customers’ needs and expectations in international marketing of financial services. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt have almost identical cultural dimensions, in order to build trust, TNI adapts its services to meet up with the Egyptian customers' needs and expectations. In addition, all of the previous studies that were conducted using Fregidou_Malama and Hyder (2015) framework are in the marketing of healthcare services of Elekta AB, Sweden whereas this study focuses on financial services and also conducted and compared two identical national cultures from two different countries and their influence. Suggestions for Future Research: One of the limitations of this research is that it is a case study and doesn’t reflect the overall international financial sector and therefore the results and observations indicated in this research might differ along with the variation of the studied environment.  Therefore, we recommend further study using the same model within the same financial service sector and the same business environment and compare with any European nation that is culturally distant from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.