Differences in marketing managers' decision making styles within the Asia-Pacific region : implications for strategic alliances

Marketing managers around the world are being asked to work with foreign counterparts as never before, but with limited success. This requires integration of decision making styles. The purpose of this study is to apply a management style of decision making measurement technique to selected countries of the Asia-Pacific region to determine the extent of differences in decision-making style among marketing managers. This study surveys marketing managers within Australia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand, and China. Within each country different sampling processes and modes of data collection were used by locally-based associates of the researchers, as appropriate for the country. The study results indicate that substantive differences do exist between marketing managers from different cultural/national backgrounds within the Asia-Pacific region and these managers differ in their decision-making styles from managers in other parts of the world.