Application of Psychological Distance in Tourism
Marketing
(A Conceptual Review)
By
GelarehAbooali1
Banafsheh M. Farahani
Badaruddin Mohamed
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Global tourism industry has emerged as one of the important earners for the destinationrsquo;s economy. Hence, tourism sector has assumed a significant position in the national economic development. To Serve touristsrsquo; needs and formulate effective marketing strategies, it is imperative to understand the dynamics of global touristsrsquo; behavior and perceptions. The present research endeavors to study the psychological distance and its application in tourism marketing. Psychological distance embraces psychic and cultural distance. The concept of psychological distance is referring to a gap or differences that an individual perceives between his/her home country and a foreign country. In tourism context, this gap refers to perceived gap between touristsrsquo; home country and the destination. The current study while reviewing the literature will discuss the implication of psychological distance theory in tourism marketing.
Keywords: psychological distance, psychic distance, cultural distance, tourism marketing.
Introduction
The concept of psychological distance is referring to a gap or perceived differences that an individual perceives between his/her home country and a foreign country (Haring;kanson amp; Ambos, 2010). The concept embraces two components, psychic distance and cultural distance which mostly used while studying two countries or two cultures. International business researchers have invoked this concept to explain issues dealing with the international business phenomena. The concept have been adapted to study the selection of export market and entry modes (Harzing, 2004); as well as management of human resources (Bjouml;rkman amp; Furu, 2000; Rosenzweig amp; Nohira, 1994); the ability of foreign distributors (Griffith amp; Harvey, 2001); communication and negotiation strategies (Rao, 1998); and the design for knowledge transmittal (Minbaeva, Pedersen, Bjouml;rkman, Fey, amp; Park, 2003; Simonin, 1999). As the business of tourism is becoming more worldwide and international the destinations planners and marketing managers are facing more challenges (Lazer amp; Shaw, 2000). To remain in international competitive, it is essential for businesses to launch new products and services for new segments. Due to variety in life standards and consumer behaviors of different countries interring into new international market is a challenging deal (Albaum amp; Tse, 2001; Lu amp; Beamish, 2001; Penaloza amp; Gilly, 1999; Pornpitakpan, 1999; Sousa amp; Bradley, 2005). Hence, multicultural marketing could be assisted by measuring and understanding psychological distance (Clark amp; Pugh, 2001; Eriksson, Majkga˚rd, amp; Sharma, 2000; Evans amp; Mavondo, 2002; Grosse amp; Trevino, 1996; Sousa amp; Bradley, 2006).
Both psychic and cultural distance concepts are used as the indicators to measure the perceived difference between two countries. So far, previous literatures may cause confusion by different definition of cultural and psychic distance and the relationship between these two. Hence, this paper aims to do an overall review on previous studies related to the psychological distance. The objectives of this research are to first investigate the relation between cultural distance and psychic distance and then explain the application of psychological distance into tourism marketing.
Psychic Distance
Johanson amp; WiedersheimI-Paul (1975, p. 308) referred to the psychic distance as factors preventing or disturbing the flow of information between firm and market. Those factors that commonly cited by researchers are language, culture, religion, climatic conditions, lifestyle, purchase power of customers and level of literacy and education (Evans amp; Mavondo, 2002; Johanson amp; Vahlne, 1977; Sousa amp; Bradley, 2006). Dow amp; Karunaratna (2006) postulated a method to conceptualize and measure psychic distance. They divided it into two related constructs, psychic distance stimuli and perceived psychic distance. The psychic distance stimuli refer to the Macro-Level factors. The other construct is perceived psychic distance which refers to the decision makersrsquo; perception of psychic distance. This perception will be a reaction to the psychic distance stimuli that managers exposed to and moderated by their sensitivity towards those stimuli. Differences in personal backgrounds and experiences have influence over the psychic distance stimuli (Dow amp; Karunaratna, 2006). In addition to the differences and instability caused by decision-makers sensitivity to stimuli Shenkar (2001) pointed that for many countries around the world factors such as language skills, ethnic background, religion, and education level are not homogenous across a nation. In line with this notion, Dow amp; Karunaratna (2006) discussed that it is a matter of matching the unit of the analysis with the measurement instrument. To measure the behavior of specific firm appropriate way is to measure the psychic distance stimuli of decision makers within that firm. Conversely, total behavior of a firmrsquo;s population ha
剩余内容已隐藏，支付完成后下载完整资料
资料编号：[482917]，资料为PDF文档或Word文档，PDF文档可免费转换为Word
以上是毕业论文外文翻译，课题毕业论文、任务书、文献综述、开题报告、程序设计、图纸设计等资料可联系客服协助查找。
