The Not-So-Wonderful World of Eurodisney

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Question 4

In my opinion, it would be the cultural differences. Disney has made mistakes in cross culture issues. In Hong Kong, Disney has only think of the Feng Shui part which is a minor segment in the Chinese culture. Whereas in France, Disney has only relocated the concept of American styled designed into Paris without looking into the tradition or values of French. Even after Disney discovered the importance of the drinking culture in France, they still chose to ignore and banned alcohol in the theme park. Secondly, it would be the price charges of the theme park. According to studies, France and Hong Kong are shown to be not very keen on willing to pay a high price on their purchasing pattern due to their finance situation. Lastly, since Hong Kong and France has their own different culture and preference, so it proves that France couldn’t help Disney to avoid some of the problems in Hong Kong. In the other hand, Disney should have clear understanding and knowledge on the cultures of these two countries before they built up the theme park.

Question 5

Ethnocentrism is when individuals believe that their own culture or group is better or more imporant than the others. High ethnocentric individuals tend to receive things that are more alike to their own culture but tend to refuse things that are different with their culture. (Samovar and Porter, 1995) Based on the case, it stated that EuroDisney has put effort on influencing another nation on their way of cultural principles and ethics to manage their business. Ethnocentrism tend to be very significant to every international business. Nonetheless, it become the undesirable part for EuroDisney’s case then it lead to failure in their first year of operation. (Hunt. L, 2009). In my opinion, ethnocentrism will be playing an important role to the Shanghai’s Disneyland. According to a research, it resulted that Chinese market are more positive to the business that are with their own local name. Thus, foreign brands are suggested to be more careful with their foreign brand strategies in the Chinese market. (Liu et al., 2006)