All of these different aspects of culture give humans an understanding of how the world works and how they live and act in their own environment.
Researchers indicate that culture can be characterized as a continuum between two extremes: tradition-based versus modern-based. This classification is further defined along with two interrelated dimensions: economic and cultural boundedness. Economically, modern-based cultures are characterized as market-driven, competitive, post-industrialized economic systems. The United States, Canada, and other Westernized societies are categorized as modern-based. In contrast, Africa, Asia, and Middle Eastern societies are typically categorized as tradition-based which is featured with centralized, cooperative, agrarian, pre-industrialized systems. .
The understanding of cultural boundedness of business (i.e., the willingness of a culture to relinquish its traditional methods and adopt new ones) is not only imperative for international marketing effectiveness but also for marketing to ethnic populations domestically (Reese 1998). A research conducted by the author (Tian 1987) in a minority region in China (a tradition-based culture) indicates that culture influences consumer behavior regarding products distribution. It is noted that the cultural orientation of the ethnic group consumers has helped to establish and maintain, through vendor loyalty, plenty of small retailers supported by an inefficient, multi-tired distribution networks. It makes the Chinese State-owned retail business far from being profitable let alone the foreign commercial institutions. Similarly, Griffith and Ryans indicate that cultural overtones in marketing operations are derived, to some extent, from consumer preferences. They suggest that "the cultural characteristics of a target market will be responsive to certain culturally bound channel structures, such as local stores, or bazaars- .
