I think Betty Jane made an interesting suggestion.
The "Nova" example, among many others, could be a topic of discussion on how managers make decisions about potentially difficult-to-interpret branding and other cultural issues. In this case, it would be interesting to ask students whether they thought GM's use of the word "Nova" would create an interpretation problem, then discuss the differences in accent, separation of words to create a different phrase (no va), etc., which may or not be interpreted negatively by consumers. It may be an effective way of creating awareness among students about decision-making processes when making cross-border decisions - without misrepresenting the example..
__________________________
Jeffrey A. Krug | Office: 504-864-7148 | Fax: 504-864-7946 |
jakrug@loyno.edu
Jack & Vada Reynolds Chair in International Business |Professor of Strategy | Director, Center for International Business
Loyola University New Orleans | College of Business | 6363 St. Charles Ave., Box 15 | New Orleans, LA 70118
www.business.loyno.edu | Personal web site:
www.jeffreykrug.com
-----Original Message-----
From: International Management Discussion List on behalf of Nikos Bozionelos
Sent: Mon 6/18/2012 4:06 AM
To:
IMD-L@aomlists.pace.edu
Subject: Re: Naming names: Re: Perpetuating falsehoods: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish
Hello to everyone
From my perspective, I cannot see any absolution or justification in consciously providing false information to learners. Students' interest can be stimulated in many ways, and certainly one does not have to resort to actions that are ethically questionable. Besides, there are many true facts about culture and cultural differences that are inherently fascinating.
Nikos Bozionelos PhD CPsychol
Associate Editor for Career Development International <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=cdi> - a Thomson Scientific indexed Journal
Professor in OB & IM
Durham Business School
Durham University
Ushaw College
Durham DH7 9RH
United Kingdom
Tel: (44) 191 3345512
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http://www.dur.ac.uk/nikos.bozionelos/index.html
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From: International Management Discussion List [
IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] on behalf of Betty Jane Punnett [
eureka@CARIBSURF.COM]
Sent: 17 June 2012 22:50
To:
IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: Naming names: Re: Perpetuating falsehoods: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish
Great discussion! As one of the authors/lecturers who has perpetuated some of the intercultural myths, let me say that when I teach this 'stuff', I preface it by saying that we don't know the 'truth' of the examples, but that I believe they are helpful in getting the students to see the possibility of making mistakes internationally and interculturally. Students like these examples, and the key is to get them interested in the whole concept of cultural differences, so that they then want to go to a deeper level of understanding. A simulation like Bafa Bafa is not 'real' but it gets students' interest and that's the key. So let's not be too hard on the myths, but let's correct them wherever we can.
BettyJane Punnett
Professor, International Business & Management
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
Barbados
For Information on Managing: A Developing Country Perspective (Punnett, 2012, Routledge) go to
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From: International Management Discussion List [mailto:
IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 6:36 PM
To:
IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Naming names: Re: Perpetuating falsehoods: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish
This excellent article names names: Frank B. Tipton, (2008),""Thumbs-up is a rude gesture in Australia": The presentation of culture in international business textbooks", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 4 Iss: 1 pp. 7 - 24, Emerald Publ.
Hope for the USA? "If something is unsustainable, it will stop."--Herb Stein, an economic adviser to Richard Nixon
Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
AUT Business School N.Z.,
romie.littrell@aut.ac.nz<mailto:
romie.littrell@aut.ac.nz>
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
Facilitator, Leadership & Management in Sub-Sahara Africa Conferences
Contents copyright Romie F. Littrell
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From: David Kent <
dkent@GGU.EDU<mailto:
dkent@GGU.EDU>>
To:
IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU<mailto:
IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, 16 June 2012, 8:44
Subject: Re: Perpetuating falsehoods: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish
Miguel is absolutely right and it is also amazing to me how this "urban myth" has such staying power. I have seen it in several textbooks (whose authors will go un-named! ;-).
David H. Kent, PhD
Chair, Department of Management
Ageno School of Business
Golden Gate University
536 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel. (415) 442-6523
Fax. (415) 442-6579
>>> Miguel Olivas-Lujan 06/15/12 8:24 AM >>>
Excellent points, Romie! Just a couple of updates from a native Spanish speaker who lived in Mexico during the years that both the "Chevy Nova" and the "Nova" branded gas by Pemex could be found easily in the streets:
1. Pemex's "Nova" gas has been discontinued and "Magna" has been the cheaper brand (low-octane, around 87) for a decade or two (one credible version is that "Nova" still had lead on it, but the enactment of more stringent regulations at the end of the 20th Century made Pemex switch to the lead-free "Magna"; see a picture of a contemporary gas pump here:
http://www.mexadventure.com/MexicoTravel/Fuel.cfm; I'm sorry I could not immediately find an exact date in which "Magna" substituted "Nova" but I feel pretty confident that this happened before I started my doctoral-level education at the end of the 1990s). Still, the argument that Mexicans had no compunction about filling their tanks for decades, with a brand of gas named "Nova" is absolutely valid.
2. As a "Romance language", Spanish has inherited many words from ancient Latin, "nova" (i.e., new) being one of them. In elementary school, many children learn that an "estrella nova" (literally a "new star") is a night luminary that suddenly experiences very visible activity (see
http://www.astromia.com/glosario/nova.htm for a Spanish-language basic website explaining this term in some detail; want to see more sites with similar content? Check
http://www.bing.com/search?q=estrella+nova+astronomia&go=&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=estrella+nova+astronomia&sc=0-13&sp=-1&sk=; a related term is a "supernova", which also experiences very visible activity, but to a much greater scale).
One could argue that a vehicle is not the type of product that one would want to see shining and exploding like a so-called "new star", but -getting back to the main point-these words again support the fact that the word "nova" is not a term that native Spanish speakers would confuse with the sentence "No va" (yes, it is a full sentence with an implicit subject, for those of you English grammarians that are not used to considering a conjugated verb as a full thought)!! Bad choice of name for a car? Arguably, but I absolutely loved the analogy with the word "Notable" in English below!!! If the word "Nova" was ever an issue, it must have been for non-native speakers of Spanish!
Can't tell you how many times I've rolled (or just closed) my eyes after hearing this "classic example of poor cross-cultural marketing" in a wide variety of contexts (classroom, cocktail conversations, etc.). Unfortunately, this is not the only example of "perpetuating falsehoods" in our disciplines, but if we clear this one this decade, perhaps we have made some progress.
If your professional interests motivated to reading all of this note, I wish you, dear colleague, a great weekend!!!
Miguel
_____________________________
Miguel R. Olivas-Lujan, Ph.D. .:. Professor .:. Administrative Sciences
Clarion U of Pennsylvania .:. 840 Wood St. .:. Clarion, PA 16214
Tel: +1.814.393.2641 .:. Fax: +1.814.393.1910
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Let me know your thoughts on Dr Olivas' blog<http://drolivaslujan.blogspot.com/>
From: Romie Littrell <
littrellaom@YAHOO.CO.NZ<mailto:
littrellaom@YAHOO.CO.NZ>>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:37:22 -0700
Subject: Perpetuating falsehoods: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish
A False Claim: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish.
Summarised from:
www.snopes.com<http://www.snopes.com>, Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2012 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.
I'm still seeing publications and comments with the incorrect and misleading legend of "The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish. I become increasingly concerned about the diligence and responsibility of authors of textbooks and articles. As snopes.com points out, the 'Chevy Nova legend lives on in countless marketing textbooks, is repeated in numerous business seminars, and is a staple of newspaper and magazine columnists who need a pithy example of human folly. Perhaps someday this apocryphal tale will become what it should be: an illustration of how easily even "experts" can sometimes fall victim to the very same dangers they warn us about.'
Part of the fiction is that GM executives were baffled until someone finally pointed out to them that "nova" translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish. The embarrassed automobile giant changed the model name to the Caribe, and sales of the car took off. Actually Caribe is a Volkwagen model, not a Chevy. The truth is that the Chevrolet Nova's name didn't significantly affect its sales: it sold well in both its major Spanish-language markets, Mexico and Venezuela. (Its Venezuelan sales figures actually surpassed GM's expectations.)
From snopes.com: The original Chevrolet Nova (initially the Chevy II) hit the U.S. market in 1962. (This car should not be confused with the smaller, front wheel drive vehicle which was produced in 1985 as a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota and also assigned the Nova name.) Between 1972 and 1978 the Chevrolet Nova was also sold in Mexico and several other Spanish-speaking countries, primarily Venezuela. Shortly afterwards the great "Nova" legend arose, a legend which a little linguistic analysis shows it to be improbable:
First of all, the phrase "no va" (literally "doesn't go") and the word "nova" are distinct entities with different pronunciations in Spanish: the former is two words and is pronounced with the accent on the second word; the latter is one word with the accent on the first syllable. Assuming that Spanish speakers would naturally see the word "nova" as equivalent to the phrase "no va" and think "Hey, this car doesn't go!" is akin to assuming that English speakers would spurn a dinette set sold under the name Notable because nobody wants a dinette set that doesn't include a table.
Although "no va" can be literally translated as "no go," it would be a curious locution for a speaker of Spanish to use in reference to a car. Just as an English speaker would describe a broken-down car by saying that it "doesn't run" rather than it "doesn't go," so a Spanish speaker would refer to a malfunctioning automobile by saying "no marcha" or "no funciona" or "no camina" rather than "no va."
Pemex (the Mexican government-owned oil monopoly) sold (and still sells) gasoline in Mexico under the name "Nova." If Mexicans were going to associate anything with the Chevrolet Nova based on its name, it would probably be this gasoline. In any case, if Mexicans had no compunctions about filling the tanks of their cars with a type of gasoline whose name advertised that it "didn't go," why would they reject a similarly-named automobile?
This legend assumes that a handful of General Motors executives launched a car into a foreign market and remained in blissful ignorance about a possible adverse translation of its name. Even if nobody in Detroit knew enough rudimentary Spanish to notice the coincidence, the Nova could not have been brought to market in Mexico and/or South America without the involvement of numerous Spanish speakers engaged to translate user manuals, prepare advertising and promotional materials, communicate with the network of Chevrolet dealers in the target countries, etc. In fact, GM was aware of the translation and opted to retain the model name "Nova" in Spanish-speaking markets anyway, because they (correctly) felt the matter to be unimportant.
Additional information from snopes.com:
http://www.novaresource.org/history.htm
Debunking several urban legends: Ricks, David A. Blunders in International Business<http://www.snopes.com/sources/business/blunders.htm>. Cambridge, U.S.A.: Blackwell, 1993. ISBN 1-55786-414-4 (p. 35).
Hope for the USA? "If something is unsustainable, it will stop."--Herb Stein, an economic adviser to Richard Nixon
Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
AUT Business School N.Z.,
romie.littrell@aut.ac.nz<mailto:
romie.littrell@aut.ac.nz>
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
Facilitator, Leadership & Management in Sub-Sahara Africa Conferences
Contents copyright Romie F. Littrell