Question

Is it really possible to predict changes in social trends far enough in advance to capitalize on them without significant risks? Justify your response in detail.

Answer 1

To predict the changes in social trends in advance, it is important to assess the cultural dimensions, its score on different dimensions as well as nature of the product, whether it has global appeal or it is more responsive to the local cultural and social trends. When cultural values show low level of indulgence, and high level of uncertainty avoidance and high level of collectivism, then it makes social trends to be more stable and can be predicted in advance as scope of change is very low and slow. But, when there is a huge level of indulgence, less score on uncertainty avoidance and individualism in culture, then social trends can become more unpredictable and it is not possible to predict in advance without any risk.

Further, if there is a global appeal in the product or services, then it is considered to be immune to the local social trends and its changes. People always prefer to get associated with the global brand. For example, if people like Coke then they like it in original form. So, change in social trends, does not affect these types of products with global appeal. In contrast to it, social trends become important when customization to the product is to be done. In this case, it is very difficult to predict the social change in advance without any risk. If not calculated properly, then prediction can backfire also.