Cultural Adaptation Strategies in International Digital Marketing: A Study of Bugis-Makassar MSMEs Going Global
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59971/meta-journal.v3i6.478Keywords:
Cultural Adaptation, Digital Marketing, Bugis-Makassar, MSMEs, InternationalizationAbstract
Indonesian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) increasingly use digital platforms to reach foreign buyers, yet culturally rooted products and communication styles do not automatically travel across markets. This conceptual article examines how Bugis-Makassar MSMEs can adapt their international digital marketing without eroding the cultural identity that differentiates them. Using a structured narrative review of literature published mainly between 2021 and 2026, complemented by a few foundational works, the study integrates research on marketing standardization and adaptation, cultural intelligence, SME digital internationalization, and Bugis-Makassar values such as siri’ na pacce, lempu’, and sipakatau. The synthesis identifies four domains of adaptation: narrative and product, language and visual, platform and channel, and relationship and trust. It proposes a conceptual framework in which a retained cultural core and an adaptable periphery, guided by owner-manager cultural intelligence, shape cultural resonance, cross-border trust, and international marketing performance, with cultural distance, platform power, cultural intermediaries, and digital capability as boundary conditions. Six research propositions are advanced. The article contributes to international marketing theory by situating adaptation within an indigenous Southeast Asian value system, and it offers MSME owners, platform providers, and export-support agencies a structured agenda for practice and for empirical testing, preferably through multiple-case studies.
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