Shushan Harutyunyan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AxelMondrian, addressed marketing strategy, market-entry, and startup expansion challenges during the Yandex Hall / Yandex for Developers session. Harutyunyan highlighted a significant gap in business literature and practice concerning cultural adaptation. She noted that recent studies underscore the high cost of cultural adaptation in new markets, rooted in sociological perspectives on culture. Today, culture in its broadest sense is scarce in most parts of the globalized world, while interactive culture has emerged as a universally recognized phenomenon in modern sociology. Shushan Harutyunyan emphasized that this shift is neither positive nor negative but a reality to be acknowledged and incorporated into the strategy.
“Culture, in a broad sense, is the collective habit of local communities. With the Internet having created a ‘global village,’ the concept of cultural localization in business demands a critical reassessment,” stated Shushan Harutyunyan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AxelMondrian. “Our experience suggests that the localization of digital businesses, particularly, has become an outdated concept-not because the competitive market is any less vital, but because the behaviors once attributed to specific locales no longer directly correspond to geographic area, language, or religion. In this context, it’s not that culture is no longer influential, but rather that our understanding of cultural dynamics has fundamentally evolved.
Drawing on Émile Durkheim’s theories of social determinism, Shushan Harutyunyan contextualized these insights within marketing, new market entry, and startup strategy. She also referenced Marc Augé’s concept of “Non-Places” and supermodernist thought, presenting these ideas as a contrast to traditional cultural values and local customs.
Full Speech is available here.
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AxelMondrian opened its Yerevan office in 2022, offering Public Relations, Reputation management, and Creative communication services to leading companies in Armenia. Shushan Harutyunyan, the company’s Chief executive officer, has 17 years of experience in managing communication projects and is a graduate of Central European University and University of Oxford’s Said Business School. Her work experience includes implementing public projects, campaigns, and branding in Armenia, EU countries, and the Middle East.
