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The Cross-cultural Impact on International Business. learned, shared, and enduring orientation patterns in a society. People demonstrate their culture through values, ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and symbols.
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learned, shared, and enduring orientation patterns in a society. • People demonstrate their culture through values, ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and symbols. • transmitted through the process of learning and interacting with one’s environment, rather than through the genetic process.
Cross-cultural proficiency is paramount in many managerial tasks • Problems arise in areas such as- teamwork, pay-for-performance system, union-management relationships, attitude towards ambiguity
All cultures of the world—despite many differences—face a number of common problems and share a number of common features • Allsocieties, if they are to survive, are confronted with fundamental universal needs that must be satisfied.
Economic Systems • the most obvious and immediate needs of a society is to meet the basic physiological requirements of its people. • Because commodities are always in finite supply, each society must develop systematic ways of producing, distributing, and consuming these essential resources.
Marriage and Family Systems • One should know about these systems, especially in those areas where one is running business • Important implication in labor contracts
A society must have an organized way of passing on its cultural heritage from one generation to the next. • This universal societal need for cultural transmission gives rise to some form of educational system in every society. • Knowledge of these is helpful for businessperson engaged in marketing strategies abroad.
Socio-control Systems • Every society has a system for coercing people to obey the social rules, and these are called social control systems. • In order to maintain order and good working relationships among employees, corporations operating abroad would be more successful by using local mechanisms of social control.
Religions and Other Supernatural Belief Systems • Societies develop supernatural belief systems for explaining these unexplainable occurrences. • Religions and other supernatural belief systems affect the conduct of business by shaping attitudes about work, savings, consumption, efficiency, and individual responsibility.
Research suggests that employees are socialized into three cultures: national culture, professionalculture, and corporate culture • Working effectively within these overlapping cultures is a major challenge.
There are numerous dimensions of national culture. • Can be grouped into two broad categories- subjective and objective
Subjective Dimensions of Culture • values and attitudes • manners and customs • deal versus relationship orientation • perceptions of time • perceptions of space • religion
Objective Dimensions of Culture • symbolic and material productions, such as the tools, roads, and architecture unique to a society.
Language- a Key Dimension of Culture • Language is such an important dimension of culture that it requires extensive treatment. • Often described as the expression or mirror of culture, language is not only essential for communications, it provides insights into culture.
Language- a Key Dimension of Culture • Linguistic proficiency is a great asset in international business because it facilitates cross-cultural understanding. • The same word can convey different meanings in the two countries- thus advertising themes often lose their original meaning in translation or convey unfavorable interpretations. • Business jargon can also impede communication
Metaphors • Spanish Bull Fight
Idioms • To roll out the red carpet • Beating around the bush • Barking up the wrong tree • “no está el horno para bolos”
High- and Low-context Culture Low-context Culture • Clear • Logical • Straightforward High-context Culture • Indirect • Polite • Sensitive • Non-verbal Cues
East VS West
Cultural Diffusion • it is seen to be superior to what already exists • it is consistent with existing cultural patterns • it is easily understood • it can be tested on an experimental basis • its benefits are clearly visible to a relatively large number of people
Impact on Business • Product design • Advertisement • Acceptability • Strategic guidelines
Communication • Analyze • Ethnocentric orientation
