ANTH 3765: Business Anthropology
FALL 2014
Dr. Andrew D. Wong
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course brings anthropological insights and sensitivity to business transactions, consumer
research, and organizational behavior. Through case studies, real-world projects and readings,
you will learn cultural awareness skills that help you conduct more effective business practices
and create more positive and respectful encounters with your counterparts from other nations
and from the various cultural communities of the United States. In addition, you will learn
about how anthropological methods and approaches are used to study consumer behavior and
organizational culture. This is a practical course, where you will learn social science theory by
seeing how it works in the real world.
This is an entirely online course. There will be no in-class meetings. You will need to access
this course through CSU East Bay’s Blackboard system. You will be required to visit the
Blackboard site for this course at least three days a week (on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday).
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Learn about qualitative research as a set of research methods, and situate anthropological
research within a methodological spectrum.
 Analyze business practices as cultural practices.
 See businesses themselves as communities with subcultures.
 Build reading, writing and analytical skills through academic class work (reading and
writing assignments) and independent research.
 Understand the domain of anthropology as one of the social sciences, focusing on social
science theories and methods.
 Understand how different cultural norms affect behaviors and expectation in business
dealings.
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REQUIRED TEXTS
Ferraro, Gary 2010. The Cultural Dimension of International Business (6th Edition).Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Jordan, Ann T. 2003. Business Anthropology. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Additional readings are posted on Blackboard.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Eight Discussion Board (DB) Assignments (40%)
You are required to complete EIGHT of the nine DB assignments.If you submit all nine DB
assignments, only the first eight will count towards your final grade. Please note that the
Discussion Board automatically closes at 11:59pm on Saturdays. Late postings will not be
accepted.
Student contributions will receive a grade of 0-10 points. Your initial contribution should be
about 500 words in length. You are required to:
1. post your initial contribution (in which you answer the questions in the prompt) by 11:59pm
on Tuesday.
2. comment on at least TWO other students’ posts by 11:59pm on Thursday.
3. respond to questions about your initial contribution by 11:59pm on Saturday. (You are not
required to respond if there are comments but no questions about your initial contribution.)
I encourage you to subscribe to your own thread, so that you will be able to read and respond to
other people’s comments in a timely fashion. Go to the thread you would like to subscribe to,
and click on the “Subscribe” button at the top right corner.
Consider the following when commenting on other students’ posts:



How clearly and accurately do they address the essence of the question(s)?
To what extent are statements supported by and connected to references in the text, articles,
lecture, or other research?
To what degree do they add new insights or something useful to the discussion, or enhance
our awareness of the topic?
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Grading Rubric for DB Assignments
Careful
Reading &
Inquiry into the
Subject (40%)
Relevant Quotes
& Examples
(20%)
Engagement
with Others
(20%)
Timeliness
(10%)
Outstanding
The initial
contribution
covers all the
relevant points
in the readings
and shows
original thought
that goes far
beyond the
obvious.
Quotes and
examples are
used to support
all key points
and they are well
integrated.
The student
commented on at
least TWO other
students’ posts
and responded
to questions
about his/her
initial
contribution.
All three
components (i.e.,
the initial
contribution, the
comments, and
the response)
were posted
before the
deadlines.
Good
The initial
contribution
covers most of
the relevant
points in the
readings and
shows some
original thought
that goes beyond
the obvious.
Quotes and
examples are
used to support
most key points.
They are not
always well
integrated.
The student
commented on at
least TWO other
students’ posts
but did not
respond to
questions about
his/her initial
contribution.
Not Applicable:
Only two levels
for this criterion
Average
The initial
contribution
covers only some
of the relevant
points in the
readings and/or
shows little
original thought
that goes beyond
the obvious.
Quotes and
examples are
used to support
some key points.
They are not
always well
integrated.
The student
commented on
only ONE other
student’s post.
Limited
The initial
contribution
rehashes ideas
from other posts
and/or suggests
that the reading
assignment was
scanned but not
read carefully.
Not Applicable:
Only two levels
for this criterion
At least one of
the three
components was
not posted before
the deadline.
Quotes and
examples are
seldom used or
quotes are just
dropped in
without
explanation.
The student did
not comment on
other students’
posts.
3
Quality of Prose
(10%)
The initial
contribution is
clear and
articulate.
Quotes are
properly cited.
The initial
contribution
contains some
minor citation
errors
and/or
mechanical
errors.
The initial
contribution
contains several
citation errors
and/or
mechanical
errors that are
somewhat
distracting.
The initial
contribution is
hard for readers
to flow and/or
contains multiple
citation or
mechanical
errors that are
highly
distracting.
I read but do not comment on all posts. From time to time, I comment on posts to give praise
and encouragement, to highlight key points, to point out omissions, to clarify misconceptions,
to encourage deeper thinking, and to redirect discussion if it strays from the main topic.
Term Project (25%)
For the term project, you will conduct a cultural analysis of a consumer product using data
collected from ethnographic interviews. The goal of the term project is to show you how
anthropological approaches and methods can be used in consumer research to generate insights
for developing new products, marketing strategies, and advertising campaigns.
The term project is made up of three assignments. The due date of each assignment is indicated
on the schedule on p. 5-p. 6. (See p. 7-p. 8 for details about the term project.)
Final Exam (35%)
The final exam will be posted on-line on the Blackboard site. The exam will be in the form of
short-answer, true-or-false and/or multiple choice questions. You will have one hour to
complete the exam. The exam will automatically “lock” after one hour. You may not start and
stop the exam. The exam will be open-book.
The final exam will be posted around 8am on December 8, 2014 (Monday) and will be available
through December 10, 2014 (Wednesday) at 5pm, with the exception of the normal a.m. period
during which Blackboard is unavailable due to servicing.
Please make sure that you have a reliable internet connection and that your computer is
working properly. If you are unable to complete the exam due to computer malfunctioning
(e.g., because the computer screen freezes) or any other technical reason, I will notbe able to
reset the exam for you and will need to give you another final exam, which will consist of three
essay questions. You will have an hour to answer the three essay questions.
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ACADEMIC HONESTY
Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism and cheating. Students who violate the University
rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of
failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Policies on scholastic dishonesty will
be strictly enforced.
GRADING
93-100%
90-92%
87-89%
83-86%
A
AB+
B
4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
80-82%
77-79%
73-76%
70-72%
BC+
C
C-
2.7
2.3
2.0
1.7
67-69%
63-66
Below 60%
D+
D
F
1.3
1.0
0
SCHEDULE – READINGS & ASSIGNMENTS
Weeks 1 & 2 (9/24-10/5): What Is Anthropology?
Read: Ferraro, Chapter 1; Jordan, Introduction
Due: Weeks 1 & 2 DB Assignment
Week 3 (10/6-10/12): The Idea of Culture
Read: Ferraro, Chapter 2
Due: Week 3 DB Assignment
Week 4 (10/13-10/19): Anthropological Methodology
Read: Jordan, Chapters 2 and 4
Due: Week 4 DB Assignment
Week 5 (10/20-10/26): Anthropology and Consumer Behavior
Read: Jordan, Chapters 5 and 6; Sunderland and Denny (p.57-p.64)
Due: Week 5 DB Assignment
Assignment 1: Topic and Interview Questions (Due by 11:59pm on October 25)
Week 6 (10/27-11/2): Business Organizations as Cultural Communities
Read: Jordan Chapters 1, 3 and 7
Due: Week 6 DB Assignment
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Week 7 (11/3-11/9): Globalization
Read: Jordan, Chapter 8
Due: Week 7 DB Assignment
Week 8 (11/10-11/16): Intercultural Communication
Read: Ferraro, Chapters 3 and 4
Due: Week 8 DB Assignment
Assignment 2: Ethnographic Interview Data (Due by 11:59pm on November 15)
Week 9 (11/17-11/23): Contrasting Cultural Values
Read: Ferraro, Chapter 5
Due: Week 9 DB Assignment
Week 10 (11/24-11/30) : Negotiating Across Cultural Divides
Read: Ferraro, Chapter 6
Due: Week 10 DB Assignment
Assignment 3: Data Analysis (Due by 11:59pm on November 29)
Week 11 (12/1-12/7): How Can Anthropology Improve Business Performance?
Read: Ferraro, Chapter 7 and 8; Jordan Chapter 9
Due: Week 11 DB Assignment
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ANTH 3765: Business Anthropology
Term Project
For the term project, you will conduct a cultural analysis of a consumer product using data
collected from ethnographic interviews. The goal of the term project is to show you how
anthropological approaches and methods can be used in consumer research to generate insights
for developing new products, marketing strategies, and advertising campaigns.
The term project is made up of three assignments. Please read the assigned reading by Patricia
Sunderland and Rita Denny (“Framing Cultural Questions: What is Coffee in Benton Harbor or
Bangkok?”) before doing Assignment 1. (It is one of the assigned readings for Week 5.) It will
give you an idea of what kind of data and what kind of analysis I am looking for.
Assignment 1: Topic and Interview Questions
First, identify a social group that you are interested in. People in this social group should have
similar demographic characteristics (e.g., male college students, stay-at-home moms, mid-level
business executives, professional women in their twenties).
Second, choose a consumer product that people in this social group use on a regular basis (e.g.,
beer, wine, iPod, cell phone, shoes, car, motorcycle, skinny jeans, and handbag).Do not pick
coffee; Sunderland and Denny use it as their example.
Third, come up with a list of about 10 questions that you would like to ask in your ethnographic
interviews. The goal of the ethnographic interviews is to find out the various meanings that
people in your selected social group attach to the product. Pretend that you do not know
anything about the consumer product in question.You can start with a few generalopen-ended
questions (e.g., “Tell me about ____ in your life.”, “What is ____?”, “What does ____ mean to
you?”) as Sunderland and Denny did in their example; however, you may also need to ask
questions such as the following:






How often do you use/buy/consume ____?
Why do you use/buy/consume ____?
When and where do you usually use/buy/consume ___ ?In what social contexts or
situations? (Ask for details: e.g., “Why do you go to Store X to buy___? What is special
about this store?”)
Can you think of any particularly memorable instances in which you used/consumed ___?
Tell me about them (Ask for details: e.g., “What else were you doing? Who were you with?
What feelings or emotions do you associate with these events?”).
When was the last time you used/consumed ____? (Ask for details.)
What is the most common occasion on which you use/consume _____? (Ask for details.)
Please post Assignment 1 on the designated Discussion Board forum.
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Assignment 2: Ethnographic Interview Data
For this assignment, you need to conduct ethnographic interviews with four people from your
selected social group. In addition to the questions that you came up withfor Assignment 1,
please feel free to ask any clarification questions and follow-up questions that you think will
give you insights into what the consumer product means to each interviewee. Pretend that you
do not know anything about the consumer product in question: suspendany preconceived
notions and try to understand the point of view of each interviewee. As Sunderland and Denny
point out, you may want to take the perspective of someone from another planet or the
perspective of a child’s first learning.
Encourage interviewees to talk about actual instances and specific examples. Try to elicit stories
about the consumer product in their lives. Stories, as Sunderland and Denny explain, “are often
good vehicles for understanding meanings because they are full of telling details (and emotion),
often without people even realizing it” (p. 59).
Take detailed notes and pay attention to all the details (e.g., what is talked about, what is not
talked about, and the way something is talked about). For this assignment, please submit your
notes to me via Blackboard. Remember to include basic demographic information (e.g., age,
gender, ethnicity) of each interviewee as well.
Assignment 3: Data Analysis
Analyze the ethnographic interview data collected for Assignment 2. Address the following
questions in a 750- to 1000-word essay:





Are there any similarities among the interviewees’ responses to the questions?
Are there any significant differences?
What did you find particularly interesting and/or surprising?
What insights did you gain from the ethnographic interviews?
How could these insights be used to develop new products, marketing strategies and/or
advertising campaigns? (Be creative in your answer to this question!)
The sample size is limited. Obviously, it is difficult to make any valid generalizations based
data collected from four people; however, remember that the point of the term project is to give
you a feel of ethnographic consumer research.
Please post Assignment 3 on the designated Discussion Board forum.
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