The term "business anthropology" became more popular and
widely used in the 1980s, when anthropologists were hired in
full-time, non-academic practitioners in niches related to
consumer behavior and marketing. Prior to that time, the term
"industrial anthropology", "anthropology of work", or "applied
anthropology in industry" were used more frequently to denote
areas of research and practice focused on business related
phenomenon. More recently, the term ‘business anthropology’
has begun to be used more generically to refer any application
of anthropology to business-oriented problems. Currently
“business anthropology” is recognized as a subfield of the
discipline in applied anthropology.
Business anthropology professors at Wayne State University
define business anthropology as applying anthropological
theories and practices to the needs of private sector
organizations, especially industrial firms. Current research
initiatives in the field tend to be concentrated in (1) marketing
and consumer behavior, (2) organizational theory and culture,
and (3) international business, especially international
marketing, intercultural management, and intercultural
communication. We define business anthropology as a practical
oriented scholastic field in which business anthropologists apply
anthropological theories and methods to identify and solve real
business problems in everyday life.
Moreover, we define business anthropologists as all those
anthropologists who study business fields of management,
operations, marketing, consumer behavior, organizational
culture, human resources management, international business,
and so on, through anthropological methods, particularly
through ethnographic methods, such as participant observation,
informal and structured interviews, and other anthropological
based research methods. Business anthropologists are able to
play key roles in business world, such as help corporations
develop culturally appropriate ways of doing business with
suppliers, business partners, or customers; promote smooth
working relationships among employees who are more and more
likely, thanks to recent equal opportunity employment
legislation, to represent different age groups, ethnic groups, and
both sexes.
In practice, business anthropologists study almost everything
from marketing strategies to corporate culture, to business
development. For instance, University of Toronto anthropologist
Dr. Victor Barac has worked with Mutual of Omaha Insurance
to update its advertising strategies and with the Canadian film
industry in a project that entailed visiting theatres observing
everything from snack buying patterns to which posters drew
people’s attention, and interviewing patrons about their attitudes
and experiences. Business anthropologists can also facilitate
organizational restructuring for greater economy and efficiency.
In the next section we will discuss more in details about the
function and role business anthropologists in the modern
business world.
Business and industry are fundamental structures of organizing
economic activity to meet basic human needs in modern market
societies. For Baba, businessmeans the buying and selling of
goods and services in the marketplace, also known as commerce
or trade, while industryrefers to the organized production of
goods and services on a large scale, it consists of all the business
firms produce and marketing the same product. These terms,
when used by business anthropologists in their practice usually
are related to one or more of the three major domains of
business anthropological research and practice, namely 1)
anthropology related to the process of producing goods and
services, and the corporate organizations in which production
takes place; 2) ethnographically-informed design of new
products, services and systems for consumers and businesses,
and/or 3) anthropology related to the behavior of consumers and
the marketplace.
Today, business anthropology as subfield of applied
anthropology is not only taught in graduate programs in
anthropology but also included in the curricula of a number of
American universities offering the MBA (Master’s in Business
Administration) degree. It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that
the old association of business anthropology with a lack of
concern for human welfare still persists today among some
academic anthropologists. As business anthropologist Marietta
Baba puts it “business (still)… doesn’t sit well with most
anthropologists”. This attitude may reflect a lack of
understanding and appreciation, on the part of academic
anthropologists, of the skills and contributions of business
anthropologists. If so, it is sure to continue to weaken with time.
However, to the extent that this attitude reflects a more
widespread phenomenon – some academics’ general
disparagement of any kind of intellectual output other than the
theoretical – it may never entirely disappear.
Business anthropologists at Wayen State Univeristy have
successfully integrated anthropology with business education by
offering business anthropology courses and programs at the
University. They indicate that research has shown that failures
in the international business settings frequently result from an
inability to understand and adapt to foreign ways of thinking
and acting. The world, furthermore, is changing quickly and
decision makers need to understand these developments and
their implications. Utilizing anthropologists and anthropological
methods are important avenues for addressing these issues.
While an understanding of the cultural context of domestic
business is invaluable, the importance of culture is even more
vital within the international sphere. After all, in international
business the magnitude of the cultural differences is vastly
greater than in domestic situations and, as a result, the potential
for misunderstanding or inappropriate actions/decisions is
multiplied. When studying both domestic and foreign societies,
anthropologists are especially skilled in finding and explaining
patterns of behavior that impact strategies and tactics. This
focus can be used to improve business operations.
In fact, Jordan has observed that since the 1980s anthropology’s
influence within business schools has grown. Given the
increased role of business anthropology, it needs to be more
fully introduced in business education. Anthropologists in
business schools have played an important role in the
development of consumer studies within business education. For
example, Jerry Saltman and Grant McCracken at Harvard, John
Sherry at Northwestern, Eric Arnould at the University of
Nebraska/Lincoln, Barbara Olsen at State University of New
York-Old Westbury, Janeen Costa at the University of Utah, and
Annamma Joy at Concordia are examples of anthropologists
who have impacted the business education community. On the
other hand, business faculty like Ron Hill and Carol KaufmanScarborough, who received their training from business schools,
have embraced the ethnographic method and employed it in
their business research. Myself as a business professors had
successfully worked with my colleagues in the business
departments at two small comprehensive colleges and put
business anthropology into business program curricula. I have
also used anthropological approach to teach other business
courses, especially consumer behavior and marketing research
courses. I expect to work with my colleagues in the business
educaiton field in large to make busienss anthrpology as one of
the basic or foundmental business courses at more and mroe
business schools.