INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
CHAPTER II
CROSS- CULTURAL BUSINESS
National Business Environment
1
Learning Objectives
Describe culture and explain the significance of both national culture and
subculture.
Identify the components of culture and describe their impact on business
activities around the world.
Describe cultural change and explain how companies and culture affect
one another.
Explain how the physical environment and technology influence culture.
Describe the two main frameworks use to classify cultures and explain
their practical use.
2
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture
Set of values, beliefs, rules and institutions held by a specific
group of people.
3
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Accommodating Culture- Avoiding Ethnocentricity Ethnocentricity:
Belief that one’s own ethnic group or culture is superior to that of others.
Understanding Cultural - Developing Cultural Literacy
Cultural Literacy: Detailed knowledge about a
culture that enables a person to function effectively
within it
4
NATIONAL CULTURE & SUBCULTURE?
National Culture: Nations- states support and promote the concept of a
national culture by building museums and monuments to preserve the
legacies of important events and people.
Subculture: A group of people who share a unique way of life within
a larger, dominant culture.
5
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Aesthetics
Values and Attitudes
Manners and Customs
Social Structure
Religion
Personal Communication
Body language
Education
Physical and Material Environments
6
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Aesthetics: What a culture considers to be in ”good taste” in the arts, the
imagery evoked by certain expressions and the symbolism of certain
colors.
7
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Values and Attitude
Value: Ideas, beliefs and customs to which people are emotionally
attached.
Attitude: Positive or negative evaluations, feeling and tendencies
that individuals harbor toward objects or concepts.
8
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Cultural diffusion: Process whereby cultural traits spread from one
culture to another
Cultural Imperialism : Replacement of one culture’s traditions, folk
heroes, and artifacts with substitutes from another
9
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Cultural trait : Anything that represents a culture’s way of life ,including
gestures, material objects, traditions, and concepts.
10
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Manners and Customs
Manners : Appropriate ways of behaving, speaking, and dressing in a culture.
Customs: Habits or ways of behaving in specific circumstances that are passed
down through generations in a culture.
 Folk Custom: Behavior, often dating back several generations, that is practiced by a
homogeneous group of people
 Popular Custom: Behavior shared by a heterogeneous group or by several groups.
11
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Social Structure
A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social
positions and their relationships, and the process by which its
resources are distributed.
Social Group Associations
Social Status
Social Mobility
12
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Religion
Christianity
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
Confucianism
Judaism
Shinto
13
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Personal Communication
System of conveying thoughts, feelings, knowledge, and
information through speech, actions, and writing.
Social structure : A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social
positions and their relationships, and the process by which its resources are
distributed.
Social Group: Collection of two or more people who identify and interact with one
another.
14
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Social Structure
Social structure : A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social
positions and their relationships, and the process by which its resources are
distributed.
Social Group: Collection of two or more people who identify and interact with one
another.
15
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Cultural diffusion: Process whereby cultural traits spread from one
culture to another
Cultural Imperialism : Replacement of one culture’s traditions, folk
heroes, and artifacts with substitutes from another
16
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE…
Social Structure
 Social structure : A culture’s fundamental organizations,
its system of social positions and their relationships, and
the process by which its resources are distributed.
 Social Group: Collection of two or more people who
identify and interact with one another.
17
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE…
 Social stratification : Process of ranking people into social layers or
classes .
 Social mobility : Ease with which individuals can move up or down a
culture’s “social ladder” .
 Caste system: system of social stratification in which people are born
into a social ranking, or caste, with no opportunity for social mobility
 Class system: System of social stratification in which personal ability
and actions determine social status and mobility
18
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE…
Religion : human values often originate from religious beliefs
.different religions take different views of work,savings,and material
goods
Personal communication
 Communication: System of conveying thoughts, feelings,
knowledge, and information through speech, actions, and writing.
 Lingua franca: third of “link” language that is understood by two
parties who speak different native languages
19
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE…
Body language: Language communicated through
unspoken cues, including hand gestures, facial expressions,
physical greetings, eyes contact, and the manipulation of
personal space.
20
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE…
Education: Education is crucial for passing on traditions,
customs, and values. Each culture educates its young people
through schooling, parenting, religious teachings, and group
memberships.
Brain drain : Departure of highly educated people from one
profession, geographic region, or nation to another.
21
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE…
Physical and Material Environments
 Topography: All the physical features that characterize the
surface of a geographic region.
 Climate: Weather conditions of a geographic region.
 Material Culture: All the technology used in a culture to
manufacture goods and provide services.
22
CLASSIFYING CULTURES
Kluckhohn- Strodtbeck Framework: Framework for
studying cultural differences six dimensions, such as focus
on past or future events and belief in individual or group
responsibility for personal well-being.
23
CLASSIFYING CULTURES
Hofstede Framework: Framework for studying cultural
differences along four dimensions, such as individualism versus
collectivism and equality versus inequality.
Individualism vs Collectivism
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Achievement vs Nurturing
24
THE END
25