Cross Culture in
International
Business
• Bachelors Program on Digital Business
• Foreign Trade University
• October 2025
• 2nd Class
3 things you want to learn from this class:
• Better understand others’ culture, • Become a responsible global citizen
values and perspectives • Understand Vietnamese culture
• Able to collaborate better with others, • Be more open minded
strengthen our ability to work as a
team • Understand customers’ behavior in
other cultures on digital business
• Become more confident in working in a
global setting • Appreciate cross cultural impacts on
business
• Adopt to global environment
• Deepen the understanding of various • Develop leadership skills in a
leadership style globalized world
• Become sensitive to the needs of
• Improve communication skills people from different cultural
• Empathize with others’ background
working/communication style • Work effectively in diverse cultures
• Develop effective negotiations skills
Benefits of studying culture for DB
• Better understand the behavior • Be able to become a responsible
of customers from different global citizen
cultural backgrounds • Strengthened skills on
• Expanded opportunities for good communication and team work
jobs to work in a global environment
• Improved skills to work with
others
• Enhanced communication skills
• Be able to develop business
strategies in a global
environment
• What is culture? Definition?
• What influences culture?
• How many cultures are there in the world?
Recap from
• Why do we study culture?
the last class • Why is it beneficial for businesses to study
culture?
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By Geert Hofstede : Scholar on Cross Culture Issues
The collective programming of the mind that distinguishethe
members of one category of people from another
By Merriam Webster: Dictionary
• a : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a
Definition of racial, religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features
of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared
by people in a place or time popular culture Southern culture
Culture • b : the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that
characterizes an institution or organization a corporate culture
focused on the bottom line
• c : the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated
with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic studying
the effect of computers on print culture
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What is Culture?
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• Vietnamese people are xxxx
• American people are yyyyy
• French people are aaaa
If you need to choose two words to describe the
National above national characteristics, what do you put in
each of the nationality?
stereo types → Noisy, silent, polite, rude, studious, lazy, hard
working, fast, slow, open minded, narrow minded,
elegant, arrogant, innovative, traditional
• Everyone thinks they are normal, and others are not
normal but who is normal?
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Who are they? American, Japanese, Italian,
German, Vietnamese, ???
A B C D
•Punctual • Punctual •Talks and Listens •Talkative
•Respectful • Listens and talks •Does one thing at •Friendly
•Hard-working • Casual a time •Aggressive
•Silent • Friendly •Plans ahead •Casual
•Formal •Formal •Not punctual
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• Appreciate culture much more deeply
How can we • Understand what is behind each culture
• History, geography, language, religion, law,
avoid stereo literature, food, etc.
typing? • Try to understand beyond surface
• And embrace the whole
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Proper Walmart Greetings
[Link]
Homework:
Walmart’s Group Presentation
case study
• Summary of Walmart’s case study
• Answers to the four questions
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1. Define the Walmart’s culture in the USA
2. Explain the Walmart’s strategy getting into
Four Germany
questions on 3. Discuss what Walmart should have done in
Germany
the Walmart
case study 4. What do you recommend the Walmart leaders
to do if they are to invest in Vietnam.
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Three basic models to understand cultural
differences
#1. Edward T. Hall – An American anthropologist who did some of the
first researches in the area of cross-cultural knowledge
• Monochronic and Polychronic Culture: Monochronic culture people like to do one thing
at a time. Polychronic culture people like to do several things at the same time.
• Low and high context culture: In a low context culture, everything is spelled out since
people there assume that things have to be explained. In a high context culture,
communicators assume much commonality of knowledge and views, so, much more is
communicated indirectly.
• Personal space: The amount of immediate personal space that is considered acceptable.
High territorial vs. low territorial
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Hall Model – Personal Space
• Show the photos
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Where？
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COVID19 vs. Social distancing
• Easy to do ‘social distancing’: Finland
• Difficult to do ‘social distancing’: many…especially in Southern
Europe like Italy, Spain, etc. Because their personal space is not large
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Three models to understand cultural
differences
#2. Geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher who did a large survey of IBM
employees worldwide as a start
6 dimensions
1. Power distance
2. Collectivism vs. individualism
3. Motivation towards Achievements and Success
4. Uncertainty avoidance
5. Long-term vs. short-term orientation
6. Indulgence vs. restraint
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Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions
1. Power Distance = Extent to which the less powerful members of a society
accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
• Authoritarian or Egalitarian
2. Individualism = whether individual decision making is encouraged or not and
people are generally held accountable for their mistakes.
• Individualistic vs. Collectivism
3. Motivation towards Achievements and Success* = Emphasis on aspects such as
achievement, heroism, material reward and competitiveness. The non-Motivation
towards A&S is a society which puts emphasis on co-operation, care for the weak
and quality of life
* This term was called ‘Masculine vs. Feminine.’ Recently the Hofstede
Institute changed this dimension to ‘Motivation towards Achievements and
Success’ so as to avoid misunderstanding. Some articles still use Masculine
and Feminine.
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Hofstede’s 6 Dimension
4. Uncertainty avoidance = a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.
Countries with lower uncertainty avoidance may be more willing to experiment and
try out new ideas (risk taking). Cultures with higher uncertainty avoidance
commonly prefer rules and structures to flexibility and creativeness.
• Risk taking vs. risk avoidance
5. Long-term orientation = Time horizon for business objectives, planning and
performance.
• Long-term vs. short term
6. Indulgence versus restraint = Cultures that favor indulgence favor the
gratification of human drives to enjoy life and have fun. Cultures favoring restraint
consciously suppress the gratification of needs and regulate it according to strict
social norms.
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Country profile scoring by Hofstede
Power distance =
Individualism =USA Long-term = Korea
Australia more
more individualistic more long term
egalitarian than
than others than others
others
Uncertainty Indulgence vs. Motivation towards
avoidance = restraint = China Achievements and
Singapore more risk more restraint than Success = not very
taking than others others clear
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#3
Three Lewis Model: Richard Lewis is a scholar from
the UK. Inspired by E. Hall.
models to • Developed three categories and in which
understand every culture and individuals has a place.
cultural • Surveyed more than 75,000 people from
over 200 countries
differences • Included emerging countries such as from
East and South Asia, and Africa
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Based on the surveys, observation and analyses,
RL categorized the countries into three groups
⚫Linear Active – talks half the time, does one
thing at a time, plans ahead, sticks to facts
⚫Multi Active – talks most of the time, does
Lewis Model several things at once, plans grand outline only,
feelings before facts
⚫Reactive – listens most of the time, reacts to
partner’s action, polite and indirect, must not
lose face
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Homework #2 for the next class:
• Read “When Cultures Collide – Leading Across Cultures” (Chapter 1 to 3 : P3-
52)
• Understand the definition of culture by Richard Lewis
• Understand Linear Active, Multi Active and Reactive cultures
• Discuss why cultures matter when doing business
• Please give one concrete example of businesses affected by certain
cultures.
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