International Business
Management
Chapter 4
The Role of Culture
4-2
Opening case
Bollywood, Hollywood, and Nollywood
4-3
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Chapter Objectives
• Discuss the primary characteristics of culture
• Describe the various elements of culture and provide examples of
how they influence international business
• Identify the means by which members of a culture communicate with
each other
4-4
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Chapter Objectives (continued)
• Discuss how religious and other values affect the domestic
environments in which international businesses operate
• Describe the major cultural clusters and their usefulness for
international managers
• Explain Hofstede’s primary findings about differences in cultural
values
• Explain how cultural conflicts may arise
4-5
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
The outline of chapter 4
• Characteristics of Culture
• Elements of Culture
• Theories of Culture
• International Management and Cultural Differences
The outline of chapter 4
• Characteristics of Culture
Culture
Culture is the collection of values,
beliefs, behaviors, customs, and
attitudes that distinguish one society
from another. A society’s culture
determines the rules that govern how
firms operate in the society.
Because we believe that there is another life after
we die and than we try to behave well in this life
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-8
• ACB
• 10.000 employees
• Lucky money of 500K
• Total : 5 billion VND
Characteristics of Culture
• Learned behavior:
• Interrelated elements: Because I believe there is another life after we
die, so in this life, I try to behave well
• Adaptive: Girl have baby before wedding
• Shared:
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-10
The outline of chapter 4
• Characteristics of Culture
• Elements of Culture
• Theories of Culture
• International Management and Cultural Differences
Figure 4.1 Elements of Culture
Language
Social
Communication
structure
Culture
Values/
Religion
attitudes
4-12
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Social Structure
Individuals, families, and groups
Social stratification
Social mobility
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-13
US <> UK
UK : difficult social mobility : even you get
financial success, but people still look your
family background
US: easy social mobility: if you get financial
success, and then everybody recognize your
success, respect you
Language
• 3000+ different languages worldwide
• 10,000+ different dialects
• An important means by which a society’s members communicate with
each other.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-15
Map 4.1 World Languages
4-16
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Translation Disasters
• KFC’s Finger Lickin’ Good
• Eat your fingers off (China)
• Pillsbury’s Jolly Green Giant
• Intimidating green ogre (Saudi Arabia)
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-17
Caterpillar Fundamental English
Caterpillar has developed its
own simplified language
instruction program
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-18
Yes and No Across Cultures
• Latin America
• meaning of “mañana”
• Việc hôm nay chớ để ngày mai
• Hôm nay chưa bắt đầu, ngày mai làm
• Japan
• meaning of “yes” versus “yes, I understand”
• Not mean “Yes, I agree”
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-19
Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal Communication
may account for 80-90 percent of all
information transmitted among
members of a culture
by means other than language.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-20
Table 4.1 Forms of Nonverbal Communication, Part 1
• Hand gestures • Touching
• Facial expression • Eye contact
• Posture and stance • Architecture/
• Clothing/hair style interior design
• Walking behavior • Artifacts and non-
verbal symbols
• Interpersonal
distance • Graphic symbols
4-21
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Table 4.1 Forms of Nonverbal Communication, Part 2
• Art and rhetorical • Taste, symbolism of
forms food, oral
• Smell gratification
• Speech rate, pitch, • Cosmetics
inflection, volume • Sound signals
• Color symbolism • Time symbolism
• Synchronization of • Timing and pauses
speech and
• Silence
movement
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-22
Stock market (thị trường chứng khoán)
• In Chinese market: Red means “INCREASE” / Blue means
“DECREASE”
• Red means Go down / Blue go up
Gift Giving and Hospitality
Gift giving is an
important means of
communication, but
what is appropriate
varies.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-24
• Chinese culture: you give
someone a watch, it means
you wish him/her die soon
Religion
Christianity
(Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox)
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
4-26
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Religion
• Do people have the right to do business?
• If I do business, I earn money (profit) and then I have the right to
invest my money to expand my business ?
• Catholic [France / Italy / Philippines / Mexico] : NO, you should give
your money to donation
• Protestant [ the U.S / U.K / Canada / Japan / South Korea] YES
• Islam: NO, you should give your money to donation
• Hinduism: NO
• Buddhism: NO
Map 4.3 Major World Religions
4-28
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Religion
• Imposes constraints on roles of individuals in society
• Buddhist : men go out to work / lady stay at home
• Islam : men go out to work / lady stay at home
• Affects the types of products consumers may purchase
• 1st and 15th of lunar month : people eat vegetables
• Varies from country to country
• Laos / Vietnam:
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-29
Values and Attitudes
Values are the principles and
standards accepted by the members;
attitudes encompass the actions,
feelings, and thoughts that result
from those values.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-30
Values and Attitudes (continued)
Time Age
Education Status
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-31
The outline of chapter 4
• Characteristics of Culture
• Elements of Culture
• Theories of Culture
• International Management and Cultural Differences
Theories of Culture
• Hall’s Low-Context, High-Context Approach
• Cultural Cluster Approach
• Hofstede’s Five Dimensions
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-33
Hall’s Low-Context
High-Context Approach
In a low-context culture, the words used by the speaker explicitly
convey the speaker’s message to the listener.
In a high-context culture, the context in which a conversation occurs
just as important as the words that are actually spoken, and cultural
clues are important in understanding what is being communicated
Advertising:
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-34
Figure 4.2 High- and Low-Context Cultures
Low High
U.S. / Canadian
Context Context
Scandinavian
Vietnamese
Japanese
Chinese
German
Spanish
Korean
British
Greek
Italian
Swiss
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-35
Arab
The Cultural Cluster Approach
An approach to understanding
communication based on meaningful
clusters of countries that share
similar cultural values
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-36
Map 4.4 A Synthesis of Country Clusters
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-37
Hofstede’s Five Dimensions
Social Orientation
Power Orientation
Uncertainty Orientation
Goal Orientation
Time Orientation
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-38
Social Orientation
Individualism Collectivism
Mexico
The U.S Greece
The U.K Hong Kong
Australia Taiwan
Canada Peru
New Zealand Singapore
The Colombia
Netherlands Relative importance of the Pakistan
interests of the individual versus
interests of the group
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-39
Power Orientation
Power Respect Power Tolerance
France The U.S
Spain Israel
Mexico Austria
Japan Denmark
Brazil Ireland
Indonesia Norway
Singapore Germany
Appropriateness of power/authority New Zealand
within organizations
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-40
Uncertainty Orientation
Uncertainty Uncertainty
Acceptance Avoidance
The U.S Israel
Denmark Austria
Sweden Japan
Canada Italy
Singapore Colombia
Hong Kong France
Australia Peru
Germany
Emotional response to uncertainty and change
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-41
Goal Orientation
Aggressive Passive
Japan The
Germany Netherland
Mexico Norway
Italy Sweden
The U.S Denmark
Finland
What motivates people to achieve different goals
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-42
Time Orientation
Long-term Short-term
outlook outlook
Japan The U.S
Hong Kong Germany
Taiwan Pakistan
South Korea West Africa
Vietnam
The extent to which members of a culture
adopt a long-term or a short-term outlook
on work and life
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 4-43
The outline of chapter 4
• Characteristics of Culture
• Elements of Culture
• Theories of Culture
• International Management and Cultural Differences
Understanding New Cultures
Self-reference
criterion
Cultural literacy Acculturation
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
4-45
Case study
Quacking up
a storm of business
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 1-46
Thank you!