Transcript Document
chapter six
Sociocultural Forces
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
International Business, 11/e
Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
Understand the significance of culture for international
business
Understand the sociocultural components of culture
Appreciate the significance of religion to businesspeople
Comprehend the cultural aspects of technology
Grasp the pervasiveness of the Information Technology Era
6-3
Learning Objectives
Understand why businesspeople must follow the trends of
formal education
Appreciate the importance of the ability to speak the local
language
Recognize the importance of unspoken language in
international business
Discuss the two classes of relationships within a society
Discuss Hofstede’s four cultural value dimensions
6-4
Rules of Thumb for Cross Culture Business
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•
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•
•
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Be prepared
Slow down
Establish trust
Understand the importance of language
Respect the culture
Understand the components of culture
6-5
What is Culture
• The sum total of beliefs, rules,
techniques, institutions, and artifacts
that characterize human populations
– Learned
– Interrelated
– Shared
– Defines the boundaries
6-6
Ethnocentricity
• Ethnocentricity
– Belief in the superiority of one’s own
ethnic group
6-7
Living with Other Cultures
• Realize that there are many different
cultures
• Learn the characteristics of those
cultures
– Spend a lifetime in a country
– Do training program
6-8
Culture Affects All Business Functions
• Marketing
– Variation in attitudes
and values requires
firms to use different
marketing mixes
• P&G Japanese
Camay commercials
• Disneyland Paris
• Human Resource
Management
– Evaluation of
managers
• Production and
Finance
– Attitudes toward
authority
– Attitudes toward
change
6-9
Sociocultural Components
• Culture is:
– Aesthetics
– Attitudes and beliefs
– Religion
– Material Culture
– Language
– Societal organization
– Legal characteristics
– Political structures
6-10
Aesthetics
• Culture’s sense of beauty and good taste
– Art conveys meaning
• Colors, symbols, numbers--Nike air
• Architectural style differences
• feng shui
• Music and Folklore
– Musical tastes vary
– Folklore discloses way of life
• Cowboys in Chile or Argentina
• Mexican singing cricket
6-11
Attitudes and Beliefs
• Attitudes Toward Time
– Vary across cultures
– Difficult area for some
Americans
– Directness and drive
• Perceived to be rudeness
– Deadlines
• Liability abroad
6-12
Attitudes Toward Achievement and
Work
• Germans put leisure first and work
second
• The demonstration effect
– Result of having seen others with desirable
goods
• Job Prestige
– The distinction between blue-collar workers
and office employees
6-13
Religion
• Responsible for many of the attitudes
and beliefs affecting human behavior
– Work Ethic
• Protestant work ethic
– Duty to glorify God by hard work and the
practice of thrift
• Confucian work ethic
– Drive toward hard work and thrift; similar to
Protestant work ethic
6-14
Will this work?
6-15
Primary Asian Religions
Hinduism
– Caste system
• entire society is divided into four groups (plus the outcasts) and
each is assigned a certain class of work
• Buddhism
– Reform of Hinduism
• Jainism (Mahavira a contemporary of Buddha)
– Nonviolence a major principle
• Sikhism
– Bridge between Hinduism and Islam
6-16
Primary Asian Religions, cont’d.
• Confucianism
– Inseparable from Chinese culture
• Taoism
– Lao Tzu, contemporary of Confucius
• Shintoism
– Indigenous to Japan
6-17
Islam
• Five Pillars of Faith
• Youngest and second
largest faith
–
–
1.3 billion followers
Comparison: Christianity has 2 billion
adherents
• Muhammad is Founder
– Prophet of God and head of
state
• Holy Book Koran
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–
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–
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Confession of faith
Five daily prayers
Charity
Ramadan fast
Pilgrimage to Mecca
• Jihad – holy war
• Sunni-Shia Conflict
– Conflict gives rise to violent
clashes
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Religious Population of the World
Insert Figure 6.1
6-19
Animism
• Spirit worship, incl. magic, witchcraft
• Everything in nature has its own spirit or
divinity
6-20
Material Culture
• Material Culture
– All human-made objects
– concerned with how people make things
(technology) and
– who makes what and why (economics)
6-21
Technology
• Technology
– Mix of usable knowledge that society
applies and directs toward attainment of
cultural and economic objectives
6-22
Importance of Technology
– Enables a firm to be
competitive in world
markets.
– Can be sold or be
embodied in the
company’s products
– Can give a firm
confidence to enter a
foreign market
– Enables the firm to obtain
better than usual
conditions for a foreign
market investment
– Enables a company with
only a minority equity
position to control a joint
venture
– Can change the
international division of
labor
– Causes major firms to
form competitive alliances
6-23
Material Culture - Technology
• Cultural Aspects of
Technology
– Includes skills in marketing,
finance, and management
– People not always ready to
adapt to changes
technology brings
• Technological
Dualism
– The side-by-side presence
of technologically
advanced and
technologically primitive
production systems
• Appropriate
Technology
– The technology (advanced,
intermediate, or primitive) that
most closely fits the society
using it
• Boomerang Effect
– Situation in which technology
sold to companies in another
nation is used to produce
goods to compete with those
of the seller of the technology.
6-24
Information Technology
• Information Technology Era
– As early as 2000 the Internet economy
• had reached $850 billion
• exceeded the size of the life insurance and real
estate industries
6-25
Spoken Language
• Most apparent cultural distinction
• Spoken languages demarcate cultures
– Switzerland: four separate cultures
• Many languages can exist in a single
country, but one usually serves as
communication vehicle
– Lingua franca or link language
– English primary language of business
6-26
Language
• Translation
– The ability to speak the language well does
not eliminate the need for translator
• Back Translation
– To avoid translation problems
• Japanese hotel: “You are invited to take
advantage of the chambermaid.”
• Bangkok dry cleaner: “Drop your trousers
here for best results.”
6-27
Language Issues
• Technical words do not exist in all
languages
– Usually use English
• Many cultures avoid saying anything
disagreeable
6-28
Unspoken Language
• Nonverbal communication
– Gestures vary tremendously from one region to
another
– Closed doors convey different meanings
– Office size has difference meanings in various
cultures
– Conversational distance small in East
– Gift giving has specific etiquette in each culture
• Gift or bribe?
• Questionable Payments
6-29
2003 Corruption Index Scores and
Ranking
6-30
Societal Organization
• Kinship
– Extended Family
• includes blood and marriage relatives
– Member’s responsibility
• Although the extended family is large, each member’s feeling
of responsibility to it is strong
• Associations
– Social units based on age, gender, or common interest, not on
kinship
6-31
Societal Organization
• Associations
– Age is important market segment criterion
– Gender
• As nations industrialize, more women enter the
job market and assume greater importance in
the economy
– Free association
• people joined together by a common bond:
political, occupational, religious or recreational
6-32
Understanding National Cultures
• Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture
• Individualism versus Collectivism
• Large versus Small Power Distance
• Strong versus Weak Uncertainty Avoidance
• Masculinity versus Femininity
6-33
Scores for Hofstede’s Value
Dimensions
6-34
Individualism versus Collectivism
• Collectivistic cultures
– people belong to groups that are supposed
to look after them in exchange for loyalty
• Individualistic cultures
– People look after only themselves and the
immediate family
6-35
Large versus Small Power Distance
• Power distance
– the extent to which members of a society
accept the unequal distribution of power
among individuals
• In large-power-distance societies
– employees believe their supervisors are
right; employees do not take any initiative in
making non-routine decisions
6-36
Strong versus Weak Uncertainty
Avoidance
• Uncertainty avoidance
– Degree to which members of a society feel
threatened by ambiguity and are rule-oriented
– Employees in high uncertainty-avoidance cultures
tend to stay with their organizations
• Japan, Greece, and Portugal
– Those from low uncertainty-avoidance nations are
more mobile
• United States, Singapore, and Denmark
6-37
Plot of Nations: Power distance and
Uncertainty Avoidance
6-38
Plot of Nations: Individualism and
Power Distance
6-39
Masculinity versus Femininity
• the degree to which the dominant values
in a society emphasize assertiveness,
acquisition of money and status
– Masculinity
• achievement of visible and symbolic
organizational rewards
– Femininity
• emphasize relationships, concern for
others, and the overall quality of life
6-40