Differences in Culture

INTRODUCTION

Operating a successful international business requires cross-cultural literacy (an understanding of how cultural differences across and within nations can affect the way in which business is practiced).

A relationship may exist between culture and the costs of doing business in a country or region.

WHAT IS CULTURE?

The fundamental building blocks of culture are values (abstract ideas about what a group believes to be good, right, and desirable) and norms (the social rules and guidelines that prescribe appropriate behavior in particular situations). 

The term society refers to a group of people who share a common set of values and norms.

Value and Norms

•          Values provide the context within which a society’s norms are established and justified and form the bedrock of a culture

•          Norms are the social rules that govern the actions of people toward one another and can be further subdivided into folkways (the routine conventions of everyday life) and mores (norms that are seen as central to the functioning of a society and to its social life)

Read More

National Differences in Political Economy

Political Systems

•         Political Systems: system of government in a country

•         Differentiated along two related dimensions

–        Emphasis on collectivism versus individualism

–        Degree of democracy versus totalitarianism

•         Collectivism:  stresses collective goals over individual goals (Plato and Marx)

–        Socialism:  communists and social democrats

•         Individualism:  stresses individual freedom in economic and political pursuits (Aristotle, Smith, Stuart Mill) advocates individual political and economic freedoms

•         Democracy:  citizens directly involved in decision-making

–        representative democracy

•         Totalitarianism:  one person or political party exercises absolute control

–        communist totalitarianism

–        theocratic totalitarianism (religion based political power)

–        tribal totalitarianism (monopoly of power)

–        right-wing totalitarianism (economic freedom without political freedom)

Read More