...References Damanpour, F. (1998). The impact of culture on management: A comparison of Japanese versus United States management. Advances in competitiveness Research , 6 (1), 39-57. Faramarz Damanpour is a Professor of Finance and International Business at James Madison University. He is an author of several business articles and has been featured in many business journals. His main purpose of this article is to get the reader to understand the differences between the cultures, decision-making, and employment strategies of Japan and the United States. This topic is suitable for my research paper because it helps me answer the first research question, which deals with the elements and dimensions of culture of Japan. Fukuda, J. (1992). The internationalization of Japanese business: different approaches, similar problems. The International Executive , 34 (1), 27-41. John Fukuda is a professor in the department of the International Business at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written peer reviewed articles for the International Executive. His main purpose for this article is to get the reader to understand the Japanese's approach to business versus the other countries. This article is suitable for my research paper because it helps me to answer question numbers 1 and 2 of the Business cultural analysis. Fukukawa, K., & Teramoto, Y. (2008). Understanding Japanese CSR: the reflections of managers in the field of global operations. Journal...
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...Business Ethics across Cultures Article Review Clarissa R. Hoover XMGT/216 August 4th, 2012 Dr. Frank Czarny, Ph.D. Business Ethics across Cultures Article Review Business ethics and perspectives play a major role in how every business operates on a daily basis. This essay will examine two articles of foreign countries business ethics and perspectives. In addition, the essay will provide a brief summary of the articles. Also, the essay will demonstrate the primary ethical perspectives of the two countries. In addition, the essay will discuss the contributions to understanding global ethical perspectives. Furthermore, the essay will illustrate how the business ethics of a foreign country compares to that of The United States of America. Even though, some business ethics and perspectives differ from country to country generally they are the same. It is very important to uphold an elevated level of ethical behavior when conducting business in a foreign country. There are four main ethical perspectives that one should empathize with which are: character, obligation, results, and equity (Bullard, 2009). When examining ones character individuals should establish their thoughts on what shall be perceived as good versus what is good to accomplish. Furthermore, each individual should realize everyone has a different perspective on how businesses work in a global market. Another ethical perspective one should examine is obligation. Obligation can be described as doing...
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...here is how a society handles inequalities among people. People in societies exhibiting a large degree of power distance accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. In societies with low power distance, people strive to equalise the distribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power. < an example of Power Distance by Geert Hofstede 2. Individualism versus collectivism (IDV) The high side of this dimension, called Individualism, can be defined as a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families only. Its opposite, Collectivism, represents a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular in-group to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. A society's position on this dimension is reflected in whether people’s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “we.” < 3. Masculinity versus femininity (MAS) The masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material reward for success. Society at large is more competitive. Its opposite, femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. Society at large is more consensus-oriented. < 4. Uncertainty avoidance (UAI) The uncertainty avoidance dimension...
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...NO-60 Q1. What is meant by the term culture? In what way can measuring attitudes about the following help to differentiate between cultures: centralized or decentralized decision making, safety or risk, individual or group rewards, high or low organizational loyalty, cooperation or competition? Use these attitudes to compare the United States, Germany, and Japan. Based on your comparisons, what conclusions can you draw regarding the impact of culture on behavior? Ans:- culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. Culture is the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experience and generate social behavior. This knowledge forms values, creates attitudes, and influences behavior (Hodges, 2005). Centralized versus decentralized cultures are different in which the top managers or leaders make all the important decisions in a centralized culture and in a decentralized culture, the decisions are made throughout the levels. Safety and risk in some cultures are frowned upon because the results are unpredictable yet other cultures are “riskier” and encourage risk taking on all levels. The same can be said about individual versus group rewards. Some societies or organizations reward individually and other only based on the group effort. High or low organizational loyalty in cultures are different in which the high loyalty in an organization...
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...boundaries The meaning of culture: foundation concepts Why culture matters in international business National, professional, and corporate culture Interpretations of culture Key dimensions of culture Language as a key dimension of culture Culture and contemporary issues Managerial guidelines for cross-cultural success Page 1 to 1 Page 1 to 5 Page 5 to 6 Page 7 to 9 Page 9 to 9 Page 10 to 14 Page 14 to 17 Page 17 to 19 Page 19 to 21 Page 21 to 23 1 Introduction There are few things more representative of U.S. culture than American football. It is an extravaganza, complete with exciting halftime shows and peppy cheerleaders. The game exemplifies national pride. The national anthem is played, flags are unfurled, and uniformed players charge up and down the field like an army in the throes of often violent conflict. The teams’ huddles divide the game into small planning sessions for the next play. In the United States, the National Football League (NFL) oversees the sport and, like any successful business, wants to score in new markets. The NFL first tackled Europe in 1991, with plans to establish American football there. After years of failed attempts, NFL Europe emerged as six teams, five of which were based in Germany (such as the Berlin Thunder, the Cologne Centurions, and the Hamburg Sea Devils). Earlier teams established in Spain had failed. Why did American football triumph in Germany but fail in Spain? An excellent metaphor for Spanish culture is the bullfight, an ancient...
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...about: 1. The challenge of crossing cultural boundaries 2. The meaning of culture: foundation concepts 3. Why culture matters in international business 4. National, professional, and corporate culture 5. Interpretations of culture 6. Key dimensions of culture 7. Language as a key dimension of culture 8. Culture and contemporary issues 9. Managerial guidelines for crosscultural success > American Football . . . in Europe? There are few things more representative of U.S. culture than American football. It is an extravaganza, complete with exciting halftime shows and peppy cheerleaders. The game exemplifies national pride. The national anthem is played, flags are unfurled, and uniformed players charge up and down the field like an army in the throes of often violent conflict. The teams’ huddles divide the game into small planning sessions for the next play. In the United States, the National Football League (NFL) oversees the sport and, like any successful business, wants to score in new markets. The NFL first tackled Europe in 1991, with plans to establish American football there. After years of failed attempts, NFL Europe emerged as six teams, five of which were based in Germany (such as the Berlin Thunder, the Cologne Centurions, and the Hamburg Sea Devils). Earlier teams established in Spain had failed. Why did American football triumph in Germany but fail in Spain? An excellent metaphor for Spanish culture is the bullfight, an ancient pursuit. In tradition-bound Spain, bullfights...
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...business marketing channels Does culture matter? This article deals with the question if and how cultural variations influence channel communication . Finding show that there is a relationship between culture and channel communications in international channels. The autor , Bert Rosenbloom, described Hall’s (1976) proposed high-contex versus low- contex dichotomy to explain the different cultural orientations. It is a simple two category basis for grouping the cultures of many different countries to help understand the hidden codes in communication, stemming from „cultural distance“. The expressions "high context" and "low context" are labels which shows the cultural differences between societies. High-context and low-context communication refers to how much speakers rely on things other than words to convey meaning. First, Hofstede's cultural model and the model approaches Hall presented, where the main cultural differences are described. The cultural model of Hofstede with its five dimensions and the corresponding index values provides information about cultural differences and their possible impact in intercultural cooperation. The five dimensions in Hofstede's cultural model, "power distance", "collectivism versus individualism," "femininity versus masculinity," "uncertainty avoidance" and "long-term versus short-term orientation". Together, the five dimensions of a cultural model in which differences can be measured between cultures. With regard to the communication...
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...of Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions, and defines five of them for a comparison between the United States and India. This article shows for the most part, the definitions of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are correct, but the article did identify some ambiguities while making the comparisons. Finally, future areas of possible research were identified that would assist in the removal of the ambiguities. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions US vs. India Geert Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions was a result of an analysis of a world-wide survey of employee values by IBM in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This theory describes the effects of a society’s culture on the values of that culture’s members and how those values relate to behavior. This is accomplished by using a structure resulting from factor analysis (Hofstede, 2011). This theory has been used as an example for several fields, particularly in cross-cultural psychology (Hofstede, 2011). Geert Hofstede’s original cultural dimensions theory had four dimensions from which cultural values could be analyzed. These four dimensions were: (a) individualism versus collectivism (IDV); (b) uncertainty avoidance (UAI); (c) power distance (PDI); (d) masculinity versus femininity (MAS). While Hofstede was performing research in Hong Kong he added the fifth dimension, long-term orientation (LTO). In 2010, Hofstede and co-author Michael Minkov wrote “Cultures and Organizations Software of the Mind.” As a result of Minkov’s analysis from...
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...BUSI604: International Business Global Cultural Analysis: Japan Liberty University June 24, 2013 Abstract This paper provided an opportunity to take a deeper look into the country of Japan by conducting a Global Cultural Analysis. Throughout this paper the following four research areas were explored: 1.What is the major elements and dimensions of culture in Japan? 2. How are these elements and dimensions integrated by locals conducting business in Japan? 3. How does U.S. culture and business compare with the elements and dimensions of culture integrated by the locals conducting business in Japan? 4. What are the implications for U.S. businesses that wish to conduct business with Japan? Japan has the third largest economy in the world. Having one of the largest economies comes with many rewards as well as challenges. Japan’s main reason for success is their culture. “Japan’s culture stems first from bushido, an ancient code that exalts loyalty to one’s superiors” (Emery, 2001, para.1). Japan has also been successful in part because of their superlative electronic and Information Technology industries as well as a very strong automotive industry. Imports and exports have been in instrumental in Japan’s success. “Japan is the 5th largest importer and exporter in the world,” (Japan Export, & Trade, 2013, para.1). Despite Japan’s prominent position, they have been experiencing major financial issues just like the rest of the world. Japan’s...
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...technology the world is getting smaller. More and more organizations are taking a global approach to their businesses, expanding not only their reach but their footprint as well. This forces organizations to tailor their method of doing business to a certain degree to the area in which they are doing business. Culture plays a large role in the motivational scheme, weather you look at America as a salad bowl or a melting pot the country has applied its own influences upon different ethnic groups as to what works for motivation and what will not. Knowing this now tells us that we must examine what works for the cultures in the purest sense on their original soil. This will not only help us in the sense of a global expansion, it will allow us a basis of comparison back at home as well. In recent years when someone mentions manufacturing, invariably China comes to mind. This manufacturing powerhouse boasts a labor base of almost 1.3 billion people. With a limited infrastructure they have been able to undercut most developed countries bids when it comes to manufactured goods. When it comes to motivation the strict structure of the government and more importantly Chinese culture come into play. It has been noted that while China focuses on moral motivators for the average worker, “that extreme reliance upon nonmaterial incentives causes morale and production to suffer” (Riskin, 1973). As the Chinese continue to advance their methods and infrastructure something else has happened...
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...Geert Hofstede said “culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.” Culture is an important factor in Business, cultures will differ from one another and its hard to compare, this makes it difficult for managers of multinationals to be able to be knowledgeable about these cultures and how they can put this into practice when dealing with organisational structures and processes. From a young age a child will start to develop work related values, this can be picked up from their parents and each child’s values will depend upon their culture. From this the child will then grow up and enter the working world with their values still being used, this can cause clashes within business as different cultures will have different values. Originally working for IBM, Hofstede sent out a questionnaire to 117,000 people. The aim of the questionnaire was that they wanted to find out how to manage subsidiaries and how culture impacted this. IBM was aiming to find out if they had to be different. In Hofstedes original theory he developed four dimensions; Indivusalism/Collectivism, Masculinity, Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance. Individualism is the extent to which people define themselves as individuals or part of a larger group, which would normally come under as countries such as the United States. Individualism consisted of decision-making, reward systems, ethics and organisational concern....
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...expanding a business abroad, especially for PPQ, individuals should look into the possible issues the host foreign country could face as a result of the expansion. There are many issues that must be addressed such as: the strategy to enter and expand, the trends within the foreign land, the different marketing approaches to reach the niche consumers, political and social climate, taxes, legal system, location, differences in culture, host country’s available workforce. As many individual know, all countries are different, slight or considerable, there are many issues that a company can face, especially within the cultural barriers and diversity issues. Cultural barriers and diversity issues are commonly encountered by international, multinational and global organizations. Culture is immensely important and should be treated as such by the PPQ representatives. Culture is the beliefs and certain behaviors of a specific group. Cultural barriers that are mishandled can easily deteriorate any successful company. “Managing the differences of languages, cultures, religions and traditions under one umbrella are some of the main obstacles faced by ... international businesses” (Khan, 2009). More issues include value systems, etiquette within business practices, establishing trust,...
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...Internationalization at Toyota: A Case Study Examining the internationalization of the Toyota Motor Corporation, this essay argues that the firm’s strategy of localism, pertaining to both design and production, has lain at the core of the firm’s international successes. In this regard, it notes that Toyota learned from early failures, pertaining to export vehicles, and adjusted its strategy in longitude so as to make the most of export opportunities across the international economy. Noting that the pooling of research & development (R&D) resources which exists in Japan is highly relevant to success in this regard, the essay proposes that Toyota’s all-encompassing strategy of localism is responsible for its international success. Concluding, the essay does note that two areas of weakness, pertaining to quality control and emergent market penetration, still plague Toyota’s internationalization ventures. Thus, while the firm is highly successful in this regard, potent internal difficulties problematize its continued success. Toyota’s First Attempts at Internationalization To begin, understanding Toyota’s significant contemporary global posture requires an understanding of the firm’s humble roots. Indeed, in the pre-World War II era, Toyota was a very small automobile manufacturing firm with middling success in the country’s domestic market. Indeed, it is only through the American War Department’s industrial training program that Toyota ultimately succeeded, in the...
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...Japan- Cross Cultural Management Final Located off the east of China, Japan is made up of a series of islands with rich culture and historical background. The Japanese people, dating back to as early as 4,500 B.C. have deep traditions that have evolved and adapted over the centuries. With ideologies, religion and business strategy’s much different from that in the western world, specific customs and traditions must be understood. Although the Japanese carry a great deal of respect in the business world, they can often be perceived as picky and difficult to deal with. This stereotype tends to cause alienation from companies doing business in Japan, when in reality their “closed off” and distant behavior is due to misinterpretation through a western lens. Being aware of the religion and history of the Japanese can help to not only better understand their culture, but to also strengthen business relationships and allow for a positive interactions between companies. The following paper will include a cultural analysis observing different dimensions of Japanese culture through Hoftede and Hall’s scales relative to other world cultures. The underlying beliefs, attitudes and values of the Japanese culture relative to that of the Western American culture. As well as their evolved and highly functioning socio-economic and political environment. Communication and openness to change can be compared providing information as to why the Japanese conduct business the way they do. The paper...
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...Behavioral Investigation Masaki Mori International University of Japan Julian Diaz III and Alan J. Ziobrowski Georgia State University Nico B. Rottke European Business School Using data from three countries that differ economically, culturally, and geographically, this study examines the role of Prospect Theory’s reflection effect, a psychological factor, in combination with Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), a cultural factor, on the choice of mortgage products. Experiments were conducted using business professionals in the United States, Germany, and Japan. The results suggest that risk-averse people tend to become more risk seeking, leaning more toward adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) when choosing a mortgage type, and that this psychological effect may underlie the mortgage choices of people who tend to choose ARMs, even across countries with different cultures. Keywords: Adjustable-rate mortgage, Fixed-rate mortgage, Prospect theory, Uncertainty avoidance, Experiment INTRODUCTION In terms of household risk management, the choice of a residential mortgage is one of the most significant decisions to make. At the end of second-quarter 2005, the value of outstanding U.S. residential mortgages was $8 trillion, 65% of the 2005 GDP (Federal Reserve Board of Governors [2005] In Germany, the residential mortgage debt ratio as a percentage of GDP was 51% at the end of 2006 (European Mortgage Federation). In Japan, the value of outstanding residential mortgages was 190 trillion...
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