International Business: The Challenges of Globalization
Cross-Cultural Business
1) The first step in analyzing a nation’s potential for international business activity is to examine
its business climate.
Answer: TRUE
Dynamics of the global economy
2) Ethnocentricity facilitates the establishment of new businesses abroad.
Answer: FALSE
3) Subcultures mimic the values, preferences, and beliefs of dominant cultures.
Answer: FALSE
4) Subcultures do not exist in democratic countries with large populations.
Answer: FALSE
5) Hispanics comprise a subculture in the United States.
Answer: TRUE
6) Subcultures contribute very little to national culture and can be safely ignored when making
marketing and production decisions.
Answer: FALSE
7) A nation’s cultural boundaries do not always correspond with its political boundaries.
Answer: TRUE
8) Subcultures exist only within a nation’s borders.
Answer: FALSE
9) Low levels of class consciousness encourage social mobility and lessen conflict.
Answer: TRUE
10) The cultural component that deals with elements of imagery and symbolism is known as
material culture.
Answer: FALSE
11) A culture’s values tend to become more flexible over time.
Answer: FALSE
12) Folk customs that spread by cultural diffusion to other regions develop into popular customs.
Answer: TRUE
13) A nuclear family comprises of one’s immediate family, along with grandparents, uncles,
aunts, and cousins.
Answer: FALSE
14) Social status is determined by family heritage, income, and occupation.
Answer: TRUE
15) Religion is confined to national political boundaries.
Answer: FALSE
16) When going global with an Internet presence, it is highly beneficial for a business to localize
its Web site.
Answer: TRUE
Use of information technology
17) Literacy tests offer a reliable basis on which one nation’s educational level can be compared
with another.
Answer: FALSE
18) Nations that invest in worker training programs are usually rewarded with an increase in
productivity and a rise in income.
Answer: TRUE
Dynamics of the global economy
19) Brain drain is the departure of highly educated people from one profession, geographic
region, or nation to another.
Answer: TRUE
Analytic skills; Multicultural and diversity understanding
20) Cultures isolated by topographical barriers are characterized by slower cultural change.
Answer: TRUE
21) Material culture often displays uneven development across a nation’s industries.
Answer: TRUE
22) Businesspeople measure material culture to determine whether a market can support
production activities.
Answer: TRUE
23) People in collectivistic cultures are given freedom to focus on personal goals.
Answer: FALSE
24) A culture with small power distance tends to be characterized by considerable inequality
between superiors and subordinates.
Answer: FALSE
25) Cultures that score low on uncertainty avoidance tend to be less open to change and new
ideas.
Answer: FALSE
26) Which of the following terms is defined as the set of values, beliefs, rules, and institutions
held by a specific group of people?
A) law
B) philosophy
C) culture
D) science
Answer: C
27) Ethnocentricity can be defined as the ________.
A) scientific description of individual human societies
B) systematic study of an ethnic group’s religious core
C) merging of all ethnic practices into one homogeneous culture
D) belief that one’s own ethnic group or culture is superior to that of others
Answer: D
28) Detailed knowledge about a culture that enables people to work happily and effectively
within it is called ________.
A) cultural literacy
B) cultural imperialism
C) cultural diffusion
D) cultural divergence
Answer: A
29) Bob is a journalist who intends to spend the next five months exploring Konesia. In order to
be able to fit in with the locals, he studies their culture in detail. He familiarizes himself with
their tastes and preferences, takes note of their taboos, and memorizes many of their sayings and
phrases. Which of the following terms best describes his actions?
A) material culture
B) popular culture
C) cultural imperialism
D) cultural literacy
Answer: D
30) Which of the following is defined as a group of people who share a unique way of life within
a larger, dominant culture?
A) macroculture
B) subculture
C) cultural universal
D) monoculture
Answer: B
31) The Toro-Hessians are a minority group in the Margoza Archipelago, with a set of
preferences, attitudes, and taboos, distinct from that of the national culture. Therefore, they are
often overlooked when foreign businesses choose to customize their products for the inhabitants
of the islands. The Toro-Hessian community is an example of ________.
A) cultural universal
B) monoculture
C) subculture
D) stratification
Answer: C
32) Which of the following is a cultural component that implies gauging the beauty and appeal of
artwork?
A) customs
B) mores
C) folkways
D) aesthetics
Answer: D
33) Which of the following terms is used to refer to the ideas, beliefs, and customs to which
people are emotionally attached?
A) attitudes
B) memetics
C) aesthetics
D) values
Answer: D
34) Which of the following terms is used to refer to the positive or negative evaluations, feelings,
and tendencies that individuals harbor toward objects or concepts?
A) customs
B) attitudes
C) traditions
D) values
Answer: B
35) Which of the following statements is true of attitudes?
A) Over the years, they become more rigid than values.
B) They are learned from role models.
C) Because they’re formed within a cultural context, they mirror the attitudes of surrounding
countries.
D) They are developed only for the most important aspects of life.
Answer: B
36) A(n) ________ is anything that represents a culture’s way of life, including gestures, material
objects, traditions, and concepts.
A) social structure
B) social status
C) cultural baggage
D) cultural trait
Answer: D
37) ________ is increasing the pace of both cultural diffusion and cultural change.
A) Collectivism
B) Enculturation
C) Fundamentalism
D) Globalization
Answer: D
38) Which of the following refers to the process by which cultural traits spread from one culture
to another?
A) cultural heterogeneity
B) cultural imperialism
C) cultural diffusion
D) cultural literacy
Answer: C
39) Cultural change occurs when people integrate into their culture the gestures, material objects,
traditions, or concepts of another culture through ________.
A) ethnocentricism
B) cultural diffusion
C) social stratification
D) xenocentrism
Answer: B
40) The practice of exchanging rings at weddings, which was initially a pagan ritual, is now
followed by most people across the world. Which of the following does this illustrate?
A) cultural literacy
B) cultural encoding
C) cultural diffusion
D) cultural lag
Answer: C
41) ________ facilitate(s) the process of cultural imperialism.