Faculty of Business, Accountancy & Management (FOBAM)
Course Details:
Module Code and Title : International Business
Programme of Study : BBM Y2
Lecturer’s Name : Ms. Noorshemah
Semester : 1
Assignment Details:
Title of Assignment : Cultural difference
Due Date : 24.03.16
Submission Date : 24.03.16
Type (* please tick [√]) : Individual Group
Declaration by student(s):
I/We, hereby declare that the attached assignment is my/our own work and understand that
if I/we am/are suspected of plagiarism or another form of cheating, my/our work will be
referred to the Programme Coordinator/Head of Faculty who may, as a result recommend to
the Examinations Board on academic disciplinary action including expulsion for the SEGi
University and Colleges.
Student’s Details:
Name : Adilet Naimanbayev Student ID: ______________ Signature: _____________
Name : Dinara Galiyeva Student ID: ______________ Signature: _____________
Name : Adnan Algabal Student ID: ______________ Signature: _____________
Name : Kadierjiang Tuluhong Student ID: ______________ Signature: _____________
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Overall Marks:
/100
√
Submission Checklist:
Coversheet
CW Assessment Sheet
Turnitin Report
Coursework
Reminder:
1. Students are reminded to keep a copy of all the
coursework submitted.
2. All LATE SUBMISSION will be DEDUCTED 10% a
day up to a maximum of FIVE (5) days, where
subsequently, the coursework will be awarded ZERO
(0).
Executive summary
This assignment contains cultural difference case and answers what went wrong and what is
recommended to do. Also we’ve give advices on how to be successful global manager, how to
handle cultural difference problems, etc. We discussed on few topics that might be important for
global manager in dealing with different business cultures.
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Table of content:
Executive summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4
U.S and Japan cultures……………………………………………………………………………………………….5
Cultural differences……………………………………………………………………….…….6-7
Business etiquette………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8-10
Relationship and trust building……………………………………………………………….11-12
Negotiation style………………………………………………………………………….…13-16
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….17
List of references……………………………………………………………………………………………………………18
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Introduction
International business – is primarily a business interaction of private firms or their units
located in two or more countries and nations. (Upravlenie, 2010)
International business is based on possibilities of gaining benefits from cross-national business
operations and transactions, that means, from the fact that sales of this product in another country
or the establishment by one of the country of production to another, or giving together the two
countries’ companies the services to the third, and so on. (Upravlenie, 2010) It ensures involved
business sides big benefits than they would have when conducting business only in their own
countries.
Nowadays, international business became very important in the world, even though it has been
existing for a long time. It offers firms a lot of possibilities, but also risky situations that they
might not get in their internal environment. There are a lot of reasons to go international for
firms: to find new opportunities, to dodge trade barriers, gain more profit and so on; but before
they do it, they should be prepared for it. So one of the important things is – to get the cultural
understanding of one or other country.
In the given case, the problem between two sides was caused by cross-cultural
differences. Cross culture – is a business environment, whereas two or more countries interact
between themselves. It happens when companies send their employees to different countries,
with different goals, to countries, where totally different culture is practiced. What important is,
that it is a big issue in international business and in order to succeed in it you should be prepared.
So it is important to train employees to achieve your goals.
Cross culture in the case was misunderstanding between John – sales representative from US and
Sato-san – representative from Japan. It all happened on their second meeting, where John
thought that it was the time to push his sales and that was his mistake. He didn’t know much
about Japanese people, that they are very accurate and that they need time to make decisions. By
pushing his company’s sales and after it decreasing the price John was not able to get the price
that he came for.
As a successful manager, you should be ready to adapt to the cultural differences of a
country. Being ready and having knowledge of it would always lead you to success.
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US and Japan cultures
Globalization unified majority of things, but still has not coped with the cultural, national
and mental identities. (A. Gorbatova, 2013) How to negotiate and build a constructive dialogue,
while retaining its uniqueness and respecting other people features?
In modern management phrases like “cultural barriers” and “cultural differences” can be heard a
lot nowadays. New products output by companies to foreign markets, often experience rejection
because of the difference in mentalities. Sometimes business negotiations bog down in
misunderstanding and it ends with nothing. (A. Gorbatova, 2013)
Often invaluably appreciated cultural characteristics of different nations can lose international
enterprise prospects and success. With these invisible but powerful barriers people began to face
when trade became international.
So let’s analyze the case of misunderstanding between John from U.S and Sato-san from
Japan. What happened on their meeting and what went wrong?
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Cultural differences
Everything happened on John’s second meeting with Sato-san, where John thought it was a time
to push the sale and ask him about orders. After he showed the fee, Sato-san didn’t answer him,
even though after decreasing the price twice, Sato-san said he had to talk to his team. At the end
John got the deal but a lot cheaper than he planned to. So where was the mistake? Let’s talk
about the cultural differences between these two countries.
First of all, let’s inspect about sequence and speed in business activities. Basically, the
