International Business, 14e (Daniels et al.)
Chapter 2 The Cultural Environments Facing Business
1) ________ consists of specific learned norms based on attitudes, values, and beliefs of a group of
people.
A) Ethnology
B) Civilization
C) Culture
D) Doctrine
2) Which of the following is NOT true about cultural diversity?
A) Companies may gain competitive advantages by bringing together people of diverse backgrounds.
B) Cultural diversity is most successful when domestic and foreign firms establish joint ventures.
C) Cultural diversity may help a company gain deeper knowledge about products and services.
D) The process of bringing people of different national cultures together is often difficult.
3) Because people can be grouped or classified in many ways, such as on the basis of nationality,
ethnicity, religion, profession, and income level, ________.
A) people live in a state of cultural collision
B) cultural studies fail to understand behaviors
C) identity crises make individual’s lives chaotic
D) people have more than one cultural group membership
4) When divergent cultures come in contact, ________ occurs.
A) power distance
B) culture shock
C) cultural collision
D) group membership
5) Which of the following best describes a result of cultural collision in international business?
A) A company implements practices that are less effective than intended.
B) Local employees are overlooked for promotions by home country managers.
C) Expatriate managers rely too heavily on local employees for negotiating business deals.
D) Foreign and domestic companies make adjustments for the local culture and legal environment.
6) Which of the following is the most accurate statement about culture?
A) Cultural variables can easily be isolated from other factors such as economic and political conditions.
B) Although most cultural variables are universal, the forms these variables take differ from culture to
culture.
C) Most cultural variables are superficial and can easily be influenced by environmental factors.
D) Within a culture, everyone responds to particular cultural variables the same way.
7) Businesspeople seeking to understand more about another culture in order to successfully conduct
business within that culture would be best advised to do which of the following?
A) observing the behavior of people who have gained respect within that cultural environment
B) relying on stereotypes, which are based on averages, to gain an understanding of the culture
C) avoiding cultural research studies because they perpetuate unjustified stereotypes and behaviors
D) memorizing the cultural variations that are typically encountered in a specific cultural environment
8) Which of the following is a common shortcoming of studies examining culture in different countries
and regions?
A) Cultures are static, which leads researchers to draw false conclusions from old data.
B) It is impossible to compare countries because of differences in data.
C) Responses are reported in averages, which can lead to a belief in unrealistic stereotypes.
D) People are reluctant to complain about their own cultures, so they present only positive opinions to
researchers.
9) The nation offers a workable reference for studying cultural differences because ________.
A) a nation contains only one distinct culture
B) similarity among people is both a cause and effect of national boundaries
C) the commonality of language within a nation eases the process of conducting surveys
D) different groups within the same country always have more in common with each other than with
groups in other countries
10) A problem of using the nation as a reference point for culture is that ________.
A) nations fail to mediate the different interests within their boundaries
B) self-stereotypes tend to fall along national lines
C) such an approach tends to be polycentric
D) variations tend to be great within a country
11) Certain attitudes can link groups, such as managers, from different nations more closely than
managers with labor within a given nation. As a result, international businesspeople should most likely
________.
A) assume that there are few significant cultural differences among nations
B) examine relevant groups when comparing nations
C) adopt universal operating methods
D) avoid cultural imperialism
12) It is most accurate to say that within most nation’s borders, people largely share such essential
attributes as ________ and ________.
A) work attitudes; occupations
B) lifestyles; education level
C) education level; ethnicity
D) values; language
13) Most people’s basic value system is ________.
A) modified significantly between childhood and adulthood
B) altered during adulthood through imposition
C) affected primarily by teenage peer pressure
D) acquired mainly during early childhood
14) Contact among countries brings about cultural change, which is a process called ________.
A) cultural collision
B) cultural imperialism
C) cultural diffusion
D) polycentrism
15) Creolization refers to ________.
A) government efforts to maintain a distinct cultural identity through legislation and language
B) the process of mixing elements of an outside culture with those of a national culture
C) the use of stereotypes to describe a culture
D) changes as cultures evolve over time
16) Cultural change imposed by an alien culture is called ________.
A) multicultural ethnocentrism
B) cultural imperialism
C) collectivism
D) high-context
17) Which of the following languages has the most native speakers?
A) English
B) Mandarin
C) Spanish
D) Hindi
18) ________ peoples account for the largest percentage of global production.
A) English-speaking
B) Mandarin-speaking
C) French-speaking
D) Spanish-speaking
19) Which of the following statements about the English language is most likely NOT true?
A) The largest portion of global output is in English-speaking countries.
B) A large portion of MNEs are headquartered in English-speaking countries.
C) English is the official national language in most countries where FDI is encouraged.
D) Many MNEs from non-English speaking countries use English as their operating language.
20) Although English is referred to as the “international language of business,”________.
A) it is less frequently used than French in international business
B) there is a growing disagreement over which version of English to use, e.g. British, American, or
Australian
C) companies headquartered outside English-speaking countries all use their official language as their
operating language
D) monolingual English speakers may experience more difficulty in the future in communicating on a
worldwide basis
21) International businesspeople need to understand social stratification systems where they do business
because ________.
A) such systems reflect a culture’s willingness to accept new products
B) such systems indicate who people in a given culture will likely respect more
C) the high similarity among countries lets firms effectively use global hiring practices
D) what is an ascribed group membership in one country is an acquired one in another
22) Which of the following is an example of an acquired group membership?
A) national origin
B) religion
C) gender
D) race
23) The more closed a society is, the more important ________ group membership is.
A) acquired
B) age-based
C) education
D) ascribed
24) Studies indicate a strong correlation between the intensity of religious belief and ________.
A) a desire to convert productivity gains into more leisure time
B) an adherence to some attributes that lead to economic growth
C) the belief that material success is related to salvation
D) the degree of ethnocentrism exhibited in a culture
25) According to the theory of success and reward expectation, the greatest enthusiasm for work
generally occurs when there is a ________ certainty of success combined with a ________ reward for
success compared to the reward for failure.
A) high; high
B) high; low
C) low; high
D) low; low
26) The term “________ culture” describes a country in which the norm is a money-and-things
orientation and a belief that it’s better to “live to work” than to “work to live.”
A) high masculinity
B) physiological
C) non-fatalistic
D) high-femininity
27) Based on the hierarchy-of-needs theory, in which of the following would fulfillment of lower-order
needs be the best motivator?
A) wealthy countries
B) Protestant countries
C) high femininity countries
D) very poor countries
28) People generally prefer little consultation between superiors and subordinates in cultures where
________ is high.
A) power distance
B) fatalism
C) individualism
D) self-actualization
29) Which of the following is characterized by low dependence on an organization and a desire for
personal time, freedom, and challenges?
A) collectivism
B) democracy
C) individualism
D) anarchy
30) Assume a firm has operations in Tokyo, where there is a collectivist culture. Which of the following
would most likely motivate the firm’s Japanese employees?
A) “employee-of-the-month” programs
B) extensive vacation time
C) on-the-job challenges
D) good health benefits
31) Safe work environments motivate ________; challenges motivate ________.
A) individualists; collectivists
B) collectivists; individualists
C) non-fatalists; fatalists
D) materialists; non-materialists
32) Managers should be more precise in their directions to subordinates when ________.
A) the company has a philosophy of geocentrism
B) the society believes age equals wisdom
C) uncertainty avoidance is high
D) power distance is low
33) In societies where trust is high, ________.
A) people tend to be more future-oriented
B) business costs are typically lower
C) people tend to be more fatalistic
D) family businesses are dominant
34) Expatriate managers located in cultures characterized by ________ have noticed that local
employees are highly motivated by retirement programs.
A) low uncertainty avoidance
B) high future orientation
C) low masculinity
D) high power distance
35) Raj, an engineer, works long hours and takes full responsibility for both his good and bad work
performance. Raj most likely believes in ________.
A) self-determination
B) low power distance
C) collectivism
D) fatalism
36) In a(n) ________ culture, people tend to regard seemingly peripheral information as pertinent to
decision making and infer meanings from things that people say either indirectly or casually.
A) pragmatic
B) idealistic
C) fatalistic
D) high-context
37) A culture in which people prefer to finish one task before starting another is most accurately
characterized as which of the following?
A) low-context
B) monochronic
C) pragmatic
D) high power-distance
38) A culture that prefers to first settle general principles rather than small issues is most accurately
characterized as ________.
A) idealist
B) polychronic
C) high-context
D) pragmatist
39) The attempt to resolve small issues before principles is a characteristic of which of the following?
A) relativism
B) monochronic behavior
C) pragmatism
D) uncertainty avoidance
40) All of the following are international business translation problems EXCEPT which of the
following?
A) All written work requires back translation in order to be understood in a second language.
B) Because languages and the common meaning of words are constantly evolving, the intended meaning
of a word may be different from what the listener or reader understands.
C) Some words in one language simply don’t have a direct translation into another language.
D) Words mean different things in different contexts, thus the wrong context may be translated.
41) When a company does business in another country whose official language is the same as its home
country’s, the company should most likely ________.
A) assume that communications will go smoothly
B) use back-translation on all written documents
C) realize that words may have different meanings
D) assume that word meanings are the same despite spelling differences
42) Jack, an American accounts manager, is preparing a presentation for a group of Japanese
businesspeople. Jack’s presentation would be most effective if he ________.
A) told an opening joke to put everyone at ease
B) used slang to create an informal atmosphere
C) used long words to impress his counterparts
D) budgeted extra time for translation and clarification
43) Evaluating the importance of potential clients or partners by the way they dress is an example of
using ________.
A) pragmatism
B) silent language
C) polychronism
D) fatalism
44) The term “cultural distance” refers to the ________.
A) physical space between people during communication
B) time it takes people to adjust to the language, traditions, and norms of a foreign culture
C) degree to which countries differ on cultural dimensions
D) preferred relationship between superiors and subordinates in a given culture
45) Ellen, a U.S. citizen, worked for a U.S. firm in Germany for four years and was transferred back to
the firm’s home office in Chicago two months ago. Ellen feels significant dissatisfaction with her job
and life in Chicago, which is most likely a result of ________.
A) reverse culture shock
B) polycentrism
C) culture shock
D) ethnocentrism
46) One of the potential problems for an MNE that practices too much polycentrism is ________.
A) demanding that local communication methods be replaced with modern technology
B) underestimating the complexity of introducing new management practices
C) losing innovative capabilities to less-risky host-country practices
D) relying too much on home-country directions and policies
47) Ethnocentrism in international business refers to the ________.
A) study of group ethics and approaches to corporate social responsibility
B) comparison of the Protestant ethic with other religious views
C) belief that what works best at home should work best everywhere
D) ethnic segmentation of marketing programs within countries
48) The approach a company takes when it bases foreign operations on an informed knowledge of its
organizational culture along with home- and host-country needs, capabilities, and constraints is called
________.
A) polycentrism
B) ethnocentrism
C) neocentrism
D) geocentrism
49) A firm that concentrates on national cultural differences in terms of averages is more likely to
________.
A) underestimate market demands
B) increase political risks
C) seek cultural collision
D) overlook outliers