International Business: The Challenges of Globalization, 7e (Wild)
Chapter 2 Cross-Cultural Business
1) The first step in analyzing a nation’s potential for international business activity is to examine
its business climate.
2) Ethnocentricity facilitates the establishment of new businesses abroad.
3) Subcultures mimic the values, preferences, and beliefs of dominant cultures.
4) Subcultures do not exist in democratic countries with large populations.
5) Hispanics comprise a subculture in the United States.
6) Subcultures contribute very little to national culture and can be safely ignored when making
marketing and production decisions.
7) A nation’s cultural boundaries do not always correspond with its political boundaries.
8) Subcultures exist only within a nation’s borders.
9) Low levels of class consciousness encourage social mobility and lessen conflict.
10) The cultural component that deals with elements of imagery and symbolism is known as
material culture.
11) A culture’s values tend to become more flexible over time.
12) Folk customs that spread by cultural diffusion to other regions develop into popular customs.
13) A nuclear family comprises of one’s immediate family, along with grandparents, uncles,
aunts, and cousins.
14) Social status is determined by family heritage, income, and occupation.
15) Religion is confined to national political boundaries.
16) When going global with an Internet presence, it is highly beneficial for a business to localize
its Web site.
17) Literacy tests offer a reliable basis on which one nation’s educational level can be compared
with another.
18) Nations that invest in worker training programs are usually rewarded with an increase in
productivity and a rise in income.
19) Brain drain is the departure of highly educated people from one profession, geographic
region, or nation to another.
20) Cultures isolated by topographical barriers are characterized by slower cultural change.
21) Material culture often displays uneven development across a nation’s industries.
22) Businesspeople measure material culture to determine whether a market can support
production activities.
23) People in collectivistic cultures are given freedom to focus on personal goals.
24) A culture with small power distance tends to be characterized by considerable inequality
between superiors and subordinates.
25) Cultures that score low on uncertainty avoidance tend to be less open to change and new
ideas.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
37) ________ is increasing the pace of both cultural diffusion and cultural change.
A) Collectivism
B) Enculturation
C) Fundamentalism
D) Globalization
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
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
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
41) ________ facilitate(s) the process of cultural imperialism.
A) Strict product liability laws
B) Relaxed trade and investment barriers
C) Technological stagnation
D) Social media censorship
42) ________ refers to the replacement of one culture’s traditions, folk heroes, and artifacts with
equivalents from another.
A) Cultural imperialism
B) Social stratification
C) Cultural encoding
D) Social conditioning
43) The sale of Hollywood movies in Konesia has doubled in the last five years while those of
locally-produced movies has fallen. In addition to this, sociologists have noted that currently, the
teenagers of Konesia are less inclined to don their traditional costumes, preferring to adopt
Western clothes instead. These changing trends illustrate ________.
A) cultural imperialism
B) cultural universal
C) cultural retention
D) cultural elitism
44) ________ is a system in which a supervisor walks an employee through every step of an
assignment or task, monitoring the results at each stage.
A) Situational attribution
B) Situational management
C) Social mobility
D) Social stratification
45) Which of the following terms is used to refer to habits or ways of behaving in specific
circumstances that are passed down through generations?
A) customs
B) attitudes
C) prejudices
D) aesthetics
46) A folk custom can be defined as ________.
A) behavior shared by a heterogeneous group or by several groups of people
B) behavior, often dating back several generations, that is practiced by a homogeneous group of
people
C) positive or negative evaluations, feelings, and tendencies that individuals harbor toward
objects or concepts
D) positive or negative evaluations, feelings, and tendencies that individuals harbor toward
themselves
47) Folk customs that spread by cultural diffusion to other regions develop into ________.
A) trash culture
B) traditions
C) popular customs
D) superstitions
48) The practice by which managers and other employees find jobs within their own companies
for relatives is known as ________.
A) ethnocentricism
B) enculturation
C) nepotism
D) stratification
49) Nepotism often prevails in ________ cultures.
A) extended-family
B) individualistic
C) monotheistic
D) nuclear family
50) ________ refers to socially learned traits associated with, and expected of, men or women.
A) Conformity
B) Social mobility
C) Individualism
D) Gender
51) Which of the following terms is used to refer to the process of ranking people into social
layers or classes?
A) social transformation
B) social stratification
C) social loafing
D) social mobility
52) ________ tend to occupy the highest social layer in industrialized countries.
A) Teachers
B) Scientists
C) Medical doctors
D) Business leaders
53) ________ refers to the ease with which individuals can move up or down a culture’s social
ladder.
A) Social standing
B) Social mobility
C) Social inertia
D) Social loafing
54) A caste system is a system of social stratification in which ________.
A) a person’s social status is decided by his acquired wealth
B) a person’s position in society depends upon his educational qualifications and achievements
C) people are born into a social ranking, with no opportunity for social mobility
D) people join highly exclusive associations that encourage external interaction
55) Mika finds that he has very little control over several aspects of his life. Whether his
education or occupation, the few options available to him are determined by his birth. Which of
the following is a characteristic of Mika’s society?
A) There is no distinction between the people of high and low birth in Mika’s culture.
B) Mika belongs to a society in which there is little scope for mobility.
C) Mika belongs to a society in which economic wealth determines social status.
D) Mika belongs to a society in which caste system and social status is a myth.
56) A class system is a system of social stratification in which ________.
A) people are divided into various political groups and subgroups
B) a person’s social rank depends upon his/her parentage
C) people join highly exclusive associations that forbid external interaction
D) personal ability and actions determine an individual’s social status and mobility
57) Which of the following is the most common form of social stratification in the world today?
A) racial segregation
B) class system
C) gender-based division
D) language-based stratification
58) The ________ played a major role in the development of capitalism and free enterprise in
nineteenth-century Europe.
A) pillars of Islam
B) Shinto doctrine
C) Protestant work ethic
D) tenets of Judaism