Contemporary perspectives on international business and culture

The interplay between international business (IB) and culture currently poses numerous challenges for businesses, nations and institutions. The purpose of this research paper is to conduct a selected review of five key areas of the subject: concepts, practice and cases; the contemporary IB and cultural environment; cultural convergence; ethics in business; and culture's intertwined role with other cornerstones of IB. The main conclusions reached are the following: 1) cultural convergence can only occur in IB where societies and markets are similar; 2) ethics are important in business, but compliance with ethical standards is problematic as enforcement occurs only in extreme cases; 3) the overarching conclusion is that culture is indeed a core factor in IB, with culture's role ranging from making small adjustments to the firm's business model to its pivotal role in a business venture in a host country; 4) the 'call to action' - part of concluding remarks - is three-fold and focuses on ensuring that culture has its proper place, in planning and operations, as one of six IB cornerstones. The utility and value of this paper rests with its usage as a tool for education, research, policy and strategy formulation and practice.