PM in Different Cultures and Internationalization

Foreign trade has a long history. Yet, the cross-border exchange of goods and services has significantly intensified in the last decades (Dathe & Helmold, Erfolg im Chinageschäft. Handlungsempfehlungen für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU). Springer Wiesbaden, 2018). The cultural differences add another facet to the complication of negotiations. The commercial negotiations are complex enough in the same cultural group. Dealing with business partners with a different cultural background poses an additional challenge for communication. Caution needs to be taken, in order to avoid culturally based misunderstanding (Helmold et al., Erfolgreiche Verhandlungen. Best-in-Class Empfehlungen für den Verhandlungsdurchbruch. Springer Wiesbaden, 2019). What are cultures? According to Geert Hofstede, social psychologist and culture investigation, culture is ‘the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others’ (Hofstede, Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. McGraw-Hill Maidenhead, 1991). In other terms, culture is the unique way a group of people think and cope. Without the knowledge and understanding for other cultures, such difference in thinking and behaviours may easily cause conflicts in intercultural communications (Helmold et al., Erfolgreiche Verhandlungen. Best-in-Class Empfehlungen für den Verhandlungsdurchbruch. Springer Wiesbaden, 2019). Although cultures are not limited to national cultures (e.g. there could be cultural groups based on gender, age groups, etc.), in this book, we shall focus on the national cultures to discuss how to deal with cultural differences during commercial negotiations.