Doing Business with Other Asian Countries

Abstract

As India and other countries are gradually opening their doors for foreign investment, and more and more international companies from all over the world are showing their interest in increasing their economic activities with India, the need for understanding cultural differences between various countries has assumed great importance. Cross cultural negotiation – a process where two or more parties from different cultural backgrounds exchange goods or services, and attempt to agree on the exchange rate for them is becoming an important part of modern business. Today cultural awareness is not just an advantage, but also an absolute necessity in order to create strong cross-cultural business relationships. There is a large body of research that concentrates on business practices in North America and Europe. Majority of the studies tend to place Americans and European at the center and explore the problems that managers of these countries face in foreign countries. However, India is increasing its economic activities not only with North America and Europe but also with other Asian countries. Hence, we also need a body of research that gives a fresh perspective to the study of international business and focuses on other Asian countries that have their own unique style of doing business. This paper is an attempt in this direction. The paper discusses the problems of team building and group activities when two negotiating parties are separated by diverse cultures and how our own culture and language affect the ways in which we organize our world, think, feel, and respond. The paper also attempts to recommend and suggest tools to battle cultural insensitivity and to help international managers make their influence felt across the cultural divide.