This document discusses various cultural dimensions that impact business such as: - Individualism vs collectivism, with countries like the US and UK being more individualistic and countries like Pakistan and Malaysia being more collectivistic. - Masculinity vs femininity, with countries like Japan emphasizing work goals more and countries like Sweden and Norway emphasizing personal goals more. - Uncertainty avoidance, achievement vs ascription, high/low context, expressive vs reserved, formal vs informal, polychronic vs monochronic, and other cultural dimensions. It also discusses different approaches to conducting international business, such as ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, and geocentric orientations. Lastly, it

1. Cultural Context
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2. • Individualism: tendency to look after only self
and immediate family members- strong work
ethics. US, GB
• Collectivism: tendency to belong in groups.
Pakistan, Malaysia. Products in such countries
should have group acceptibility
• Masculinity: societies in which dominant
value emphasise on work goals. Japan
• Femininity: achievement of personal goals.
Sweden, Norway

3. • Uncertainty avoidance: lack of tolerance for
ambiguity. Greece, Portugal, Japan most
uncertainty avoidance states. Singapore,
Denmark, India least. Lifetime employment in
high uncertainty avoidance societies.
• Universalism: belief that ideas and practices can
be defined and applied everywhere without
modification. Focus on formal rules. US, UK,
Germany
• Particularism: belief that unique circumstances
decides application of ideas. Modified legal
contracts. Venezuela, indonesia,

4. • Individualism vs communitarianism
• Neutral: People tend to hold their emotions in
check. Japan, UK
• Affective: Emotions are expressed openly.
Mexico, Netherlands
• Specific: Individuals tend to have large public
space and less private space. Readily share public
space, but personal life is closely guarded.
Australia, UK, US, Swiss
• Diffuse: public and private spaces are more or
less similar. Venezuela, China, Spain.

5. • Achievement vs ascription
• Achievement: people are evaluated and
accorded social status based on how well they
perform their allocated function. Aus, US, UK,
Swiss
• Ascription: status is accorded independent of
task or specific function. Senior, elderly.
Venez, indones, china.

6. • High context vs low context
• High context: implicit, non-verbal
communication is more important.
Relationship is long lasting. China, korea,
japan
• Low context: verbal communication explicit.
Relies heavily on words. Relationship is
shorter in duration. German, swiss,
scandinavian

7. • Homophilous vs hetrophilous
• Homophilous: people share same belief,
language, religion. Japan, korea, scandinavian
• Hetrophilous: fair amount of differentiation in
language, religion, belief. India, china
• Relationship focused: strong orientation
towards building relationship. India,
indonesia, malaysia. Hesitant to develop
business with strangers
• Deal focused: open to discuss business with
strangers. Written agreement. US, germany,
France

8. • Formal vs informal
• Formal: Formality is used to show respect.
Status difference are large and valued. India,
Saudi, japan, china
• Informal: informal behaviour is not considered
disrespectful. Status differences are not
valued. US, UK, Canada, Aus.

9. • Polychronic vs monochronic
• Polychronic: relaxed approach to time
schedule, punctuality and meeting deadlines.
India, B’desh, Malaysia, Arabs
• Monochronic: primacy of punctuality and
schedule. Rigid deadlines. Japan, US, China,
Aus, Europe

10. • Expressive vs reserves
• Expressive: people speak louder, interrupt
frequently, uncomfortable with silence.
Considerable physical contacts. Direct eye
contact. Lively facial expression. Arabs, US,
canada, Europe.
• Reserved: people speak softly, ----Japan, SEA,
Britain, Scandinavian

11. • Parochialism vs Simplification
• Parochialism: viewing the rest of the world
from one’s own cultural perspective. The
domestic business experiences of
international managers often interfere in alien
culture.
• Simplification: process of exhibiting the same
cultural orientation towards different cultural
groups. Behaving in same manner while doing
business in arabia, japan, scandinevian

12. EPRG Approach
• Ethnocentric orientation: Belief that own
culture is superior to other cultures. Minimum
effort to adopt to the needs of the foreign
countries. Selling idli mix in US
• Polycentric: Belief that substantial differences
exist among various culture. Recognising
cultural differences in the host countries.
Market oriented. A single business strategy
can not work across the world.

13. • Regiocentric: Treating region as a uniform
cultural segment and adopting a similar
business strategy within the region. Mc
Donald- muslim countries, beef.
• Geocentric: Considering whole world a single
market and formulating integrated business
strategies. Harry Potter series.

14. EMIC vs ETIC Approach
• EMIC: Attitude, interest and behavior are
unique to a culture and best understood in
their own terms. Studying business research
problems in each country’s specific context.
• ETIC: Identifying and assessing universal
attitudinal and behavioral concept and
developing ‘pan-cultural measures.