Influence of Cultural differences on the International Business Negotiation1

西南政法大学本科学年论文题目：Influence of Cultural differences on the International Business Negotiation外语学院英语（法律经贸方向）专业 08 级 2 班学号 2008081111姓名刘洪维指导教师张剑波成绩西南政法大学教务处制20 年月日Contents摘要 (1)A bstract (2)1.Introduction (3)2.Cultural differences (3)2.1 Definition of Culture (3)2.2 Causes of Cultural Differences (3)2.2.1 Regional difference (3)2.2.2 National difference (4)2.2.3 Political difference (4)2.2.4 Economic difference (4)2.2.5 Religious difference (4)2.2.6 Concept of difference (4)2.3 Importance of cultural difference to business negotiation (5)3. Influence of cultural differences on the international business negotiation (5)3.1 Process of communication (5)3.2 Negotiating style (7)3.3 Ethics and Legal (9)4. How to treat the cultural difference in international business negotiation (10)4.1 Cultural difference that may occur needs to be understood before negotiation (10)4.2 Dealing with the cultural difference correctly is needed in negotiation (11)4.3 after negotiations, do the follow-up job well for the exchange of cultural difference (11)5. Conclusion (12)摘要随着世界经济一体化的迅速发展，国际商务合同越来越多。

国际商务谈判每时每刻都在发生。

国际商务谈判是国际贸易的重要组成部分之一，各种各样的跨文化商务谈判在人们的生活中扮演着重要的角色，尤其是经济生活中。

然而不同的文化背景影响着谈判进程。

来自不同文化背景的谈判者有着不同的价值观和思维方式，以至于他们有着不同的交流方式。

这就意味着如果你想要在谈判中获得成功，就必须了解各国的文化并识别出国际商务活动中的文化差异。

在跨文化商务谈判中，谈判者应该接纳对方的文化，并努力使自己被接受；需要借助有效的沟通，在不损害双方利益的前提下做出正确的评价。

在认识和接受文化差异的同时，要尽量淡化文化差异，这对于跨文化谈判的成功是非常重要的。

关键词：文化差异；国际商务谈判；影响；跨文化策略AbstractWith the rapid development of the economic integration all over the world, international business contracts become much more than before. Of course, the international business negotiation happens every moment, everywhere. International business negotiation is one of the essential parts of the international trade. A variety of cross-culture business negotiations play a significant role in people’s life, especially in the economic life. However, different cultural backgrounds influence the progress of the negotiation. Negotiators from different cultural backgrounds have different values and thinking mode, so that they have different communication styles. It means that if you want to success in negotiation, you must know the culture of all the countries and recognize the cultural differences in the international business activities. In the cross-cultural business negotiation, negotiators should accept the other parties’culture, and try hard to make others accept themselves. It needs the help of effective communication, without prejudice to the interests of both sides to make a correct evaluation of the premise. It is very important for the success of cross-culture negotiation that in the understanding and acceptance of cultural differences, we should try to play down the cultural differences.Key words: Cultural Difference, International Business Negotiation, Influence, Cross-cultural StrategyInfluence of Cultural differences on the International Business NegotiationLiu HongweiSchool of Foreign Languages 4011201.IntroductionBusiness negotiation, as the special pattern of human communication, necessarily refers to the association of different areas, different nations and different social culture. Then the cross-culture negotiation appears. Before negotiating, negotiators must know the influence of the cultural differences. Only facing the influence energetically can make the target come true.2.Cultural differences2.1 Definition of CultureCulture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archaeologists cannot dig up culture directly in their excavations. The broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people that they uncover are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns--they are things that were made and used through cultural knowledge and skills.2.2Causes of Cultural Differences2.2.1Regional differenceRegional difference is that people in different geographical regions have different geographical environment, level of economic development and traditional customs etc.So they have different languages, lifestyles and hobbies, and this will influence their behavior. For example, people in Europe and America value the Christmas Day, but people in some eastern countries even don’t know what Christmas Day is.2.2.2National differenceNational difference is that in the development of different nations, they have their own languages, customs and hobbies. They have their own features on diet, costume, living condition and life. For example, in China, Han people are different from the minority nationalities. They have different festivals, costume and food etc.2.2.3Political differencePolitical difference is that in different countries, there are a variety of political systems and laws which stipulate peoples’ conduct. So people from different countries have different political perspectives. For instance, Chinese like the “golden mean”, so we don’t like aggressiveness war, but some countries i n the world like to fight for scarce resources. That is because they have different political policies.2.2.4Economic differenceEconomic difference is a reflection that economic factor causes the cultural difference. Such as, in western developed countries, people are prosperous and well educated, so they emphasize the quality of life and have strong safety consciousness. But the many Third World countries’ people care more about having enough to eat and wear.2.2.5Religious differenceReligion is a historical phenomenon appearing at a certain stage of development of human society. It has its own process of happening and development. There are three religions in the world, and they are Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. People from different religions have their own Cultural orientation and discipline. It influences their Cognition, behavior norms and values.2.2.6Concept of differenceValue is peoples’ Evaluation criteria of things. It includes concept of time, concept of wealth, attitude toward life and attitude toward risk. On the same question or matter, different people in different society may come to different even opposite conclusion. Regional difference, national difference, political difference, economic difference,religious difference and concept of difference influence people on many aspects such as food, clothing, housing, holidays and rituals etc. So then they influence peoples’ diversity of behavior, value, religion and mode of thinking, and finally, they decide every countries’ or districts’ cultural differ ence.2.3 Importance of cultural difference to business negotiationIn the practice of negotiation, many negotiators usually don’t understand value or mention the important influence of cultural difference to negotiation. On foreign negotiators’ culture, many negotiators maybe have observed the other side’s “different” or “obscure” way of negotiation, but they think that’s not important. Someone blindly believes that foreign negotiations depend on facts and data, and facts and data are general. Similarly, when some negotiators go to other countries to negotiate, for keeping a harmonious relationship, they will pay attention to the cultural factors in common, and ignore the difference.3.Influence of cultural differences on the international businessnegotiationInfluence of culture on negotiation is extensive and profound. Different culture naturally divides people in various categories. This kind of religious diversity can lead to different cultural groups’ mutual estrangement. On the other hand, distinct culture is also peoples’ barrier in communication and contact. So negotiators must accept each other’s culture, and by cultural difference, reveal and understand the other side’s purpose and conduction without any mistakes, and make the other side accept you. Finally, they can reach unanimous agreement.Overall, the impact of culture on negotiations mainly reflects on the following areas: 3.1 Process of communicationInfluence of cultural difference to the process of negotiation communication firstly shows up in the language communication process of negotiation. Language is a bridge for communication in any countries, any areas and any nations. All the companies or individuals that want to hold negotiation must have the language on to this. Difference between the languages of international business activities is the most straightforward.For instance, Chinese "White elephant" brand battery will cause bad associations after it was translated to English. Because “White elephant” has two other meanings besides the name of animal, those are “things useless to owner, but maybe useful to others; useless things”.(Luo Hong, 2000:44) The way to solve the problem of language is easy. You can hire a translator or you can communicate in a common third language with each other. Although the languages used by negotiators have a high adaptability in various cultures, but no matter how it is, the difference is obvious. To Japanese, Brazilian and French cultures, Japanese businessmen’s style of communication is the politest. They often use positive commitment, recommend and guarantee, and use threats, orders and warning remarks less. In their polite talking style, the most outstanding factor is that they usually don’t use “No”, “You” or facial gaze, but often maintain a moment of silence. Brazilian businessmen’s frequency of using “No” or “You” word is higher. Their negotiating styles appear relatively extravagant, and in negotiations, they seem to be unwilling to feel lonely, periodically gaze and touch each other. French businessm en’s negotiating style appears more extravagant.Especially, their frequency of using threats, orders and warning remarks is the highest. In addition, they also frequently use interposition, facial gaze and "no" and "you" word. It is thus clear that only making certain to these differences can avoid the misunderstandings about Japanese silence, Brazilian over warmhearted and French threats, and then obtain the success of international business negotiation. (Zhao Yinde, 2002:25)Influence of cultural difference to negotiating process shows not only in language communication process, but in non-verbal communication process. Cultural difference will lead to the negotiators from different countries or regions have a vast difference in the body language, action and use of language. Even the same action language conveys opposite information. For instance, the vast majority of countries are in favor of ways to nod. But in India and Nepal, they use shaking heads to say “OK”. So they will shake head with smiling face to express affirmation. They often say “You are right. You are right.” But they are shaking their heads. That’s weird.Others cannot know their true feelings. But negotiators’ difference of body, movement, language, understanding and applies also created obstacles to communication. Cultural difference also can lead to the difference of negotiators’ communication styles. People from different cultures have their preferences and habits of communication styles. In cross-cultural negotiation, negotiators usually belong to different culture circle, and have their own communication styles. Both parties who accustomed to different communication styles need indepth communication, and then many problems appear. The way of expression may be definitely different between negotiators from countries with high cultural training and negotiators from countries with low cultural training. Negotiators from countries with high cultural training may use tactful and indirectly way to express themselves. However, negotiators from countries with low cultural training prefer to use oral expression, and they like to express themselves directly. When these two kinds of negotiators from different cultures hold a negotiation, it will always be that one party think the other party is so rude, while the other may consider that side lacking of good faith or believe that that side’s silence means approval. (Wu Xiao, 2005:11)3.2 Negotiating styleNegotiating style is the main bearing and style that negotiators perform in the negotiating act ivities. Negotiating style reflects in the negotiators’ behavior in the negotiation process and the method of controlling the negotiation process. Negotiator’s negotiating style has deep cultural imprint. Culture not only decides the negotiators’ code of ethics, but influences negotiators’ w ay of thinking and personality, so that negotiators from different culture background form distinct negotiating style. Negotiating style has direct influence on the two parties’ communication methods, communication relations, and even negotiating structures in negotiation. Negotiating style can be divided into two features following the cultural difference: oriental type of negotiating style and western type of negotiating style. Oriental type of negotiating style is based on the background of oriental culture, negotiation styles of Asian countries. Among them, Japan and South Korea are typical representatives: (Wang Hongyun, 2005:27)Japanese businessmen are conservative, value the status, think highly of credit and initial cooperation, stress the dependent relationship of each other and have skills in negotiation. Japanese focus on establishing harmonious interpersonal relationship in negotiation. If you had communication with Japanese businessmen once, it is good that recalling the past communication and friendship before holding negotiation. They don’t favor direct and pure business activities. If you establish the trade relationship with Japanese businessmen for the first time, it is significant that principal of high status in your party visit the other side’s principal of equal status. That will make Japanese company value the trade relationship with you. What should also be noted is that Japanese women’s status is low in society, and they are generally not allowed t o participate in the operation and management of large companies. In some important occasions, Japanese businessmen won’t take wives with them. Therefore, formal negotiations encountered in general should not let women in, or they may be skeptical, even showing dissatisfaction. (Song Xianzhuo, 2004:253)South Koreans are quite stubborn. In negotiations, they are often opinionated, not easily give in. In this case, you must not only grasp the strategy, insist and argue, but also be reasonable and master certain sense of proportion. Sometimes patience is needed. On the other hand, in negotiations, South Korean businessmen seldom express their perspective directly. The other side often need try to figure out what they want. In order to accurately understand the meaning of each other, South Korean businessmen may repeatedly ask the same question, in order to ensure accuracy when making decisions. Entering a contract with South Koreans once successfully does not mean that they won’t change. They will also seek to amend for other reasons, or to re-start negotiations with you.Western type of negotiating style is based on the background of western culture, negotiation styles of European and American countries. Among them, America and Britain are typical representatives.Americans always say “business is business”. That means doing business needs to persist the principle of not the person. "Time is money", "money is everything" is the American enduring creed. They are often straightforward and anxious in businessactivities. They talk business straight to the point, always a phone call to talk, to sit down without greeting, straight to the point. They calculated the number of hours and days of progress, tend to make their opponents feel the pressure. In addition, American businessmen most pay attention to economic benefits. They have a sentence of slang named: “Bang for buck”, with minimum capital investment to get the maximum benefit. British businessmen are more formal and conservative than other countries in the world in business activities. Even in today's world into the electronic information age, doing business by phone calls is hard to be accepted in Britain. British businessmen prefer to do well preparation before, and then discuss face-to-face. As long as they believe one detail has not been solved, they won’t sign the agreement, and everything must depend on the principle. The British value the position very much, and the title is also important to them. So choosing an outstanding person as agent influences the business, and the role of political forces and trade unions should not be ignored in the business. (Song Kuiyuan, 2005:79)Of course, in the actual negotiation process you must pay attention to that negotiators from the same culture may have opposite negotiation style influenced by subculture or some other reasons.3.3 Ethics and LegalChinese culture is used to avoid legally considering questions, but focuses on the consideration on the problem from the ethic. Most of the western countries are absolutely opposite. They often consider problems depending on law. In China, the concept “Ethic is supreme” has dominated an important position in peoples’ thoughts. Once there is a dispute, the first thought is how to win the public support. “A just cause en joys abundant support while an unjust cause finds little” has extremely special connotation and meaning for Chinese people. As a result, Chinese people feel not costumed solving some problems which should be solved by law. They have a habit to make “organization” and the public opinion play the role of moral standard. Japanese people don’t like to negotiate with lawyers. They think that holding negotiation with lawyers is an expression of lacking of sincerity because the other party considers the future disputes processing before negotiation. When there is adispute between the two parties, the Japanese will often choose not to resort to law, and be willing to sit down and negotiate again. While the westerners are different, they mostly deal with the dispute by law, not by the role of conscience and morality. For example, in business negotiations, especially in foreign countries, Americans will bring their own lawyers. They always say:” I'm going to consult a lawyer's opinion.”(Zhou Zhongxing, 2003:235)4.How to treat the cultural difference in international businessnegotiationRecognizing and embracing the cultural difference can take in the whole process of negotiation response measures, included the cultural difference that may occur before the negotiation, dealing with the cultural difference correctly in negotiation and follow-up to do a good job for the exchange of cultural differences after negotiation. 4.1 Cultural difference that may occur needs to be understood before negotiationIt is essential to understand the cultural difference before negotiation. Preparations for negotiation includes: negotiation background, the assessment of the situation, the facts need to be verified in negotiating process, the agenda, the best strategy options and concessions. Negotiation background consists of location, site layout, negotiation unit, number of negotiators, channels of communication and negotiation time limits. All these preparations must consider the possible cultural difference. For instance, cultural differences in terms of site layout may be slightly on the impact of co-operation. In the culture of heavier hierarchy, if the room is not arranged properly, more casually, may cause the other party anxiety and even anger.In addition, the ways of negotiating also vary from culture to culture. American culture tends to crowd together to "hammer out an agreement"; while the Japanese culture like to talk to each person individually first, and if everyone agrees, they will arrange a wider meeting.The control of negotiating time limits is also very significant. Different culture has different concept of time. For example, the concept of time is strong in NorthAmerican culture, and time is money for Americans. But in the culture of the Mid-east and Latin America, the concept of time is less, in their view, the time should be enjoyed. Thus, in international business negotiations, the concept of time differences should be prepared.4.2Dealing with the cultural difference correctly is needed in negotiation First, on the chosen and use of the negotiation language, for Western countries, we must take an export-oriented communication; do our best to express our ideas in a simple, clear and frank way. D on’t be ambiguous and vague. For instance, Americans like to argue, and their language is confrontational. They believe that argument is a right to express personal ideas, and is useful to solving problems, and differences in views would not affect relationships. While in the oriental culture, in order to save both parties’ faces, ambiguous and indirect language s are frequently used. Even if they do not agree with each other's views, it's rare to be rejected or refuted directly. They will twist and turn to state their views. "Harmony" of the values of the Chinese people creates a harmonious atmosphere as an important means of negotiations. In negotiating process, they avoid friction; put the friendship on the first consideration. What they want is permanent friendship and co-operation. (Liu Wenqi, 2004:54) Second, on the problem of negotiating way, taking an example of China and America, oriental mode of thinking is the overall orientation, and their way used in negotiation is from whole to part, from big to small, from general to specific. That means reaching a consensus on general principle first, and then guide to develop specific programs to solve problems by this. There is not obvious order in oriental mode of thinking. Usually in the end of the negotiations, all issues will be made in concessions and commitments to reach an agreement. While the Western people are influenced by mode of analyzing thinking and the most important for them is the logical relationship among things. They value specific more than overall, and they eager to start negotiations about the specific terms. As a result, they usually resolve the problems of price, delivery, warranty and service contracts and other issues respectively. Each settlement of the problems has concessions and commitments from start to finish. The final agreement is a collection of a list of little agreements.4.3 after negotiations do the follow-up job well for the exchange of cultural differenceManagement after negotiations related to the contracts management and the follow-up communication behavior. First of all, for contracts, in the countries where people value the relationship among people, such as China, the settlement of disputes usually don’t depend on the law completely, but depend on the relationship of the two parties. In these cultures, the written contract is very short. It is mainly used to describe the two parties’ own responsibilities. But in western countries, such as America, they regard the contract signing ceremony as a movement of wasting time and money, so they usually sign the contract by sending e-mail. To follow-up communication, the American culture emphasizes on "separate the people and things", so they don’t pay attention to follow-up communication. But in oriental cultural countries, such as Japan, keeping the follow-up communication with most foreign customers is seen as an important part of international business negotiation. Long after they sign the contract, they will still communicate with each other by letters, pictures, and exchange visits, etc. (Wang Tengning, 2004:46)5.ConclusionThe above analyzes the cultural differences and their influences on the international business negotiation. Any person working on the cross-cultural business activities should attach great importance to them. Cultural difference is objectively exists. Attitudes of individuals or groups determine the role of cultural differences. They can exaggerate the cultural differences, and they can also lead to lower barriers that cultural differences cause to the lowest point. When people are holding business negotiations, if they can overcome the cultural barriers, and learn to stand on the point of thinking of others, it can promote mutual understanding. 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