Assignment:
Please read the following post: 200 words
When discussing international business, there is one word that will be at the top of the list, culture. "Of considerable importance for an international business with operations in different countries is how society's culture affects the values found in the workplace" (Hill & Hult, 2017, p. 114). Not all countries operate the same. Part of having cross-cultural literacy is being well informed on different countries and the way in which their culture affects their way of doing business. Two such nations that contains a wealth of international companies are China and the United States. China and the United States are very fundamentally different. Often, they sit on different ends of Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
This, of course, is because of their very different societal systems like government and economy. The United States operates government based on a constitutional republic where China is a communist state. These are polar opposite on the spectrum. Now this delineation is not seen as much on the economy side. While the United States has a combination of a federal regulated market and a free market economy, China has a similar socialist market economy. (CIA, n.d.). Despite the similarity in economies, they could not be more different culturally, as referenced above based on Hofstede's theory.
The United States is a very individualist society where China is collectivist. This difference has a large influence on how they conduct business. The United States has a high amount of government regulation regarding taxes and tariffs on foreign business. Now these are much higher compared to China's low regulation in global trade. This is why exports from China are significantly cheaper compared to the United States. The other result of this low level of trade regulation is that China is the "world leader in gross value of industrial output" (CIA, n.d.). This low cost of doing business is what makes China so successful in conducting international business with other nations.
This also makes their future ever-expanding in the international market. The United States has a little more room to develop. Because of ever-growing federal regulation, the limiting factors resulting from this reduce the amount of countries that U.S. based companies can deal with. This list grows over time and limits international business.
Now many of the reasons fall in the ethical realm, thus gives a sense of social ethics that can be seen as a successful long-term approach to economic growth. These different cultural dimensions also result in different business practices. The United States, being significantly less formal that China, sees value in humor and satire where their Chinese counterparts tend to steer clear.
This can be seen in the efficiency and content of meetings. Chinese companies tend to be much more to-the-point and direct based on their cultural dimension. This is where being cross-culturally literate is one of the best tools that a company can have when conducting business internationally.
Reference Central Intelligence Agency. (CIA). The World Factbook.