Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 94.0, , language: English, abstract: U.S. firms that decide to go global experience unique challenges that are not particularly present in typical domestic businesses. Companies that have relations abroad are often met with significant cultural differences that can impact the business – either positively or negatively. The importance of cultural intelligence has led to an increase in cross-cultural training; yet, some firms refuse to acknowledge the significant role that culture plays in their international business. A lack of cultural awareness inherently implies an arrogance that has been associated with American culture by other countries. By ignoring cultural differences, American companies reveal an underlying desire to make money without taking the time to know their partners or employees abroad. Such ignorance can be avoided at a relatively low cost; nevertheless, some businesses manage to fail miserably because of a lack of cultural understanding.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,3, http: //www.uni-jena.de/ (Philosphische Fakultät - Lehrstuhl Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation), course: Interkulturseminar USA-Deutschland, 15 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Globalization has led to remarkable changes in the way we conduct the world's business. International Mergers and acquisitions are en vogue today. The advantages quoted by managers include advantages of scale, increased shareholder value, access to new markets, lower overheads and so on. The number of international mergers and acquisitions between German and American companies increased a lot during the last years, as well. At the beginning there are high hopes and elation connected with the deal. But the long-term reality, however, is much the opposite. At least 50 percent of all international mergers and acquisition activity fails, no matter how the success is measured. There are also lots of companies who failed, who are therefore not able to benefit from some positive synergy effects like cost reductions. Why did that happen? A survey tried to analyze the reasons for this. The surprising result was that just 30% of the failures were attributed to the "hard factors" of business, like planning, finance or technology. For the rest, the reason lay in the so-called "soft factors", which contain cultural and organizational behaviour. Somewhat less acknowledged, although hardly disputed, is the positive and negative impact of cultural aspects on the success of M&A activity. The following work reveals the differences between American and German business culture and also analyzes its historical and social background. Thereby, the main goal is to disprove that American and German business styles are almost similar. Furthermore, at the end the reader should know more about the existing differences between t

The main objective of this textbook is to show cultural aspects and their influence of conducting business internationally. The authors aimed at providing information which can be useful in the process of making business decisions by taking into consideration the existing cultural diversification. This is why the theoretical discourse is accompanied by numerous examples, bringing to the book also a practical dimension. The book is addressed to a wide circle of readers – those interested in the phenomena occurring in the world economy and the dimensions of contemporary culture, as well as students of international business relations. It may also interest entrepreneurs, both those already present in international markets, and those who are at the planning stage of such future activities.

This book demonstrates how the theories and insights of anthropology have positively influenced the conduct of global business and commerce, providing a foundation for understanding the impact of culture on global business, and global business on culture.

“Companies that do not adapt to the new global realities will become victims of those that do.” In this quote Theodor Levitt, a former professor at the Harvard Business School, points out that companies all over the world need to deal with a process which has changed the way they carry on a business in many ways. The process, namely globalisation, takes advantages as well as disadvantages, not only for the business world but also for the individual. The importance to face globalisation has always been there but, it has increased with the evolving stages of globalisation. Ever since this process started, companies have tried to derive advantage from globalisation while at the same time they had to deal with the disadvantages. For marketers in particular, this process seems to offer a lot of potential for the exploration of new markets and customers. However, the questions determining the success or failure of a marketing campaign are more complex than in domestic marketing. Accordingly, the terms international and global marketing are strongly connected to globalisation, and have become a key factor for the success of companies. Corporations that want belong to these successful multi-national companies (MNC), or global players certainly have to deal with the different issues that come along with marketing products in other countries. These can have a significant impact on international operations but also on the overall performance of a company. Since a company’s approach to these issues determines the success or failure in marketing a product abroad, these situations have to be addressed at an early stage. Among others, cultural differences are one of the major obstacles that have to be considered in international marketing. Every culture has its own individual values, behaviours, ways of thinking, lifestyle and language which make it unique. Accordingly, companies have two different possibilities to deal with that process. At first, standardisation, an identical marketing plan is used across different cultures, and secondly, adaptation, appropriate adjustments are made to the special cultural environment of the target market. It is therefore important for a marketer to be aware of these differences, and to use the right tools to advertise products successfully in multiple, varied cultural environments. This study provides a comprehensive framework of cultural differences in the USA and Germany, and analyses how companies should conceive their [...]

This book describes how a deeper knowledge and understanding of cultural differences represents a meaningful and useful tool for management of companies, and in particular SMEs, in the People’s Republic of China. After introductory chapters on the internationalization of SMEs and the role played by management in this process, the authors explore the implications of academic discourses on culture and its dimensions for company management. The influence of Chinese cultural roots and the country’s current cultural environment on management is then examined, with provision of guidance on response to the identified challenges. A key feature of the book is the presentation of important recent fieldwork in the main economic regions of China. This research further clarifies how business culture and cultural differences impact on company activities in China and casts light on various aspects of the adaptive capability of SMEs within the country, highlighting the value of cultural awareness and intelligence. The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

There are various factors which play a part in determining how someone will react when placed in a certain situation and faced with a specific problem. Three that impact our decision-making processes are personal, organizational, and cultural values. These factors influence our every-day decisions at an individual level, and their existence tends to generate several ethical dilemmas within the workplace and around the world.

This book examines the interplay between political culture and diplomatic strategy in the U.S., revealing the transformation of American political culture and its impact on the country’s foreign strategy. The theoretical pivot of this study is an analysis of the dynamics of political culture and the mechanisms of the interaction between political culture and diplomatic strategy. Given this premise, the core chapters revisit the historical transformations of American political culture and analyze the responses and countermeasures taken to attempt to reverse the perceived decline in American hegemony during the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, factors interwoven with security, economic, and institutional crises. The discussion describes the landscape and evolution of contemporary American political culture and the correlated adjustments of U.S. global strategy over the course of the twenty-first century. Given the myriad of challenges and political legacies left by its predecessors, the author gives a pessimistic prognosis of the prospect of resolving America’s political plight by the Joe Biden administration. The title will be a valuable reference for academic and general readers interested in American politics, U.S. diplomatic strategy, and international relations.

The Cossacks who wore German uniforms saw their service not as treason to the motherland, but as an episode in the revolution of 1917, part of an ongoing struggle against Moscow and against Communism. A Wehrmacht needing men and an SS hungry for power reinterpreted or ignored Hitler's racist ideology to form entire divisions of Cossack volunteers. German offices developed relationships to "their" Cossacks similar to those in the French and British colonial armies. The Cossacks responded by fighting effectively and reliably on the Russian Front and in the Balkans. Their reward was forced repatriation into Stalin's Gulag at the hands of the Western powers in 1945.

Organizing consists of making other people work. We do this by manip ulating symbols: words, exhortations, memos, charts, signs of status. We expect these symbols to have the desired effects on the people con cerned. The success of our organizing activities depends on whether the others do attach to our symbols the meanings we expect them to. Whether or not they do so is a function of what I have sometimes called "the programs in their minds" -their learned ways of thinking, feeling, and reacting-in short, a function of their culture. The assumption that organizations could be culture-free is naive and myopic; it is based on a misunderstanding of the very act of organizing. Certainly, few people who have ever worked abroad will make this assumption. The dependence of organizations on their people's mental pro grams does not mean, of course, that we do not find many similarities across organizations. Some characteristics of human mental program ming are universal; others are shared by most people in a continent, a country, a region, an industry, a scientific discipline, or even a gender.