Abstract

The United States and China are now important partners of economy and trade to each other and bilateral business communications are becoming more and more frequent. Two countries, however, are of different cultures so potential conflicts are inevitable in business negotiation. On the basis of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and Weiss’s twelve variables and combined with case analysis, the essay analyzes impacts of cultural differences on business negotiation, like goal of negotiation, order of negotiation, personal style of negotiators, way of decision-making, bearing of risks and communication patterns, so as to help both sides to known cultures of their counterpart better and make the negotiation process more smooth.

Key Words: Sino-US, business negotiation, cultural dimension, negotiation variables

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction.1

2 Literature review2

2.1 Hofstede’s cultural dimensions2

2.1.1 Power distance2

2.1.2 Uncertainty avoidance3

2.1.3 Individualism versus Collectivism.3

2.1.4 Long-term orientation versus Short-term orientation4

2.2 Hall’s high context and low context cultures.4

2.3 Weiss’s twelve variables of cultural impacts on business negotiation.5

3 Cultural impacts .7

3.1 Demonstrations of cultural differences in negotiation.7

3.1.1 Relationship- or business-oriented7

3.1.2 One leader or group consensus.7

3.1.3 Formal or informal personal style.8

3.1.4 Strong- or Weak-willingness to take risks9

3.1.5 Direct or indirect communication pattern.9

3.1.6 General to specific or specific to general agreement building process.10

3.2 Case analysis.10

3.2.1 Case one .10

3.2.2 Case two12

3.2.3 Case three12

3.2.4 Case four.13

3.2.5 Case five15

4 Strategies for avoiding misunderstandings16

-4.1 Pre-negotiation stage16

-4.2 Face-to-face stage.17

-4.3 Post-negotiation stage17

5 Conclusion.18

References.20