商務英語畢業(yè)論文ImpactsofCulturalDifferencesonInternationalBusinessNegotiation

1、xinyang normal university graduate graduation thesis subject： impacts of cultural differences on international business negotiation major: business english name： yangzisai student no: id number: department: henan poly-technic institute tel: supervisor: date: 2012-10-29contents introduction.11. types

2、 of cultural differences.21.1value view.21.2. negotiating style.21.3. thinking model.22. impact of cultural differences on international business negotiations.4 2.1 .1environmental factors . 5 2.1.2 personal factors in business negotiation . 5 2.1.3 impact between usa&china difference on negotia

3、tion. 62.2 impact of negotiating style differences on international business negotiations. 72.3 impact of thinking model differences on international business negotiation.83. coping strategy of negotiating across cultures.93.1 making preparations before negotiation.93.2 overcoming cultural prejudice

4、.103.3 conquering communication barriers.10conclusion.11bibliography. 21 acknowledgements. 22 摘要摘要在現(xiàn)代商業(yè)的快速發(fā)展過程中，文化一直都起著非常重要的作用。同樣地， 文化對商務談判的影響也不可小覷。影響談判的因素有很多，其中文化差異的存 在尤為重要，甚至會直接影響到商務談判的結(jié)果。只有正確認識并妥善把握中西 方文化差異，才能不斷提高自己的談判技巧，強化自身優(yōu)勢，推進商務談判的順 利進行。然而，目前在商務談判過程中，對文化差異的存在而產(chǎn)生的影響，人們 并沒有給予足夠的重視。本文通過對商務談判相關內(nèi)容

5、的分析研究，找出文化差 異在商務談判中的重要性之所在；通過對比分析各因素對商務談判的影響，從而 尋求文化差異對商務談判的作用以及與各因素間的關系；最后研究得出結(jié)論，文 化差異對商務談判有很大的影響，只有正確認識并妥善把握中西方文化差異，才 能不斷提高自己的談判技巧，強化自身優(yōu)勢，推進商務談判的順利進行。 關鍵詞：商務談判；文化差異；提高；談判技巧abstractculture has been playing a very important role in the rapid development of modern business. similarly, the impact it h

6、as on business negotiation is also very great. there are many factors influencing business negotiation, among them, cultural differences are of special importance. the result might be changed due to the differences in culture. as long as we know about the differences in culture and further more make

7、 full use of them, the process of negotiation can goes on smoothly. however, nowadays, enough attention has not been paid to the impact of cultural differences on business negotiation. this thesis points out the importance of cultural differences existing in negotiation by collecting and studying co

8、nnected information, tries to find out the relationship between business negotiation and all factors that influence negotiation, and finally come to the conclusion that as long as we have a good knowledge of cultural differences, which has great impact on the business negotiation, we can improve our

9、 negotiation skills and promote the process of negotiation. keywords: business negotiation; cultural differences; improve; negotiation skillsintroductionalong with the advancement globalization and chinas wto entry, business enterprises in china have to face more and more business negotiations with

10、foreign enterprises, especially with american enterprises. in these negotiations, chinese negotiators sometimes feel uncomfortable, puzzled, lost, irritated and the alike, because of unfamiliar custom and behaviors demonstrated by american negotiators. meanwhile, american negotiators confront the sa

11、me situation. cult rural differences between china and west countries could cause many problems. therefore, understanding cultural differences and overcoming them is crucial in international business negotiations.although the definition of culture is numerous and vague, it is commonly recognized tha

12、t culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, values, attitudes and expectations. culture is a major determinant in business negotiation. so have a clear picture of culture differences if of great significance. 1. types of culture differencesthe east countries and west countries have produced di

13、fferent cultures on the different continents. among the different cultures, value views, negotiating style and thinking model appear more obvious.1.1value viewvalue view is the standard that people use to asses objective things. it includes time view, equality view and objectivity. people may draw a

14、 different or even contradictory conclusion about the same thing. value view is one of the most important differences among the many factors. it can influence the attitude, needs and behavior of people. the value view varies from nation to nation, people know that the eastern person focus on collect

15、ivism, while the western people pay more attention to individualism.1.2. negotiating stylenegotiating style refers to the tolerance and graces which the negotiator shows in the negotiation. the negotiators show their negotiating style through behavior, manners and the method of controlling negotiati

16、on process during the negotiation. the negotiators negotiating style has a bearing on their culture background. according to the culture differences, negotiating style falls into two types: the east negotiating style pattern and the west negotiating style pattern.1.3. thinking modelthinking model re

17、flects the culture. because of the influences of history background, continents, words and living method, different nations generate different thinking models. surely, there is more than one thinking model of a nation, but one is more obvious compared with others. as a whole, east people, especially

18、 chinese have strong comprehensive thinking, image thinking and curved thinking, while analytical thinking, abstract thinking and direct thinking are possessed by the west people. 2. impact of cultural differences on international business negotiationswith the rapid development of economy, we need t

19、o do business with businessmen under different culture background, so in order to reach trade agreement, it is necessary for us to study the impact of culture differences on international negotiation in global business activities. the impact of culture differences on international negotiation is ext

20、ensive and deeply. different cultures divide the people into different group and they are also the obstacles of peoples communication. accordingly, it is required that the negotiator should accept the culture of each other. furthermore, through culture differences, it is important that the negotiato

21、r reveal and understand the other partys goal and behavior and make him or herself be accepted by the opponent to reach agreement finally2.1.1 environmental factorsenvironmental factors in business negotiation including politics, belief, law, social customs, commercial tradition, financial situation

22、, recommendation, the climate and some other factors. changing in the political environment will usually cause changing in the content, procedure and the result of business negotiation. therefore, in order to ensure the smoothness of the negotiation, in international business, talented negotiator al

23、ways pay much attention to analyzing political environment, especially to the international currency, the situation of the opponents country, etc. “rational belief is playing a rather important role in the following aspects: political affairs, social communication and personal behaviors, legal syste

24、m, holidays and work-time and so on” (salacuse). the financial situation is also a crucial factor in business negotiation, which includes external debt, foreign exchange reserves, the payment credit and the tax. take a project in l city for example. the negotiator chose a middle cooperationm in amer

25、ica as the technical supplier. it proves that this is not a perfect choice. m has advanced techniques, but its ability and commercial coordination are not so good. whats worse, it had little knowledge of chinese market, and the experience is not sufficient. besides, m acquired another company t in a

26、merica. t had loaned some money from the bank and cant return it on time. m had to pick on this loan. however, m also didnt have enough money, and the bank stopped all of its accounts between banks. m had to stop all its business. as the project was crucial to l city, it couldnt be put off any more.

27、 at last, the negotiator had to take some extraordinary measures to help m perform the contract, and complete the project. (robert d and gulbro) as for the climate factor, there is also an example. one company in china once had a project in thailand. at the very beginning, the company didnt know the

28、 construction would be carried on during the rain season, the instrument could not be used in the construction sites. in the end, the other side asked an extra claim for delaying the construction period (robert d and gulbro).2.1.2 personal factors in business negotiationpersonality is the total of o

29、nes mental characters, it is shown in peoples characteristics, abilities and qualities. peoples personality will affect the behaviors in some degree mainly on their emotion and attitude. impression refers to the perceptual knowledge of things in peoples mind (ting-toomey). it is usually divided into

30、 the first impression and the follow-up impression. the first impression will give a great influence on the follow-up impression. therefore, first impression in business negotiation is of great importance. the reflection of people, affairs and such things that affect directly on peoples sense organs

31、 is called perception. it is limited by knowledge, skills, needs, the objective environment and mental qualities. different people have different conceptions towards a same thing. considering all the factors above and some other factors affecting business negotiation is necessary both before and dur

32、ing the negotiation. in this way, can negotiators grasp the overall situation of the negotiation.2.1.3 impact usa culture on negotiationthe large cultural wave of modernism, which emerged in europe, and then spread to the united states in the early years of the 20th century, expressed a sense of mod

33、ern life through art as a sharp break from the past. as modern machinery had changed the pace, atmosphere, and appearance of daily life in the early 20th century, so many artists and writers, with varying degrees of success, reinvented traditional artistic forms and tried to find radically new onesa

34、n aesthetic echo of what people had come to call “the machine age.” 2.2 impact of negotiating style differences on international business negotiationsthe impacts of negotiating style differences on international business negotiation mainly exist in negotiating method and negotiating structure. take

35、the negotiation between america and china as a example, since the oriental care more about unity in thinking, they method they adopt in negotiation is from unity to parts, from the big to little, from the abstract to the concrete, that is to say they should each agreement on general terms, then begi

36、n to talk about the concrete terms. and usually not until the end of the negotiation do they make compromise and promise based on all the items, and then to reach agreement. the west people are influenced by analytic thinking, so pay more attention to logical relations between things. they consider

37、more about concrete things than integrity. and they tend discuss the concrete items at the beginning of negotiation, so they often resolve the price, delivery and issuance respectively at first. and they may make compromise at every detail, so the final contract is the combination of many little agr

38、eements. the negotiating structure is linked with cultures. negotiating structure mostly refers to the number of the participants. in business negotiation, the foreign delegation is usually composed by 3-5 people, while the chinese one could be more 15 people. the foreign negotiators not only need t

39、o negotiate with their counterparts but also need to discuss with related person in charge or the government. when making the final decisions, the chinese negotiators often discuss the results repeatedly from the workers to the board to avoid being decided by a single person. that results from the i

40、nfluence of collectivism. so they often said to their partners: let us think about it. let us discuss it. but the west negotiators could make the final decision without going back for discussion. that because their admire individualism and hard working. they have strong independence. they would carr

41、y on according to the best ways after knowing their goals. whats more, most west people think that they have the ability to deal with the negotiation situation on their own. and truly, they are brave enough to take responsibility.2.3 impact of thinking model differences on international business neg

42、otiationthe thinking model of chinese tends to be comprehensive, concrete and curved, while the americans are usually analytic, abstract and straight-line. we chinese are accustomed to talking about general principles at first and then move onto details. to chinese negotiators, the core is the gener

43、al guideline, and the details are subject to the guideline. after figuring out the big picture, other problems are easier to resolve. it is the most obvious feature of chinese negotiators. but west businessmen, especially americans are likely to discuss the details first and try to avoid the princip

44、le. they value details very much and think noting about the unity. accordingly, they want to discuss the details at the beginning of negotiation. they are direct and simple in negotiation. as a matter of fact, many facts show that general principles first have impact of constriction on the parts and

45、 details. for instance, our government insists on the principle that hong kong and macao are undivided parts of chinas territory. in the important diplomatic negotiations such as entering into relationship with america, hong kongs and macaos coming back into their motherland. it is under such princi

46、ple that we established the tone of the negotiation and controlled the skeleton of the negotiation, thus we get the advantage and prompt the success of negotiation. 3. coping strategy of negotiating across culturesthe culture differences in cross-cultural communication have various impacts on operat

47、ion of enterprises. these differences will influence negotiation and management of transnational operation; whats more, it may have bad effects on the harmonious relationship between our country and foreign countries. maybe that will lead to the missing of market opportunities, the increase of trade

48、 cost and the low efficiency of company management. so, it is really necessary for us all to eliminate and avoid disadvantageous effects.3.1 making preparations before negotiation. the negotiators must make good preparations if they want control the development of negotiation successfully in the com

49、plex situation. only do they make good preparations can they make changes freely according to the situation of negotiation and avoid the happening of conflicts. because the international business negotiation involves extensive aspects, more preparations are needed. the preparations often include the

50、 analysis of the negotiators themselves and the opponents; the constitution of negotiation group, elaborating the negotiating goal and strategy and going on imitation negotiation when necessary. when making preparations, you should try to know the opponents while you analyze yourselves. analyzing yo

51、urselves mainly refers to studying if the project is feasible. to knowing about the opponents means understanding their strength such as credit status, the policy、 business customs and regulations of their countries and the conditions of their negotiating members and so on.3.2 overcoming cultural pr

52、ejudicetolerating different cultures and overcoming cultural prejudice contribute to better communicating with each other and understanding each other. west people often think that they are powerful, capable and experienced, so sometimes, we need to recognize then and give then some good comments. w

53、e should learn about the foreign cultures before negotiation and accept and understand their cultures in negotiation, because every country regard their own cultures as a matter of course and hope that their culture could be recognized and accepted.3.3 conquering communication barriers two trains ru

54、nning at different railways in the opposite direction will collide with each other; maybe this is the best arrangement for trains. but to communication between people, there wont be communications if people go ahead according to their own ways. trains will collide with each other if they run on the

55、same railway at the opposite direction. but if we measure by the objective of peoples communication, only we meet each other, can we have communication and friendship. in negotiation, sometimes we cant make much progress although we have talked for long time. and sometimes both parties are not satis

56、fied. after thinking, that is caused by communication barriers which happen easily in cross-cultural negotiation. we should make sure if there appear communication barriers, if so, we must overcome them. generally speaking, we should pay more attention to the following three communication barriers i

57、n cross-cultural negotiation: the communication barriers caused by culture background of both; the ones caused by misunderstanding of the contents and information from the partner; the ones caused by not being willing to accept the opponents contents and ideas. conclusion“social customs varies in di

58、fferent countries”. in a word, cross- cultural communication will meet the problem of culture differences surely. in turn, culture differences also influence all aspects of international business communication. to avoid or to resolve the culture differences is a huge task in international business negotiation. in order to step into the international market successfully, we must have the awareness of culture differences, acknowledge culture differences and understand different cultures. try to know yourself and know them. whats more, we should respect different behavio