Business etiquette and negotiation in China

Two working papers addressing Chinese negotiation and business etiquette were recently posted to the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge newsletter website: "Cultural Notes on Chinese Negotiating Behavior" and "Etiquette and Process Puzzles of Negotiating Business in China: A Questionnaire". Both papers are by HBS professor James K. Sebenius and research associate Cheng (Jason) Qian. The second paper includes a questionnaire with 36 multiple choice questions on doing business in China. The questions themselves offer important issues to consider: establishing first contact; setting priorities; meeting times; greetings; socializing; and contract disputes. (Unfortunately, no answers are provided!).

New database "Global Road Warrior"

USF now subscribes to the database "Global Road Warrior" - a useful resource for international business travel and etiquette. Here's the announcement:

Global Road Warrior is a resource from World Trade Press, a publisher that focuses on international trade, business relations, and business travel. The intent of Global Road Warrior is to foster international commerce and understanding by serving as practical and comprehensive reference tool. Taking a country by country approach, researchers can drill down to an array of content that ranges from content that can be easily found elsewhere such as facts about the country, climate, and geography to content that is uniquely contained within this resource. This unique content includes business etiquette in a country; stereotypes of the country as accepted by foreigners and stereotypes as accepted by the country; information specific to women on the “global road”; information on street crime, organized crime, and social unrest; typical food within the country; religious practices; language; lifecycles; and much more. While an invaluable tool for international business and marketing, this resource could prove useful in sociology, anthropology, women’s studies and more.

For this database and other library resources visit http://www.lib.usf.edu. Click on Databases by Title/Subject to begin.

International business culture and etiquette....

An understanding of business culture and etiquette in other countries is a critical competency for survival in a global business environment. Most business programs now incorporate international business etiquette into the curriculum. Listed below are a few recommended web sites that might be useful for building your business etiquette knowledge and skills:

Kwintessential offers a great collection of free and fee-based resources on inter-cultural communication, cross cultural training, translation services.... SEE esp. the "country profiles" (scroll down on left) - for business etiquette, customs and protocol.

The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Service has published "The International Business Etiquette Internet Sourcebook" (March 2007) which provides a very useful list by country of web sites devoted to business culture and/or business etiquette.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions is the result of research on how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. The model measures countries on dimensions such as "power distance", "individualism," "masculinity," "uncertainty avoidance," and "long-term orientation." Select a country to see how it ranks on these dimensions.

A more complete list of recommended web sites can be found here: http://del.icio.us/marcylibrarian/business_etiquette.

You can also find additional resources listed in the USF library catalog. For example,"Kiss, bow, or shake hands : the bestselling guide to doing business in more than 60 countries" is a popular book available for reference use in the USFSP library. Electronic databases such as "Countries and their cultures" and "World factbook" are also very useful for a little more in-depth background on a country.