Cultural distance and negotiation behavior : Perception of entrepreneurs operating in Turku

This thesis investigates the influence of cultural distance on entrepreneurs’ negotiation behaviour. For this purpose, Turku was chosen as the unit of analysis due to the exponential demographic change experienced during the last two decades that has derived in a more diversified local environment. The research aim set for this study was to identify to what extent entrepreneurs face cultural distance, how cultural distance influences the entrepreneur’s negotiation behaviour and how can it be addressed in order to turn dissimilarities into opportunities. This study presented the relation and apparent dichotomy of cultural distance and global culture, including the component of diversity. The impact of cultural distance in the entrepreneurial mindset and its consequent effect in negotiation behaviour was presented too. Addressing questions about the way individuals perceive, behave and interact allowed the use of interviews for this qualitative research study. In the empirical part of this study it was found that negotiation behaviour differed in terms of how congenial entrepreneurs felt when managing cultural distance, encompassing their performance. It was also acknowledged that after time and effort, some of the personal traits were enhanced while others reduced, allowing for more flexibility and adaptation. Furthermore, depending on the level of trust and shared interests, entrepreneurs determined their attitudinal approach, being adaptive or reactive subject to situational aspects. Additionally, it was found that the acquisition of cultural savvy not necessarily conveyed to more creativity. This experiential learning capability led to the proposition of new ways of behaviour. Likewise, it was proposed that growing cultural intelligence bridge distances, reducing mistrusts and misunderstandings. The capability of building more collaborative relationships allows entrepreneurs to see cultural distance as a cultural perspective instead of as a threat. Therefore it was recommended to focus on proximity rather than distance to better identify and exploit untapped opportunities and better perform when negotiating in whichever cultural conditions.

Reusing repository technology for Cultural Heritage and Special Collections

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

THE ROLE OF CULTURAL AWARENESS IN BUILDING CHINESE HEALTH FOOD BRANDS Using Netnography in Searching Cultural Arguments to Be Used for Marketing Health Foods in China

Despite the complexity of the Chinese culture consumer product businesses should apply them in building brands for Chinese markets. There are reasons to believe that cultural values and attitudes affect the buying behavior of Chinese consumers. Companies that wish to create brands in China should therefore be aware of the prevailing cultural values and consumer attitudes. This thesis will examine which values and attitudes mostly affect Chinese consumers of health food products. The study will be done by conducting a netnography. Because netnography is actually a collection methods rather than a single method, other auxiliary methods will also be applied. These methods are emotion, language and sentiment analysis (ELS analysis). Emotion analysis will be conducted because cultural values are mostly built on emotional basis. Sentiment analysis will assist in recognizing the key factors that help to locate values and attitudes. Because the netnography will be conducted in Chinese web forums by a non-native researcher, linguistic aspects should also be analyzed in parallel with emotions and sentiment analysis. The study shows that the Chinese consumers of health food products put much importance on functional, analytical and collectivistic attitudes as well as social and psychological values. Of all the twelve cultural values defined, the role of family rose above all. Also perseverance, frugality, guanxi and harmony were highly presented. The attitudes were found by recognizing certain attitude factors. Of all the factors, health foods’ functional benefits and aesthetic content together with consumers’ value consciousness surpassed other factors. Besides these results that can be applied by foreign health food companies willing to enter Chinese consumer markets, also academia can benefit this new approach for conducting ethnographies online.

Representations of cultural encounters in the global business press – The importance of cross-cultural competence

This qualitative study has started from the interest to examine how the reality of crosscultural encounters is presented in the global business press. The research paper emphasizes different ways to classify culture and cross-cultural competency, both from the point of view of individuals and organizations. The analysis consists of public discourses, where cross-cultural realities are created through different persons, stories and contexts For data collection, a comprehensive database search was performed and 10 articles from the widely known worldwide business magazine The Financial Times were chosen as the data for the study paper. For the functions of addressing the research study questions, Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) and also Discourse Analysis (DA) are utilized, added with the continuous comparison method of grounded theory in the formation of the data.The academic references consist of literary works and articles presenting relevant concepts, creating a cross-cultural framework, and it is designed to assist the reader in the navigation through the topics of culture and cross-cultural competency. The repertoires were formed from the data and following, the first repertoire is contrast difference between home and target culture that the individual was able to discern. As a consequence of the first repertoire, the companies then offer cultural training to their employees to prepare them to situations of increasing levels of cultural variation. The third repertoire is increased awareness of other cultures, which is conveyed as a result of cultural training and contextual work experience. The fourth repertoire is globalization as an international business environment, where the people in the articles perform their job functions. It is stated in the conclusions that the representations emphasize Western values and personal traits in leadership.