文化差异对中美商务谈判的影响--商务英语本科学位论文

中国某某某某学校学生毕业设计(论文)

题目：文化差异对中美商务谈判的影响

姓名：0000000

班级、学号：00000000000

系(部) ：经济管理系

专业：商务英语

指导教师：0000000

开题时间：2009-4-10

完成时间：2009-10-29

2009 年10月29 日

目录

课题文化差异对中美商务谈判的影响一、课题(论文)提纲

二、内容摘要

三、参考文献

The Impact of Cultural Differences on Sino-US Business

Negotiations

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中文摘要：

不同文化条件下的商务文化活动就是跨文化商务谈判。文化是跨文化交际的基础。随着全球一体化的进程不断加快，国际间的商务交往活动日趋频繁。由于文化的差异而引起的误会可能会直接影响商务交往的实际效果，因此了解各国间的文化背景在商务谈判中是非常重要的。目前，中国和美国之间的经济往来日趋频繁，因此两国之间的商务谈判也逐渐增多。然而，由于中美两国之间存在着巨大的文化差异，中美两国谈判者之间很可能会在谈判中出现文化冲突以及不必要的误解，因此两国谈判者了解中美文化的差异是非常必要的。中美双方在商务谈判中必须增强文化差异，了解在语言与非语言行为、价值观、风俗习惯、谈判风格上的差异，为达成协议打下良好的基础。本文通过研究文化差异对中美国际商务谈判的影响，对中美谈判者提出了利于和谐交际的意见和策略，从而使两国的商务谈判能够顺利进行。

关键词：文化差异；商务谈判；影响；策略

Abstract：

Business negotiation under different cultural conditions is cross-cultural negotiations. Cross-culture communication is on the basis of culture. With the remarkable growth of indicators of global integration and frequent business contacts, the unnecessary misunderstandings which are caused by cultural differences may

affect the result of the business negotiations. So it’s very important for people to know the different cultures in different countries in the international business negotiations. In recent years, the trade between China and United States has developed very fast, so the negotiations between them become more frequent than before. However, the huge cultural differences between the two countries may cause cultural conflicts and unnecessary misunderstandings. So it is imperative that negotiators should learn the cultural differences in Sino-U.S. business negotiation. The thesis presents cultural differences between the two countries from verbal and nonverbal actions, values, customs and negotiation styles. It’s essential for the negotiators to take cultural sensitivities into consideration during business negotiation in order to make preparations for coming to an agreement. This thesis researches the impacts of cultural differences on Sino-U.S. business negotiation and puts forward some suggestions in negotiation process in order to make the negotiation smoothly.

Key words: cultural difference; business negotiation; impact; suggestion

Introduction

Since China entered into the WTO, its economy and trade with

countries around the world have been increasing rapidly. So negotiation plays an important role in the socio-economic life. International business negotiation is not only the exchange and cooperation of economy, but also the exchange and communication of culture. However, the most important factor is culture. Thus people begin to pay much attention to cultural conflicts in cross-cultural communication.

Nowadays, the United States is the leader of economy in the world. It is also one of the most important trading partners of China. But the cultural differences between China and the United States have a huge impact on the negotiations which can not proceed smoothly. So we need to have a correct understanding of cultures in different countries and regions, and develop a reasonable strategy for negotiation to avoid the conflicts. Therefore, it is necessary for us to research the impacts of cultural differences on Sino-U.S. business negotiation.

The research about the impacts of cultural differences on Sino-U.S. business negotiation was mainly put forward by the scholars in North American, particularly in France, Netherlands, Sweden, Argentina and Russia. In the 1990s, the study had focused on several issues: the impact of culture on the negotiation process and result, relations between culture and the situation of

negotiations, the actual recommendations for professionals and questions on research and methodology. In resent years, the study for international business negotiations has been extended to China and Nepal. However, there are huge cultural differences between China and the United States, and culture is one of the most important factors in international business negotiations, so the research will continue to develop in the future.

1 A Survey of Sino-U.S Business Negotiation

1.1 Negotiation and culture

Negotiation is a special communication task. It occurs when two or more parties have common interests and therefore have a reason to work together, who also have conflicts about their goals and how to accomplish them. Negotiation is the communication that takes place in order to reach agreement about how to handle both common and conflicting interests between two or more parties.

International business negotiation refers to two different parties discussing on business affairs. In fact, business negotiation is not only the cooperation and exchange of economic benefits, but also is the collision and communication of different cultures. International business negotiation is influenced by the respective country, the nation’s politics, economy, culture and other variety of factors. However, culture is the most difficult factor to grasp.

Culture is an abstract concept, involving the various aspects of human life. It includes beliefs, knowledge, arts, customs, morals and various aspects of social life. People learn culture in the course of everyday living by communicating with those around them. Learning culture starts at an early age and generally stays with people for the whole of their lives. In turn, people transmit culture to others, especially for their offspring, through direct instruction and the behaviors they consciously and unconsciously encourage and discourage.

Cultural differences mean that different countries, regions and ethnic groups have many differences in history, politics, economy, cultural tradition and custom. International business negotiation is not only a cross-border negotiation, but also is a cross-cultural negotiation. Negotiators from different countries have different social, cultural, economic, political backgrounds. Thus cultural differences exist objectively in international business negotiations. The huge cultural differences between two countries may cause some unnecessary misunderstandings and make them lose the opportunities to succeed in negotiations. Therefore, the negotiations may proceed smoothly if the negotiators have a correct understanding of cultural differences and overcome the barrier of cultural differences in international business negotiations.

1.2 Present situation of Sino-U.S. business negotiations

The formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States began in 1979. Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations have normalized since 1979. Looking back to more than 20-year’s development, though there are many frictions and disputes in trade between the two countries, we can see that the trade between them is still developing very fast. According to the statistics of Chinese customs, the total amount of Sino-U.S. bilateral trade was 2.45 billion dollars in 1979. And the total amount of Sino-U.S. bilateral trade was 80.48 billion dollars in 2001. The later is 32.8 times than the former. The average annual growth rate is more than 17.2%.

The United States is the principal founding member of APEC and WTO. China was not accepted by APEC until 1991 and officially became a member of WTO on December 11, 2001. At present, China and American are considered as two important member countries in the economic organization. They have an extremely important influence on the treatment of international economic affairs.

From the present situation now, the United States is the largest export market in the world, the largest trade surplus original country,

the second largest foreign direct investment country and China’s second largest trading partner. According to the statistics of the Department of Commerce in United States, China is the second largest trade deficit original country and America’s the fourth largest trading partner and the twelfth largest export market in the world in 1999. This shows that the economic and trade relationship between China and United States plays an important role in both of their trade development.

At the present time, the government of China has taken a number of measures to promote the development of the business activities in order to increase the international competitiveness. Some Chinese entrepreneurs who have potential ability are also trying to enter the international market. The economic relations between China and the United States are becoming closer than before, thus, China has become one of America’s largest trading partners. As the economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries are getting more frequent than before, so the business negotiations between the two countries are increasing.

2. The Impact of Cultural Differences on Sino-U.S. Business Negotiation

The Chinese culture is the typical collectivism culture. The

Chinese culture’s collective orientation and the Confucian theory have the inalienable relation. The Confucian thoughts take “benevolence”and “ceremony”as the center. “Benevolence”refers to the will of the people. It is the core of the Confucianism. Its aim is about how to deal with interpersonal relationships, so as to achieve harmony. A person must bring himself into collectiveness to achieve “benevolence”. “Ceremony”is the ruler of the behavior, is the criterion of people’s social behavior.People’s seeing and hearing, words and deeds shall be in conformity with etiquette in order to make the society harmony. Influenced by the collective orientation culture, the Chinese people cooperate mutually and depend on one another. So “relation”is of importance in their view. People depend on “relation”when dealing with almost everything.

The United States belongs to the typical individualism culture. The individualism is the core of American culture. The United States’individualism has close relationship with its faith. What the western Christianity emphasizes is the individual, so the Christian claim to sacrifice for the individual. In the doxy of the Christianity, everyone faces to the God individually and directly. The persistent pursuit of the individual soul and the struggle for new life is the core of Christianity’s doxy. In the United States, the individualism began to lie embedded in people’s mind after the European immigrants

set foot on the continent of North America. Protestantism is the historical root of the individualism. After that, the American Revolution, the Westward Movement, the Industrial Revolution and many movements of migration strengthened this tradition of individualism. It can be said that the individualism is embodied in all aspects of American life. It is embodied in both the American history and the contemporary society of the United States.

2.1 Verbal and nonverbal differences in Sino-U.S. business negotiations

2.1.1 Verbal differences

The language of one nation has a close connection with the nation’s culture. In cross-cultural communication, the languages for negotiating are restricted by the differences of different cultures. The United States is a typical low-context language country. In this culture, the majority of information is transmitted by clear and specific language. The U.S. negotiators prefer to use clear, frank and direct ways to communicate; they try to speak clearly rather than ambiguous. In addition, Americans like to debate with others, they often speak in an opposed and drastic tone. These are the typical characteristics of the offspring of European immigrants.

However, China is a nation with high-context culture. In the