BUS613: Advanced International Business

Though English has become the standard language for business, other major languages like Mandarin and Spanish, which have a large population of speakers worldwide, are gaining influence. Review this list of the most widely spoken languages and focus on the importance of language in communicating about products, services, or investment opportunities.

Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist, developed a widely used platform that established the dimensions of culture. Read this chapter to better understand these dimensions and see how they can be applied to different countries and cultures.

To build trust and avoid confusion, you should prepare before you interact with people from different cultures. By trying to understand others, you can create business opportunities that would otherwise have been impossible. Read this chapter and try to answer the questions to consider at the end of the section.

Communication styles vary greatly in different regions, so you need to be willing to adapt your communication to ensure it is effective. Read these sections to see how communication styles affect business.

Your communication skills will be put to the test during negotiations, especially if those negotiations include people with different personalities, approaches, and comfort levels. In international negotiations, differences in culture and communication styles become even more apparent. Read this article, which gives an example of Chinese and Brazilian companies negotiating an agreement and highlights the importance of finding a common understanding.

Cultural competence is the ability to communicate and understand people from different cultures effectively. You will need to know what to do and not do during cross-cultural interactions. You should be sure to study cultural differences before traveling to other countries or attempting to do business abroad. Read this chapter and reflect on how you can use the advice it presents to improve your skills.

Culture also plays a significant role in how groups develop their values and belief systems. Culture has a lasting impact on how people think and perceive situations. Think about when you and someone different culture looked at the same situation but perceived it differently. How might that apply to a business setting? Read this page, which describes how values differ worldwide and how they are influenced by culture.