Stephan Everingham
EGT1 Task 4

In a time of global commerce, new business ventures can take on many forms. What used to be local or even national companies have become world-wide. International growth of a business can be extremely beneficial but is not without its challenges. Different countries have different peoples and different cultures - different ways of doing business altogether. If a venture is to be successful, these differences must be well understood.

Let us consider China for our example. China is the largest market in Asia and as such, it is an object of great interest for expanding companies. Many companies have already taken advantage of the opportunities afforded by dealing with China and many more will surely …show more content…

The fact is that Chinese people are more long-term players than Americans are. This affects many of their business practices, from creating the working relationship in the first place to how they deal with conflict when it arises. A relationship takes time to build and a Chinese business person would be more willing to invest that time than a typical American would be.

Marketing is also an important consideration of cross-cultural differences between America and China. A company's marketing mix refers to the way it approaches elements of product, price, promotion and place. These approaches change when we move our business overseas, so it is important to understand what those changes are and how much they affect our dealings.

First, we must consider what to sell in China and understand that the Chinese people have different preferences than do Americans. For example, because Chinese people are highly collectivistic, they tend to see their own status as reflected back at them from their peers. Status is very important to the Chinese but only within the bounds of social harmony. As such, they are often willing to spend substantial amounts on status displaying objects like luxury cars. On the other hand, because major household appliances do little to display their status to the outside world, they tend to spend more conservatively. At home, their primary concern is often safety rather than luxury. From