2. Content
• Definition of Culture and Religion
• Trade and Cross Cultural Interactions and
History
• Role of cultural/religion differences
nowadays
• Six Rules of Thumb when Venturing
Overseas
• Classifying of cultural differences
• Conclusion
3. Defining Culture & Religion
• Culture is the sum total of ways of living built up by a
group of human beings and
transmitted from one generation to another.
• Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause,
nature and purpose of the universe, especially when
considered as the creation of a super human agency or
agencies devotional and ritual observances, and often
containing a moral code governing the conduct of
human affairs.
4. Trade and Cross Cultural
Interactions and History
Throughout the centuries trade has produced many benefits for the
countries involved, the greatest of these is cross cultural interactions. Each
person who traveled to trade with other countries took back not only goods
and gold or silver, but also a piece of that different culture. The travelers and
traders to new lands brought with them traditions, religion, and languages,
knowledge of science and philosophy as well as numbers and works of art.
Throughout the world you can see the influence that different cultures
had played upon each other. Without trade and cross cultural interactions
many countries would not exist today.
Through this interaction we are also able to see how the preverbal other
half lives and how they go about their daily existence.
We as travelers and traders have taken a piece
of each culture with us as we make our way
throughout the world. Promoting world trade
In early years were trade roads and the oldest
one is silk road.
5. cultural/religion differences
nowadays
Cultural characteristics are in a state of
flux resulting from the evolution of values as
new forces of change emerge from rise and
decline of religious belief systems, economic
political and technical changes and the process
of internationalization. These changes lead to
gradual evolution of new values that eventually alter
norms of behavior thereby changing the process of
human interaction, including business interaction.
6. cultural/religion differences
nowadays
The internationalization
of business has
exposed firms to a large
range of norms for doing
business.
The more firms move
away from business
transactions with similar
cultural groups the more
difficult it is to use
Home-based norms for
conducting business
activities.
7. Six Rules of Thumb when
Venturing Overseas
• Be prepared
• Slow down
• Establish trust
• Understanding importance of language
• Respect cultural differences
• Understand that no culture is inherently
superior in all aspects
8. Classifying of cultural
differences
• Low-context culture
A culture in which communication is usually taken at
face value without much reliance on unspoken context.
• High-context culture
A culture in which communication relies a lot on the
underlying unspoken context, which is as important as
the words used.
13. Conclusion
An understanding of cultural
differences provides the starting point for
the design of policies to manage cross-
cultural business activities. However, the
demands of modern capitalism often
require national cultural vales to be
modified to meet the needs of competitive
environments.
