Cultural Dimension of International Business

The text demonstrates how the theory, methods, and insights of cultural anthropology can influence, in a positive way, the conduct of international business operations, be they negotiating, managing, or marketing.KEY TOPICS: It explores (1) such general concepts as culture, ethnocentrism, and culture change; (2) the nature of the communication process, both linguistic and nonverbal communication; (3) a typology of value contrasts that can be applied anywhere in the world to help diagnose potential breakdowns in business communication; (4) a number of ways of collecting relevant culture-specific data on any of the hundreds of different national cultures of the world; and (5) a set of valuable skills and competencies that are vital for becoming a world class business person.MARKET: For cross-cultural trainers and human resources personnel.

Gary Ferraro, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, received his BA in history from Hamilton College and his MA and PhD degrees from Syracuse University. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Swaziland in Southern Africa (1979-80) and again at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic (2003), and has served twice as a visiting professor of anthropology in the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea Program, a floating university that travels around the world. He has conducted research for extended periods of time in Kenya and Swaziland and has traveled widely throughout many other parts of the world. He has served as a consultant/trainer for such organizations as USAID, the Peace Corps, the World Bank, IBM, Georgia Pacific, Duke Energy, and J.M. Huber, among others. From l996 to 2000 Dr. Ferraro served as the Director of the Intercultural Training Institute at UNC-Charlotte, a consortium of cross cultural trainers/educators from academia and business, designed to help regional organizations cope with cultural differences at home and abroad. In 2000 he became the president of Intercultural Associates, a private firm specializing in cross cultural training, consulting, and coaching. In addition to a number of articles in professional journals, he is the author of:

 

·        THE TWO WORLDS OF KAMAU (1978),

·        THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF INTL. BUSINESS (l990, l994, l998, 2002, 2006, and 2010)

·        CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: AN APPLIED PERSPECTIVE (1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010)

·        APPLYING CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: READINGS (1998)

·        GLOBAL BRAINS: KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCIES FOR THE 21^ST CENTURY (2002)

·        CLASSIC READINGS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (2004, 2009)