A Comparative Study Of Business Negotiation Practices-An Intercultural Perspective

The world is fast developing in the age of economic globalization. World economy has entered a new developing stage. Business contacts among nations get increasingly close. Economic interdependence is much productive to the cooperation and communication between companies. Negotiation, a very common and important activity in the business world, can be understood as a process in which two or more parties come together to discuss common and conflicting interests in order to reach an agreement of mutual benefit. Successful business negotiations certainly will bring more business opportunities and further development.In intercultural business communication, negotiators from different countries come together and discuss their common and conflicting interests on the basis of their respective cultural assumptions. Culture is one of the factors that have important impact on negotiation practice. Cultural differences will certainly result in cultural conflicts, especially when differences between the Eastern culture and Western culture are great. These conflicts may well lead to negotiation breakdown or failures. Hence, culture plays a determinant role in the success or failure of international negotiation practice.In order to study some culturally based reasons of success and failures in business negotiations, the thesis takes Chinese and American business negotiation practice as model, and presents a comprehensive review of theories on culture, intercultural communication and business negotiation. These theories aim at providing a possible solid theoretical foundation for a further research.This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the cultural differences in the process of business negotiation by means of case analysis and comparative study. It then puts forward some tentative suggestions for successful negotiations. Drawing on these, negotiators can predict the process and adjust strategies in order to reach a satisfactory agreement. The research on how culture influences negotiation is in the need of social developing, and is of practical significance, hoping that this will be helpful to Chinese negotiators.