A Study Of American And Chinese Business Negotiation Styles From A Cross-Cultural Perspective

With the development of globalization, the frequency of international negotiations is increasing rapidly. Numerous books and articles, from both academic and practitioner perspectives, have been dedicated to the complexities of negotiating across borders. It is widely accepted that understanding cultural variables in the negotiation process is important to successful international trade and cross-cultural negotiations.In the past two decades, business negotiations between China and USA have been increasing, whether through direct trade, joint ventures, or licensing and distribution agreements. But the cultural differences between the two countries present an enormous challenges in business negotiations across the ocean (Pye, 1982). A number of studies on how to negotiate with China have been conducted by American scholars such as Pye (1982), Blackman (1997), Graham and Lam (2004), just to name a few.This thesis compares American and Chinese negotiation styles from a cross-cultural perspective. The goal throughout has been to examine the experiences of both Chinese and American business negotiators as a way of identifying practices that may help minimize future misunderstandings and be useful for business negotiations across the ocean. Case studies have been used as the methodology of the research. The cases presented in the thesis are based upon my observation of cross-cultural negotiation situations, as well as conversations and interviews with Americans engaged in the China trade. The analysis following each case is based upon a framework put forward in the literature review.