International Cooperation Projects, Cross-cultural Risk Management

Every country has its unique culture that derives from the deep belief structure of the social and different cultures raise different values. The differences between cultures and values have become a key problem that every cooperation project on international level has to face. When commodities, capital and technologies cross the boarders, the international cooperation project itself crosses the cultures. Because cultural factors affect every aspects of the management of the international cooperation project all through the project, the differences between different cultures usually create many difficulties for the carrying out of the project.The four international cooperation projects cited by this paper are: Sino-Japan 'EBA Project of Chengdu Power Plant', Sino-America 'The Experimenting and Popularizing of Yunnan Mountainous Area Poverty Alleviation Project' funded by the Ford Foundation, Sino-Holland 'Forest Protecting and Community Development Project' carried out in Yunnan, Sino-Germany 'Yunnan Afforestation Project'. After thorough investigation and study, this paper compared differences among Chinese, Japanese, American, Holland and German cultures and roots of these cultures which are geographical environment, religions, and philosophies. Relevant project management theories and 'Problem Tree' method are then used to analysis and identify the risks of the international cooperation projects caused by the differences of the cultures. As a result of the study, risk management strategies of the international cooperation project were formed.From a cultural perspective, this paper explored the ciross-cultural risk management of international cooperation project, providing practical and feasible strategies for smoothly carrying out of the international cooperation projects in China, improving the quality of international cooperation and enlarging fields of cooperation so as to reach "win-win" or "multi-win" results of cooperation.