| The China’s12thFive-year Plan had raised the measures that should be taken toavoid and minimize any kinds of risk in doing business overseas. With the increasingcompetitiveness of Chinese international company, the emerging challenges of culturehave been drawing practitioners’ attention. Compared with the risks that are caused bynature, cultural issues are expected to cause conflicts among parties, causing barriersin managing a project, rendering the international contractors maladjusted and projectperformances unexpected. Understanding ways of cultural impacts would be anotherhot points in the risk management domain.A clear understanding of cultural influence is vital for contractors to makestrategies and carry out successful risk management. This study aims to explore howculture influences contractors’ risk management by using the Hofstede’s culturaltheory, from the perspective of cultural difference.During the research, a2*2matrix comparative case study method is adopted todistinguish the impacts of national culture from organizational culture. Cases areselected to include four projects in China, Poland and Singapore. Data are collectedthrough interviews and archival documents. Major risks are identified and riskmanagement discussed in the context of Hofstede’s theory. At last, all the data arecombined and compared to result.The findings show that culture difference affects the international project riskmanagement. Project risks are perceived and managed differently under differentnational cultures. It is indicated that UAI is the foci of attention to the influence ofrisk perception, while IDV and LTO play important roles. Other dimensions,including PDI and MAS, also have nexus on risk perception and management.In addition, a conceptual framework is proposed to reveal the link betweenculture and risk, as well as some suggestions. Having such point of view is of greatimportance for international contractors to improve their risk management practice. |
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