On The Culture Adaptation In International Business

The world economy is developing fast and the process of economic globalization has speeded up. The world business activities are more frequent and cross-cultural communication is more important in economic activities. Because of international cultural differences, cultural conflicts are prevalent in international business, which greatly hinder the development of economy. In face of these cultural challenges, multi-national enterprises have given much more attention to culture adaptation. Culture adaptation in international business is a new subject for international marketers, of which international marketers are not aware. They don't have a clear idea of the concepts of culture and culture adaptation. Academically, culture adaptation is one of the content of cultural relativism in anthropology, which is used for culture studies. There are few systematic studies that connect culture adaptation with economy as the guidance for international business. In this paper, what is culture, the features of culture, culture variables as culture elements and business customs; theory of cultural relativism and ethnographic method of culture study, definition and classification of culture adaptation; what is international business, cultural barriers, culture adaptation in advertising and multinational enterprises, examples, new methods used and psychic distance are introduced. The writer attempts to relate concepts and theories to examples in the hope of assisting in the research and practice of international culture adaptation. In this paper, the writer suggests that ethnography is a principle in culture study, and marketers'ability of culture adaptation is of great importance as culture differences and psychic distance diminish at the information age. Because of limitation of personal effort and materials, instructions are invited from professors and teachers in this field.