Introduction

By “culture”, anthropology means the total life way of a people, the social legacy the individual
acquires from his group. Hofstede (1980, P. 13) describes culture as a “collective programming
of the mind”. He believes that cultural patterns are “rooted in value systems of major groups in
the population and are stabilized over long periods in history”. “Culture is the integrated sum
total of learned behavioural traits that are shared by members of a society”. (Terpstra,
1994).The word “culture “was used as early as the eighteenth century to refer to civilisation and
the social norms on which civilized societies are base. Child and kieser (1977 p.2) define the
modern conception of culture as:”patterns of thought and manners which widely shared.”Or
culture can be regarded as that part of the environment that is the creation of man., another
formal definition is that “A culture is a collection of beliefs, habits, living patterns, and behaviours
which are held more or less in common by people who occupy particular geographic areas”
Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks with
whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds. In fact, our entire repertory of
communicative behaviours is dependent largely on the culture in which we have been raised.
Culture, consequently, is the foundation of communication.

Levels of cultures

We cannot avoid seeing that the business environment is changing in many ways. As well does
the cultural environment that is one of the most challenging areas for most international market
places. In order to understand and influence consumers’ wants and needs, foreign companies
must understand the different cultures. Culture has been defined in many different ways,
reflecting the variety of cultural phenomena that can be observed. According to Morrison (2002),
cultural symbols include language religious rituals and art who’s shared meanings from the
unique fingerprint of a particular society. According to Czinkota (2007), cultural factors have an
important impact on the flow of business. Each society has its own elements of culture. These
elements of culture are manifested through: Language, verbal, nonverbal, Religion, Values and
attitudes, Manners and customs, Material elements, Aesthetics, Education, Social institutions.
Adaptation of these elements for an international company depends on its level in the market
participation –for example, licensing versus direct investment and the product or service
marketed (Czinkota, 2007).The most important issue for a foreign company is cultural analysis,
which includes information that helps the company´ staff to take planning decisions. This
information from the cultural analysis must be more than collecting the facts; these must also be
interpreted in the proper way (Czinkota, 2007).

Another significant issue about culture is the levels manifested through artefacts, values and
underlying assumptions (Brooks, 2008)
1

1
. The typical British family unit is defined as parents and children. Family in the France and Italy might involve closer links
with an extended number of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

2. Conspicuous consumption, which involves signalling success through expensive possessions such as status cars, designer
clothes or the latest technology gadget ,is found to varying extents around Europe(paitra 1992) and in other countries such as
the USA.

3 In Germany, for example, children do not tend to begin school until aged six and, if they repeat years, might still
be at school aged twenty. Their UK equivalents start school at four or five and finish aged eighteen.
 Visible organizational structures and process
Artefacts
Includes visible products, clothing, manner of address,
Work practices.

Value Strategies, goals, philosophies

Includes for example attributions, avoidance.

Underlying
Assumptions
Unconscious, takes for granted beliefs, perceptions,
Thoughts and feelings

Figure 3. Brooks, B. 2008. The natural selection of organizational and safety culture within a
small to medium
Sized enterprise (SME), Journal of Safety Research 39(1): 73–85

Business Culture

Business culture is an idea in the field of business studies and management which describes
the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an
organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared
by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other
and with stakeholders outside the organization.

Two models of business culture are presented below. One business operating style is not
necessarily better than another. Each style has its advantages and disadvantages and can only
be judged within the particular circumstances faced by the organization.
Interpersonal Interaction Model
 Power Culture: Strong leaders are needed to distribute resources. Leaders are firm, but
fair and generous to loyal followers. If badly managed there is rule by fear, abuse of power for
personal gain, and political intrigue.
 Achievement culture: Rewards results, not unproductive efforts. Work teams are self-
directed. Rules and structure serve the system, not an end by themselves. A possible downside
is sustaining energy and enthusiasm over time. 2

2
4 White symbolizes purity in the UK, but signifies death in Japan and some other parts of Asia: McDonald’s use of Ronald
McDonalds, a white-faced clown, would not work as a promotion to children in Japan!
5. Red means dangers or stop in UK. It means good fortune in china, but in Turkey it signifies death. Red in
masculine colour in UK, but blue is considered the more masculine in the USA. Mint flavour is denoted by a green
wrapper in the UK, but a red wrapper in Africa.
 Support Culture: Employee is valued as a person, as well as a worker. Employee
harmony is important. Weakness is a possible internal commitment without an external task
focus.
 3
Role Culture: Rule of law with clear responsibility and reward system. Provides stability,
justice, and efficiency. Weakness is impersonal operating procedures and a stifling of creativity
and innovation.

Risk & Feedback Model

 Macho, Tough-guy Culture: High risks, quick feedback of results. (Advertising,
entertainment)
 Work-hard & Play-hard Culture: Few risks, quick feedback. (Sales driven)
 Bet-the-Company Culture: High risk, slow feedback. (Aerospace)
 Process Culture: Little to no feedback. Concentration is on "how" work is done. (Highly
regulated, government)

In the below presented model the cultural influence in each country is presented. Culture in
each country is meditated through three factors: cultural forces, cultural messages and
consumer decision process. Family, education and national identity manifest cultural forces.
Ethics and morality, behaviour and roles and design influence cultural messages. Culture is also
influenced from universal needs and wants in the society and consumer trends. These cultural
differences are different in country A and country B. The foreign company must analyze and
cope with these cultural differences and harness the tension to bring about reconciliation
between these countries. With combining and synthesizing cultural differencesthe foreign
company can integrate different cultural perspectives and seek a dynamic solution to problems
that may arise (Bradley, 2002).

Cultural Forces Cultural messages Cultures decision

-family -ethics and morality process
-education -behavior and roles -needs and wants
-national identity -consumer trends

Culture in Culture in
Country A Country B
Reconciliation
-reduce conflict
-cope with differences
-harness tension

Synthesis of cultures
--integrate different
cultural perspectives
- seek a dynamic solution

3
6. England is a nation of shopkeepers.(Napoleon, 11810)
Figure. Bradley, F. 2002. A synthesis of cultural influence on buyer behaviour, International
Marketing
Strategy 4th edition, United Kingdom: Pearson Education

International business relationship and business networks: A business relationship is an

interactive exchange relationship between two organizations. A business relationship is a
process where two firms form strong and extensive social, economic, service and technical ties
over time, with the intent of lowering total costs and/or increasing value, thereby achieving
mutual benefits.

Business Relationship Content

Connectedness is essential
Actors
Actors

Bond
Resources Resources

Activities Ties
Activities
Links

Organization Organization

A business relationship is developed as the two companies establish connections in the activity,
resource and actor layer. If successful, the resources, activities and actors of the two
companies are blended and melted together in a unique way. The substance of the dyad, the
activity links, resource ties and actor bonds, will not be just the sum of what the two parties turn
towards each other; it will become something qualitatively different. The relationship is a `quasi-
organization' that amounts to more than simply the sum of its elements because of the existing
links, ties and bonds. There is a `team effect' (Alchian and Demsetz 1972). Jointly, the two
companies can perform activities and utilize resources which none of them could accomplish in
isolation. What they can accomplish depends on how the relationship develops. A relationship
between two companies does not become automatically a perfect team' (or quasi-organization),
but the potential is always there. The team effects have to be tried out. They develop as the
parties involved experiment with various connections and learn about their effects. The quality
of the relationship is the extent to which this function will be exploited. The degree to which
team effects will come into being depends on the substance of the relationship in all three
dimensions. In order to carry into effect the dyadic function at least some substance is needed.
There has to be a significant development of either activity links, resource ties or actor bonds if
a relationship between two companies is to become a quasi-organization and the team effects
are to materialize. The function of a business relationship as a quasi-organization acquires
importance in proportion to how many new resources are created, novel combinations of
activities emerge, and knowledge is gained. Only the conjunction of the parties can produce
these effects.
As the activities, resources and actors become linked in a team it tends to provide a unique
performance. The function of intercompany relationships for the dyad is its being the locus of
the team effects.

Network Function:
As relationships are connected, change in the substance of a relationship may affect other
relationships and thus companies other than the two involved. Every relationship has the
network function; activity links are important in the activity pattern, resource ties in the resource
constellation and actor bonds in the web of actors. At the same time, opposite effect are
possible from the network structure on the single relationship. A third party can react to the
change in a relationship between two actor’s indifferent ways. They can try to exploit the
development by adjusting their own activity links and resource ties in their own relationships in
accordance with how the relationship between A and B looks like in these dimensions.
Alternatively, they can choose to work against the connections created in the relationship
attempting to adjust and develop their own relationships (bonds, links and ties) in such a way
that the focal relationship will become less Influential in the overall structure. Any relationship is
because of its substance a constituent element of the wider network in which relationships is
interconnected. Activity links, resource ties and actor bonds in a relationship are connected,
directly or indirectly, to some others. The aggregated structure is an organized web of
conscious and goal-seeking actors; it is also an organized pattern of activities as well as an
organized constellation of resources. We observed that the structure of business networks has
certain peculiar organizational attributes. The actors (companies) have no common goal, but
there exist some shared beliefs about the activity pattern as well as the resource constellation.
A network has no clear boundaries, nor any centre or apex. It exists as an `organization' in
terms of a certain logic affecting the ordering of activities, resources and actors. It can be seen
as an `organization' as it affects how companies are reciprocally related and positioned. As a
form of organization it will only be kept together as long as the network logic is accepted by
enough actors .Change in the substance of any of the relationships affects the overall
structure .Since a change in any relationship affects the position of those involved, the whole
set of interrelated relationships is subject to change and that has consequences for the outcome
of a relationship for those involved. A dyad, a relationship, is a source as well as a recipient of
change in the network.

How business culture does influence international business relationship

Culture will play a major part in the dynamics of the way we operated in international business
circles. Managers today will need special skills in order to meet these challenges. Language
differences, culture awareness, and management skills are necessary for success. These
challenges often lead to a debate in which is better for a company, expatriate or foreign national
workers. There are pros and cons to the use of each, but it will depend on several factors to
which managers will be better suited for the challenge of dealing with cultural differences.
Business accomplishments in the future will depend greatly on the ability of managers to meet
the challenges of culture and its impact on international commerce. Today’s business world is
becoming ever closer as the world almost seems to have shrunk overnight. Successful
organizations competing in the global economy are faced with a new set of challenges.
4

4
7.Hofstede used factor analysis to identify four underlying dimensions of national culture for individuals within national
subsidiaries of IBM

8. If countries perceived as strong providers of a product or service there is a positive “country-of-origin effect. Customer
might, then expected to prefer French perfume, Czech beer or Italian shoes.
9. . Business etiquette in Bangladesh is reasonably formal. Proper behaviour is expected.
The pace of business has quickened with the introduction of the World Wide Web and the
evolution of computer technology. This would seem to make the way we do business easier,
and it can, if we identify and overcome some of the unique challenges of different cultures and
its relation to competing in current world markets. Specific problems that arise today are
language differences, understanding the culture, and specific managerial skills for dealing with
different cultures. Cultural differences can be extremely detrimental to any business overseas if
not handled properly. Language is the major hurdle in conducting business overseas. Although
English is now becoming more increasingly used through the international business community
we cannot always count on business clients using this language. It is estimated that only

In terms of international business, negotiating styles of the West and the East, represented
respectively by the United States, German, Japan and China, have attracted many experts to
make a comparison because distinguished differences do exist in the two kinds of cultures that
are the deep-seated reasons why the westerners business style quite differently from the
easterners do and how these differences are produced. Cultural factors are one of the most
important parts responsible for the success or failure of the international business in which
people with different cultures meet together. Here, I have demonstrate some concrete cultural
factors that are in play and are generally believed to have an enormous impact on the West and
Eastern business.
Time orientations
Two different orientations to time exist across the world: monochromic and polychromic.
Monochromic approaches to times are linear, sequential and involve focusing on one thing at a
time. These approaches are most common in the European-influenced cultures of the United
States, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Greece, Bangladesh and Mexico and Scandinavia,
as well as some Eastern and African cultures. Polychromic orientations to time involve
simultaneous occurrences of many things and the involvement of many people. Business
people from monochromic cultures tend to prefer prompt beginnings and endings, schedule
breaks, deal with one agenda item at a time, rely on specific, detailed, and explicit
communication, prefer to talk in sequence, view lateness as devaluing or evidence of lack of
respect.
Space orientations
Space orientations differ across cultures. They have to do with territory, divisions between
private and public, comfortable personal distance, comfort or lack of comfort with physical touch
and contact, and expectations about where and how contact will take place. In Northern
European countries, personal space is much larger than in Southern European countries. In
Bangladesh personal space in much more larger then European countries.
Individualism — collectivism
In individualistic cultures the individual can make objections, state his feelings and be openly
judgmental. Success or failure is left to the individual. People in these cultures are expected to
take care of themselves and to value the needs of the individual over those of the groups,
community or society. In many cultures the interest of the group, whether the family or the
community is given priority over those of the individual. Such cultures, called “Collectivist”, rely
on group consensus and the avoidance of conflict. By contrast, cultures that value collectivism
emphasize solidarity, loyalty and strong interdependence among individual. In Bangladesh there
is mixture of individualism and collectivism.
Power differential
The idea of power differential describes the degree of deference and acceptance of unequal
power between people. Cultures where there is a comfort with high power differential are those
where some people are considered superior to others because of their social status, gender,
race, age, education, birth right, personal achievements, family background or other factors.
In Bangladesh there bigger power distance .Cultures with low power differential tend to assume
equality among people, and focus more on earned status than ascribed status. Generally
speaking, the more unequally wealth is distributed, the bigger will be the power differential in
any national setting..

uncertainty avoidance
The idea of uncertainty avoidance has to do with the way cultures relate to uncertainty and
ambiguity, and therefore, how well they may adapt to change. Generally, countries that show
the most discomfort with ambiguity and uncertainty include Arab, Muslim and traditional African
countries, where high value is placed on conformity and safety, risk avoidance, and reliance on
formal rules and rituals. Trust tends to be vested only in close family and friends. The United
States, Scandinavia and Singapore are identified as having a higher tolerance for uncertainty.
Members of these national cultures tend to value risk-taking, problem-solving, flat organizational
structures and tolerance for ambiguity.
Masculinity — femininity
The terms masculinity and femininity are used to refer to the degree to which a culture values
assertiveness or nurturing and social support. The terms also refer to the degree to which
socially prescribed roles operate for men and women. Countries and regions such as Japan and
Latin America are rated as preferring values of assertiveness, task-orientation and
achievement.
Context orientation in major cultures
The powerful effect that culture has on International Business: A key factor is context which
relates to the framework, background and surrounding circumstances in which communication
or an event takes place.
High-context cultures (including much of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America) are
relational, collectivist, intuitive and contemplative. This means that people in these cultures
emphasize interpersonal relationship. High-context communication tends to be more indirect
and more formal. Low-context cultures (including North America and much of Western Europe)
are logical, linear, individualistic and action-oriented. People from low-context cultures value
logic, facts and directness. Discussions lead to actions. Communicators are expected to be
straightforward, concise and efficient in telling what action is expected. This is very different
from communicators in high-context cultures who depend less on language precision or legal
documents. High-context business people may even distrust contracts and be offended by the
lack of trust they suggest.
So it clear that every nation has their own different culture, they are different in some ways: for
example, space Orientations, individualism — collectivism, power differential, uncertainty
avoidance, masculinity —femininity, context orientation in major cultures and so on. Cultural
diversity influences the international business a lot. Of course, every nation’s business
relationship will be different, too.

The firms who decide to expand their business in an international environment must modify their
management style through international management. Certainly, international management
must adapt their own functions to the different framework of the business development. The
culture is a cardinally factor, being an essential component in the success equation of
multinational companies. The culture, the habits and the attitudes became points of major
interests on the global market. Their importance is obvious through numerous "blunders" which
find out in international trade and international. For the success of international business the
economies must bees free, but the economic freedom is influenced by the national culture. All
the undertake activities of managers are accessible to cultural environment. The global firm is
due to negotiate with different international organisms, and where through the negotiations to
fall flat, the managers must understand the cultural environment of the negotiator and must
have cross-cultural competence.
Cultural Differences between West and East in International Business

Globalization brings increasing communication of economy and trading among countries, and
the negotiation has been the important part of international business activity in this process. The
international business is not only the communication and cooperation in the economic domain,
but the communication of culture among various countries. In the process of negotiation,
negotiates’ idea and behaviour are controlled by their own national cultures. There are large
differences in thinking pattern, value view, group consciousness, negotiation style, benefit
consciousness and law consciousness between western and eastern cultures, and these
differences largely influence the process and result of negotiation and they are important factors
we should consider in the business

Difference of thinking pattern: The east culture emphasizes deduction and it is accustomed to
reason from common to specific. deducting common principle to specific conclusion. But west
culture emphasizes induction and it is accustomed to reason from specific to common. finding
out common essential of the same sort of thing from the characters of many specific things. The
east culture favours comprehensive thinking. uniting various parts of the object as one entity.
English and American cultures favour analysis thinking. decomposing one complete object into
various composing parts and aspects from idea. The east culture emphasizes unification and
gives priority to the entity of thinking, and the west culture emphasizes opposition and gives
priority to the part of thinking.

Difference of value view:

Value view is the important composing of culture, and it dominates human idea and social
behaviours. In the business activity, western countries pursue the value view of equality and
persist in the reasonable principle of justice and double-winning, which is obviously different to
Chinese operators’ strategy of single-winning which has the economic characters of western
early market. For the business relationship, American always treat purchaser as people with
same status, but oriental would represent inequality in business activities because of the
influence of grading consciousness.. But for eastern countries, they endurance in negotiation is
very famous in the world, and for an ideal trade, they could wait without any complaint, and only
to achieve the anticipated intension, time is not the most important factor. For the decision-
making, Japanese decision procedure is very numerous, and the time is very long, but they
would implement very quickly.

Difference of group consciousness: The group consciousness means belief, value and
criterion possessed by most members in the group, and it reflects the attitude of group
members and their cognition to mutual psychological character for the group they belong. It is
formed in the group information spread and communication process .The difference of group
consciousness is the important embodiment of east and west cultural difference in the business
negotiation. The businessmen in Asian countries have strong group consciousness, but the
negotiates in occident countries always pay attention to individual consciousness.
Taking Japan with representative east character and US with representative west character as
examples, Japan possesses intensive group consciousness and development desire of group
survival. Canada, Italy and France all advocate individualism, and US is the most representative
one. US negotiator fully embodies intensive self-consciousness on the negotiation desk.
Because American thinks that human is independent individual who has responsibility and
rights, so everyone should exert individual enthusiasm, hold the initiative right of negotiation
through his endeavour to achieve the established aim, and they regard right using and
adventure are good moral characters.
Difference of negotiation style: The negotiation style means negotiates’ main tolerance and
style characters represented in the negotiation. The negotiation style has deep cultural brands.
The culture not only decides negotiates’ ethics, but influences their thinking mode and individual
behaviour, so negotiates with different cultural backgrounds will form different negotiation styles.
Germen always have sufficient preparations, but they lack agility in the negotiation. Japanese
has strong time concept, but sometimes they look fussy, and they always occur by the weak
appearance to try to gain opponents’ sympathy, and make them come to terms unconsciously.

Difference of benefit consciousness: The benefit consciousness means human psychology

of identification and pursuing for benefits, and this sort of psychology is the unification of human
sensibility and sense, and it is the subjective drive headspring of human practice .The benefit
consciousness runs through the whole human consciousness and instructs human behaviours
.In modern society, west and east negotiates have benefit consciousness, and they all
represent certain benefit main bodies, and they all labour for their own economic benefits.
However, easterners’ relationship consciousness is deeper. Chinese negotiates’ benefit
consciousness occurs late, and it is not so definite and extensive than Americans. For the mode
to acquire benefit, Americans brightly point to the benefit in the negotiation, but Chinese always
establish the benefit on the human relationship though circuitous mode

Difference of law consciousness: The law consciousness include human idea, concept and
cognition to law, and it is the thinking base that human keeps the peace consciously, evaluate
their and others’ behaviours, and it instructs human daily behaviours. In modern society, all
business activities are implemented under the law relationship, but because of the differences
of social economy and cultural backgrounds, the obvious differences exist in western and
eastern law concepts. . The western society is the legal society, and the capitalism legal system
has been very mature after hundreds years’ development, and human legal consciousness has
been rooted. In the dissension disposal, eastern society first depends on feelings before
argument, and then legal measure.

Practical example
In following, I want to discuss a practical example of cultural differences. I therefore use
Grameen phone a partnership business, a combination of one multinational company and a
local company from two different countries, Telenor from Norway and Grameen group from
Bangladesh. Although in this partnership cultural difference is huge but it does not influence
the business relationship. Grameen phone is the leading provider of mobile communications
services in Bangladesh. Grameenphone has the largest network with the widest coverage in
Bangladesh and the entire network is EDGE/GPRS enabled. Grameen Phone: With a vision to
use the telephone as a weapon against poverty, Grameen Phone was created in 1997 as a joint
venture involving four companies - Telenor Mobile Communications AS (TMC) of Norway,
Grameen Telecom of Bangladesh part of Grameen group, Marubeni of Japan and Gonofone
Development Corporation of USA. Now, GP is the largest GSM operator in Bangladesh with
more than 4 million subscribers as of July 2005. In 1999 Gonofone left Grameen Phone
partnership to concentrate its business in United States while Marubeni left in 2004. Grameen
Phone is currently owned by Telenor and Grameen Telecom. Grameen Phone nearly doubled
its subscriber base during the initial years while the growth was much faster during the later
years. It ended the inaugural year with 18,000 customers, 30,000 by the end of 1998, 60,000 in
1999, 193,000 in 2000, 471,000 in 2001, 775,000 in 2002, 1.16 million in 2003, 2.4 million in
2004, 5.5 million in 2005, 10 million in. 2006. At present about 12 million. Professor Muhammad
Yunus, the Managing Director of the Grameen Bank believes that the Programme could work
anywhere: "There are no anthropological factors or cultural differences involved. It's business".
However the replication of the model in Uganda and Rwanda suggests that while the principle
of the program should remain intact local context of a particular country needs to be considered
in designing the business plan of the program

Some cultural issues inside the company: Overall culture of Bangladesh influence Grameen
phone significantly. I will discuss some internal cultural issues below.

Organisational structure: There are approximately eight functional departments in the

organization. Grameen phone origination structure is tall which influence by the culture because
Bangladesh is a hierarchical society. People are not educated that’s why customer care is very
punctual in Bangladesh .

Management style. The management style of Grameen phone is regarded to be very strict,
formal and inflexible. But there is higher willingness to accept changes, the higher appreciation
on customer service Because Bangladesh is masculine society top management of Grameen
phone is consist of male employee. Decision making authority is centralized only top
management take can decision. Customer care has a strong network all over the country
because most of people lives in village and illiterate.

Claims on salaries and bonuses: Because Bangladesh is a developing country salary structure
in Grameen phone is lower than the other partners of Telenor. Bonuses depend on the
performance. Because in Bangladesh power orientation is high there is huge difference in pay
level of the organization. Pay structure develop hugely concentrate on labour market
competition because Bangladesh a densely population country.
Recommendation: As illustrated above, cultural difference can play a critical role in international
business but it is not unavoidable .The impact of cultural difference in companies significant and
considerable .Although we have culture difference with in a company there is no influence of
cultural difference on its operation and profitability. I think if we made good analysis on the
overseas market we can overcome the obstacles cultural difference easily .That’s why all of
giant companies are moving towards international business.Of course cultural difference is a
potential risk .But in my example it shows although they have huge cultural difference they grow
a company which have “win win” situation. A ‘win-win’ situation is the driving force behind
formation of a partnership. The structure of a partnership should be designed in a way so that
each partner benefits and culture. The Policy environment of a given country can impact
formation of a partnership and its progress. This can impact either positively or negatively. The
policy environment in Bangladesh was unfavourable to formation and progress of the Village
Phone Partnership. But in case of replication of the Village Phone Programme in Rwanda, it has
been found that the policy environment is supportive to formation and development of
partnership .So we could overcome negative effect of cultural difference by doing market
research. Local partners with local knowledge should be involved in formation of the partnership
that will help business to be successful and profitable. Doing business overseas most of the
time generates more revenues.
Dear Nishat,
 

Thank you for your mail and really sorry for the delay of my answer.

You’ve worked hard and good. It is a very nice base to make an excellent paper. For that I
suggest some developments of the text.

Our business network approach and the commonly use business networking is not the same. In
our view the “business networking” activity is only one part of the network itself, more exactly it
is a possibility to develop or find and create the personal bonds (see the actors – resource –
activity ARA model base on the book of Hakansson and Snehota 1995. You can download it
from the IMP site,  www.impgroup.org )    

About the culture you have written very good ideas but it is not yet structured well. There is
three times the return of Hofstade...

The Grameen example seems to be nice but you have to write a little bit more about the cultural
issues inside the company. You make some statements before the conclusions but as the story
is lacking these statements are in the air.

Hop my remarks help you. If you have any questions please contact me I will respond much
more quickly.

Have a nice work and see you next week.

Best regards

Tibor Mandjak