現今越來越多的企業被所處經濟環境逼迫下，為了要維持全球化的競爭力，不斷的擴張國際市場。本篇論文探討在不同文化下從事商業活動所會發生的阻礙以及針對六個個案國家，各別研究其商業與溝通習慣和文化準則的方法及行為，包括加拿大、墨西哥、祕魯、哥倫比亞、波蘭以及新加坡。這些發現將幫助長期的信賴建立以及成功的國際商業關係。為了要達到這個研究的目標，必須要先過濾個案國家的文化上的內容，之後再加入商業的面向。基於此，如何在六個個案國家執行商業活動的指導方針將會產生。某種程度上，這樣的結果將顯示各個不同的情境需對應到何種策略的應用。本研究結論顯示在不同的國度從事商業行為，文化上的考量是日益重要的，包括各國的傳統習俗也都是明顯的要點。

Nowadays, more and more companies are pressured by their economic environment to expand internationally in order to withstand the vast global competition. This thesis involves discovering obstacles that occur when dealing with business issues in a different cultural setting and suggests different methods and behaviors for each of the six investigated countries - those being Canada, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Poland and Singapore - in order to meet the respective business and negotiation habits, cultural standards, other certain peculiarities and the like. These findings should help establish trustworthy and successful international business relationships in the long run. In order to do so, general cultural profiles of the countries at hand were created which were then subjoined by the business aspect in a later step. Therefrom, a guideline on how to conduct business was derived for each of the six countries. In parts, the results exhibit vast differences on which strategy to apply. The outcome of this thesis shows the ever-increasing importance of considering cultural aspects as well when conducting business abroad, alongside the traditional, seemingly obvious hard facts.

Verification Letter i
Abstract iii
Table of Figures vi
Table of Tables vi
Introduction 1
Motivation 1
Purpose of this thesis 1
Literature Review 2
What is Culture? 2
The Hofstede Study 3
The Seven Dimensions of Culture 6
The GLOBE Study: Cultural Clusters and Leadership 8
Methodology 13
Case Study 14
About the Company 14
Issue and Purpose 15
Outcome and Benefits 16
Scope and Deliverables 16
Findings and Recommendations 17
The Latin American Cluster 17
Canada 19
The Latin American Cluster 25
Mexico 27
Colombia 34
Peru 41
Eastern Europe Cluster 44
Poland 45
Confucian Asia Cluster 48
Singapore 49
Recommendations 59
Conclusion 61

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