Cross-cultural Collaboration for International Trade, and Markets. Case of Indigenous Management Concepts

The economic developments in the 21st century that are happening within the context of globalisation have increasingly set the focus on emerging markets. Moreover, it is expected that within the next twenty years, most of the world's growth will occur in the emerging markets (Cavusgil et al., 2013). Within this background, one market that particularly seems to gain increasing importance in the context of international trade is the People's Republic of China. Today, it is the world's second largest trading nation, and has emerged as the most important bilateral trade partner for many countries (Riccardi, 2016). Despite the unprecedented growth rates, and bi-lateral trade agreements, the importance and understanding of indigenous management practices unique to China remain largely unknown (Garg and Berning, 2017). The objective, therefore, of this paper is two-fold; the first objective is to explore the nature of culture and its role in the society. The second objective is to explore and investigate whether and how German companies’ understanding of Chinese culture facilitates the trade negotiations. The paper seeks to contribute to the growing indigenous management research.