Cultural Differences in Interaction Goals between Malaysia-China Business Negotiations

Abstract

As the world is getting more globalized due to digital world, cross-cultural business negotiation is getting more in demand and challenging compared to those days where most business involved mostly in domestic business negotiations. With such situations and environments, cultural intelligence is important to be learned. As many Chinese and Malaysian companies seeking the role as importer-exporter, international business negotiation skills and cultural awareness are much needed skills to meet the interaction goals of both parties. A lack of cultural awareness will lead to miscommunication and rejection from the other party during negotiations. The participants in this studies involve Chinese and Malaysians who are involved in real negotiation world. This paper used GLOBE model to compare the cultural dimensions between Malaysians and Chinese business negotiators. Questionnaires were sent by emails and through WeChat Apps to the participants who are based in China and Malaysia. Based on analysis, we found that between Chinese and Malaysian business negotiators, cultural norms influence the interaction goals between the two groups. As to the future research, we suggest that future research be directed towards developing theories and also focus on the application of GLOBE model in different research fields across different cultures, such as halal business management, digital marketing and business entrepreneurship. This study has contributed in enriching the knowledge on international business negotiations between Malaysia and China business literature context. On practical implication, this study has strengthen the negotiators’ knowledge on cultural norms of both Malaysians and Chinese in order to build better relationships with their business partners