Regional Differences in Chinese Negotiation Style
Fri, 20 May 2016 09:24:00 BST
The Business School’s Emerging Markets Research Group (EMERGE) heard Dr Lianghui Lei, Lecturer in International Business at the University of Huddersfield Business School presenting his research titled 'One China One Style?—Exploring Regional Differences in Chinese Negotiation Style’.
Lianghui says about his research “As China emerges as a major player on the international business scene, it is becoming increasingly important for Western negotiators to understand how the Chinese negotiate business deals. Existing knowledge of the Chinese negotiation style is based on the perception that China has one single homogeneous culture and the Chinese negotiate in one “Chinese negotiation style”. Guided by a negotiation analysis approach, this study explores the diversity of the Chinese negotiation style from a regional sub-cultural perspective. The findings suggest that negotiators from Beijing are relationship-oriented, face-conscious, and have low time-sensitivity and risk-taking propensity. Negotiators from Shanghai and Guangzhou are both extremely task-oriented, but those from Guangzhou have higher time-sensitivity and risk-taking propensity than those from Shanghai. Regional subcultures are the keys to understand the differences in these regional negotiation styles. My findings provide important implications for Sino-Western business negotiations.”
Professor John Anchor, Director of the Emerging Markets Research Group, says “Lianghui’s research has major implications for academic understanding of business negotiation. In particular, it can contribute to the literatures on international business, cross cultural management and regional studies. His research also has major implications for management practice in international business”.
