National Business Environments

National Business Environments
Unit 2 Individual Project

Victor M. De Leon

Colorado Technical University

National Business Environments
Unit 2 Individual Project

With the advancement of technologies such as the internet in the 21st century a business can become global and have an international presence overnight. In fact, International business is defined as commercial transactions that occur across country borders (Businessdictionary.com, 2015). When a business or company sells a product online the person purchasing the item could be down the street or on the other side of the world. Of course there are many factors that come into play when making these transactions. Things such as how you will receive payment for the goods, not every country uses the same currency. How will you get the product to the customer, there are many rules and regulations in place that restrict what can and cannot be imported or exported from one country to another. All these need to be considered even before you market your product in another country as the cost of many of these will influence the price of the goods or services being provided.

In order to better explain the factors and considerations that a business needs to understand before going international let’s assume we are launching our business internationally. Let’s say we are expanding into a market in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, an Asian market such as Indonesia, and a Latin American market such as Venezuela.

Business Cultural Components

Culture exemplifies the accepted standards, values, and traditional behavior of a group of people. Each Country in the world has its own culture with its own beliefs, values and events. As such, culture can be explained or defined as a progressing set of shared beliefs, values and attitudes. Culture is also a primary component in businesses which impacts an organizations strategic direction. Culture guides managerial decisions and all functions of a business from its accounting practices to what it produces. Business culture, like national culture, is its own unique element. Business Culture entails starting off on the right foot, meetings, negotiations, formalities, social media use, internships, and work placements. Business culture is linked to behavior, ethics, etiquette and more. A business culture will encompass as organization’s values, visions, working style, beliefs and habits which will intern dictate the global forum in which they can and cannot do business in.

Along with the culture of the business itself. The countries national culture will be greatly influential in how businesses conduct themselves. Let’s take a look at the business culture in each of the countries we have selected.  

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian culture mainly revolves around the religion of Islam. Practitioners of this religion are called to prayer five times a day in many of the countries mosques which are located all over the country. Their weekends begin on Thursday since Fridays are considered to be the holiest day for Muslims. The practice of any religion other than Islam, including Christianity and Judaism are forbidden throughout the country with the exception of certain compounds where many expatriates attend church services.