Cultural Adaptation and Business Relationships: Americans Selling to Indonesians, Malaysians, and People's Republic of China Chinese

Abstract

A 3 × 4 (culture of participants x degrees of cultural adaptation) experimental design with 124 People's Republic of China Chinese, 140 Indonesian, and 140 Malaysian professionals is used to investigate the effect of cultural adaptation on attraction and outcomes when Americans adapt to PRC/Indonesian/Malaysian people. This study extends the research of Francis (1991) and Pornpitakpan (1999). The inverted-U relationship between adaptation and attraction in Francis's study is not replicated. Instead, the results are consistent with those of Pornpitakpan's study. For Indonesians, the relationship appears monotonic positive on both attraction and outcomes. For PRC and Malaysian people, the relationship appears monotonic positive on attraction and reaches a plateau beyond moderate adaptation on outcomes. Participants do not feel their social identity is threatened when Americans adapt to their culture. © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.