Doing Business inCulture: Blog #1 & Response to Peers

On an individual basis, you will submit four blog posts over the course of the semester to share knowledge relevant to doing business inMexico. Each of the four blog posts will correspond to one of the four components of CAGE analysis:culture, administrative, legal, and regulatory systems, geography, and economic structures. This week you will be focusing on Mexico's Culture.

Mexico's Culture (informal institutions)

1. Why/how culture matters:

• Consumer preferences
• Motivation
  • Workplace
  • Work-life balance
  • Negotiations
• Communications
  • Language
  • Body language
• Mindsets
  • Shared meanings
• Path dependence
  • History matters

2. Tips for assessing culture:

• Cultural and demographic overview, with comparison to other countries or the world
  • Be aware of unconscious bias, self-reference criterion
  • Examples:https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au
• Key aspects of culture, relevance for business, and for building cross-cultural sensitivity
• Unique features that serve as cultural metaphors: "any activity, phenomenon, or institution with which members of a given culture emotionally and/or cognitively identify" (Gannon, 2011

3. Consequences for how companies navigate the business environment in Mexico.

4. Consider aspects of Responsible Business.

• Identifying business opportunities that might be associated with or inspired by this dimension of the business environment in Mexico that contribute positively to not only profits but also to people (social), planet (environmental), equity (inclusion), and/or ethics.
  • Export of products or services from the country
  • Import certain products/services to fill unmet needs
  • Investment opportunities (inflow or outflow of FDI)
  • Licensing or franchising
  • Replication or adaptation of business models