Comparison of business negotiation styles between China and Sweden

Abstract

Different cultures have different business communication behaviors. With the acceleration of globalization in business, understanding and accommodating activities in inter-cultural contexts become more regular. Do people from different cultures keep the same style of communication in mono-cultural and intercultural negotiations? Do their behaviors change in intercultural negotiations and how? This Magistrate thesis searches answers to these questions through video recording of experimental role play. It finds accommodation of different aspects of communicative patterns between Chinese and Swedish business negotiators in intercultural contexts. Chinese tends to adapt their verbal patterns like accent and phonological features while Swedish accommodate to nonverbal behaviors like nodding and laughter.