The Necessity of Incorporating Local Cultural Aspects Into International Business Experiential Exercises

"As more and more U.S. companies become intertwined in the global economy, it becomes imperative that their personnel become more knowledgeable about the cultural influences of the countries with which they conduct business. This in turn places a greater responsibility on academia to provide more comprehensive and intense educational opportunities in the area of international culture and how it can mean the difference between success or failure for an international business endeavor. A recent review of the field of international education indicated a sparse amount of experiential exercises that emphasized the importance of international culture. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an elaborate study attempting to identify a variety of cultural aspects of many different international regions. It is hoped that this information will be a valuable asset to be utilized in the development of realistic experiential exercises that will help academia sensitize its students to the cultural differences that exist in the global economy.