摘要
国际商务谈判不仅是一项经济活动，也是一个文化碰撞与较量的过程。国际著名谈判学家珍妮·M·布雷特（2000）认为，文化差异可以导致跨文化谈判的破裂。目前，中美两国间经贸发展迅速，双方商务谈判也越来越频繁。因此，从跨文化角度研究中美商务谈判具有重要的实践意义。
霍夫斯坦德提出的个人主义—集体主义这一文化层面被广泛应用于各种跨文化研究中。跨文化交际学家威廉·B·古迪孔斯特（1998）就认为个人主义—集体主义提供了一个强大的理论框架来解释不同文化间人们交际行为的差异。而据文献显示，中国是典型的集体主义文化，而美国文化是高度的个人主义。鉴于此，本文试从个人主义—集体主义这一文化层面来研究中美商务谈判者交际行为的差异。
本文采用对比分析的方法研究了个人主义—集体主义对中美商务谈判者交际行为的影响。首先，通过文献综述，作者总结出了中国的集体主义和美国的个人主义差异的四个主要方面：（1）中国人注重群体而美国人突出个人；（2）人际交往中中国人的关系取向相对于美国人的个人本位；（3）中国人的间接式交际风格与美国人的直接式交际风格；（4）中国人的间接式冲突解决风格与美国人的直接式冲突解决风格。然后从这四个方面详细地比较分析了中国的集体主义和美国的个人主义以及个人主义—集体主义对中美商务谈判的影响。从中美商务谈判者交际行为差异的文化解析可以看出，要使中美商务谈判取得成功，就必须正确认识文化差异，增强文化差异的敏感性，克服文化障碍。
关键词：个人主义，集体主义，中美商务谈判
Abstract
International business negotiation is not only a kind of economic activity, but also a process of cultural collision. The famous negotiation scholar Brett claims that “Breakdowns in negotiations when parties are from different cultures are invariably attributed to cultural differences.”（2000, p.97）In recent years, Sino-US business relationships have been growing at a rapid speed and conquently Sino-US business negotiation becomes more and more frequent. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study Sino-US business negotiation from the cross-cultural perspective. Hofstede’s cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism has been widely ud in a variety of cross-cultural rearch. Intercultural communication scholar Gudykunst（1998）maintains that individualism-collectivism provides a powerful framework for explaining communication behaviors across cultures. Moreover, the literature shows that China is a traditional collectivistic culture while American culture is highly individualistic. In view of this, the thesis is intended to examine Chine and American business negotiators’ different communication behaviors from the perspective of the individualism-collectivism cultural dimension.
The thesis takes the etic, comparative method to investigate the influence of individualism-collectivism on Chine and American business negotiators’ different communication behaviors. First of all, on the basis of the literature review, the author concludes four major aspects along which Chine collectivism and American individualism differentiates: （1）Chine group vs. American individual orientation; （2）Chine relationship vs. American individualism orientation during interpersonal communication; （3）Chine indirect vs. American direct communication style; （4）Chine indirect vs. American direct conflict management style. Then, the influence of individualism-collectivism on Sino-US business negotiation as well as Chine collectivism and American individualism is compared and analyzed along the four aspects. From the cultural analysis of Chine and American business negotiators’ different communication behaviors, it can be en that in order to reach successful Sino-US business negotiation it is very necessary to enhance cultural awareness and adaptability.
Key words: individualism, collectivism, Sino-US business negotiation
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background and Motivation of the Study
1.1.1 Background
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Sino-US business relationships have been growing at a rapid speed. According to the customs statistics, Sino-US bilateral trade volumes increa by 106 times from 1979 to 2006, which
is equivalent to an annual growth of 18.9 percent. By the end of 2006 the two countries have become each other’s cond largest trading partner. （/CustomsStat/OperateForm/StatNewsViewAllow.aspx guid=c54edd20-312c-4733-8bb9-eacebb912d12） And in 2007 Sino-US trade volume even reached a total 300 billion US dollars.（/fortune/2008-12/05/content_10458765.htm）Over the recent years continuous investment from the US in factorie
s in China has led to an explosive expansion of Sino-US trade.（/finance/dongtai/2174.shtml）Under this background, it is of great significance to examine the Sino-US business negotiation, which is indispensable to international trade（Yuan, 2003, p.15）and is “one of the most challenging tasks in business（Reynolds et al, 2003, p.236）”.
1.1.2 Motivation
The author is motivated by three reasons to investigate the influence of individualism-collectivism on Sino-US business negotiation.
Firstly, culture plays a vital role in international business negotiations. The success of international business negotiations depends on a number of factors, such as the economic situations, political environment, the competitiveness of the enterpri, the market positions. However, behind all the “hard facts”, “the ‘soft facts’ （of cultural factors）become of the utmost importance in an intercultural encounter.”（Usunier, 2003, p.98）In fact, international business negotiation is not only concerned with the distribution of economic interests, but also it is a collision between cultures. To illustrate, people with different cultural backgrounds often do not share the same concept of what is
negotiation and what should be an appropriate negotiation strategy, and have different outcome orientations. Very often, their different attitudes during the negotiation process may lead to
cultural misunderstandings and undermine trust between the parties.（Usunier, 2003, p.98）Clearly, cultural differences constitute an enormous challenge for cross-cultural negotiations. The greater the cultural differences, the greater the barriers to communication, and the more likely the failure of the negotiation. In Brett’s opinion, “Breakdowns in negotiations when parties are from different cultures are invariably attributed to cultural differences. Even though some of the breakdowns may not fairly be attributable to culture, others undoubtedly have cultural origins.”（2000, p.97）All this has contributed to the growing need for cross-cultural negotiation skills among today’s global managers.So it is very important to examine the influence of culture on negotiation.
Secondly, the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism is lected here in the n that “it has received consistent attention from both cross-cultural communication rearchers and psychologists around the world”（Ting-Toomey, 2007, p.376）; “it is the primary dimension on which cultures vary.（Oetzel, 1998, p.138）” In addition, America is a highly individualistic culture according to Hofstede （1991; 2001） while strong empirical evidence has supported that Chine culture is a typical collectivistic one
（Ting-Toomey, 2007, p.377）.
Thirdly, among all the Chine journal articles regarding the influence of cultural differences on Sino-US business negotiations, none of them focus on the perspective of the individualism-collectivism cultural dimension, even though Peng Zhimin（2007）mentions the influence of individualism-collectivism on Sino-US negotiating goals, and Zhang Hongxia（1998）and Zhuang Jia（2003）on Sino-US different decision making systems. Most of the articles examine cultural impacts on Sino-US business negotiation or negotiating style mainly from such cultural factors as verbal and nonverbal communication patterns, values, thinking patterns. For example, Guan Xiaojing （2003）studies the influence of different values on Sino-US business negotiation ; Zhou Guiying（2007）analyzes the impacts of Sino-Western thinking modes on Sino-US business negotiations. Some other articles like Pang Yanjie （2006）and Peng Zhimin （2007）also u the high\low power distance to explain Sino-US different decision making systems.
1.2 Rearch Questions and Methodology
1.2.1 Rearch Questions
The aim of this thesis is to examine the influence of individualism-collectivism on
Sino-US business negotiation. The major value tendencies of individualism and
