Report on Global Business: Cultural and Business Information Insights

This report delves into the cultural norms and business etiquette of Indonesia, China, and South Korea, providing valuable insights for global business operations. It covers greetings, table manners, and business practices specific to each country, including Indonesia's emphasis on trust and patience, China's detail-oriented approach and gift-giving customs, and South Korea's respect for age and emphasis on building relationships. The report also highlights the importance of understanding language, governmental structures, and economic factors. The analysis includes specific do's and don'ts for each country, making it a practical guide for navigating international business interactions. The report utilizes references to support the presented information.

Running Head: GLOBAL BUSINESS
Cultural and Business Information
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GLOBAL BUSINESS
Introduction of each country
Indonesia:
This country is located in the Southeast Asia. It is known for being the largest island. It is
located between the pacific and Indian Ocean. Its capital city is Jakarta which ids the largest city.
The population of this country is 267 million and it is the 4th popular country in the whole world.
The people of Indonesia has the official language as Bahasa Indonesian and nearly 700 regional
language (Cohn & Ravindranath, 2014). The currency of this country is known as Indonesian
rupiah, represented as Rp. They have a diverse culture with majority of Muslim people nearly
87.2%, then comes Christianity which is 9.9 %, Hinduism is about 1.7% and many others.
Indonesia is mostly agriculture oriented country along with industries like textiles, mining, food,
petroleum. Their PPP GDP in 2019 was $3.740 trillion and the nominal being $1.200 trillion.
Their governmental structure is a constitutional republic and presidential legislature, Joko
Widodo being their president.
China:
It is situated in the East of Asia and it is famous for being the most populous country in
the world. Its capital state is Beijing and the largest city of this country in Shanghai. The
language used by the common people are, Standard Chinese, however, the regional languages
are Uyghur, Zhuang, Tibetan, Mongolian and many other. The currency of China is Renminbi
(¥). China is very diverse in terms of culture such as Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Taoism also many citizen do not practice any religion. China is mostly famous for its trading, its
remittances of foreign exchange is about $US64 billion (Das, 2015). The famous industries of
china are manufacturing, mining, power and construction. China is mostly popular fir the
production of low cost electronic products and import and export is their strong point. In 2019

2GLOBAL BUSINESS
their PPP GDP is estimated to be $27.309 trillion and the nominal was $14.140 trillion.
Communist party of china governs the country and five regions are autonomous, Xi Jinping
being the president and General Secretary of the ruling party.
South Korea:
South Korea is situated in the East of Asia, it shares its one border with North Korea. It
capital city is Seoul and largest city in South Korea. It has yellow sea in its west and Sea of
Japan in East. It is huge combination of different structure such as mountains, Costal plains,
valleys and river. Their official language is Korean. The currency that the citizen of South Korea
use is Korean Republic won (₩). Most of the citizen of South Korea do not practice any religion
and they consist of the 56.9% of total population, Christianity is 27.6% and several other
religions are also present. In 2018, $1.62 trillion gross product with spectacular growth in their
economy from poverty and chaos in the earlier days (Kang, 2014). The famous industries of
construction, manufacturing, mining, however, agricultural contribution being the GDP’s 50%
area and then shifted towards the industries. The GPD in 2019 is estimated to be $2.320 trillion
that is the PPP and the nominal being $1.720 trillion. The orientation of the government of
South Korea as a centralized one with three levels such as legislative, executive and judicial.
Moon Jae-in is the president and Lee Nak-yeon is the prime minister.
Cultural Norms
Indonesia:
Greetings in Bahasa Indonesia works irrespective of gender, social status and age. Good
morning is said as “Selamat pagi”, Good day as “Selamat Siang”, Good Afternoon as “Selamat
Sore”, Good evening as “Selamat malam”, here Salamat stands for happy, safe or peaceful. The

3GLOBAL BUSINESS
hand shake is very firm otherwise can be misinterpreted. Another sweet gesture is petting the
palms together near the chest is another pleasant gesture in most of the Buddhist country
(Maman, Sugiarti & Fahriany,2017). The name of the Indonesian is of single word such as
Aleka, Arini, Atmo, etc. They eat their food by their right hand, the use of left hand is impolite at
table. They sit on floor with a closed leg without showing the soles of feet.
The doe’s and don’ts in Indonesia are greeting people with both the hands and polite
smile, taking shoe off while entering home, use of right hand while eating, never turn down
meal.
China:
China has its own unique greeting style and it is somehow difficult to learn. Hello in
Chinese is said as “nǐ hǎo”, good morning is said as “zǎo”, good afternoon as “wǔ'an”, good
evening or good night as “wǎn'an” and good bye as “zàijian” (Chang & Holt, 2014). The
common Chinese names are Zhang, Yang, Li, Chen, Huang, etc. China is famous for its
courtesy, hence the presence of strict rules in daily life as well as in their table manner is
common. The table manners contains a series of rules to follow, it starts from chopstick etiquette,
arrangements for seating and ordering of food. At first towel is given for wiping along with a
bowl of water with lemon and rose petals for hand wash (Cheung & Wu, 2014). Food must be
taken with chopstick with grace, no sound while drinking soup, no talking while eating the food,
while leaving the dinner table acknowledgement to the host is a necessity.
The doe’s and don’ts are hand shake with both hands, gift small items, maintain table
manners, avoid black or white gift wrappers, don’t hug in first meet, etc.

4GLOBAL BUSINESS
South Korea:
The greeting in South Korea is also dependent of the timing of the day. One of the
important custom of this country is to shake hand bow down, it shows respect towards the other
person. They use “Anyoung haseyo” for good morning, evening, afternoon and hello, “Anyoung
hee gaseyo” is for good bye and “jal ga” is for bye. The common names in South Korea for boys
are Toyun, Minjun, Chiho, Siu, for girls are Sua, Hayun, Chia, etc. The South Korean dining
etiquette is of Confucian values, however the practical manners have modified in a period of
time. It is important to note that the food is only consumed by spoons or chopsticks, the elders
start their meal first then the rest of the members can start. It is their rule to drink their soup first
then eat the solid food. If any guest comes, the host is the last one to put his dining tool (Ingerson
& Kim, 2016). At the end of meal the chopsticks or spoons must be put down on the table.
The doe’s and don’ts are never sit on elder’s seat, taking off of shoes while entering
home, never tip any server, never chew your food with open mouth, etc.
Business etiquette
In Indonesia, the business etiquette are as follows:
 Shake hands with the elders first.
 Patients is the key is responds of emails are not received quickly (Fajar, 2015).
 Business deals emphasis on trust.
 Presence of translation in Bahasa Indonesia in business cards is a form of respect.
 In conversation taking full name is a sign of respect.
In china, the business etiquette are as follows:
 Chinese are details oriented, hence good preparation of meeting are required.
 Business presentation is favored to be in black and white (Sethi, 2016).

5GLOBAL BUSINESS
 Never bring gifts for the officials in business
 Dress code must be maintained.
 Punctuality is favored in Chinese business industry.
In South Korea, the business etiquette are as follows:
 Showing respect as per age is important in business industry.
 Must show hard work and open to learning (De Mente,, 2014).
 Punctuality
 Giving proper salutation and bowing down
 Important to build business relationship.


6GLOBAL BUSINESS
Reference
Chang, H. C., & Holt, R. (2014). Language, politics and identity in Taiwan: Naming China.
Routledge.
Cheung, S., & Wu, D. Y. (2014). The globalisation of Chinese food. Routledge
Cohn, A. C., & Ravindranath, M. (2014). Local languages in Indonesia: Language maintenance
or language shift. Linguistik Indonesia, 32(2), 131-148.
Das, D. K. (2015). Multinational corporations and the transforming operational environment in
China. Thunderbird International Business Review, 57(4), 271-280.
De Mente, B. L. (2014). Korean Way In Business: Understanding and Dealing with the South
Koreans in Business. Tuttle Publishing.
Fajar, M. (2015). The Administration of Corporate Social Responsibility in the District
Regulation in Indonesia.
Ingerson, S., & Kim, A. K. (2016). Exploring the value of an ethnic restaurant experience: a
consumer perspective towards Korean restaurants. Tourism Recreation Research, 41(2),
199-212.
Kang, M. O. (2014). Multicultural education in South Korea: Language, ideology, and culture
in Korean language arts education. Routledge.
Maman, U., Sugiarti, Y., & Fahriany, F. J. (2017). Determinant Factors Toward Staple Food
Diversification: Evidence from Indonesia Context.
Sethi, D. (2016). Business Etiquette in China: Analysis Based on Literature Review.