CAFEPOD Coffee Co.: International Business Communication Report

This report analyzes the international business communication strategies for CAFEPOD coffee co. in Venezuela, a developing country. It begins with an overview of Venezuela and applies various theories of international and intercultural communication, including Hofstede's and Kluckhohn & Strodbeck's cultural dimensions, to understand the local market. The report critically evaluates cultural sensitivity in the Venezuelan business environment and identifies communication barriers such as physical, perceptual, and cultural differences. It then proposes appropriate communication strategies and recommendations to ensure CAFEPOD's success, focusing on verbal communication, and other strategies to overcome barriers and foster effective business operations in Venezuela's unique cultural context. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting to local customs and building strong relationships for successful market entry and sustained growth.

International business
communication

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................3
Overview of the selected developing country.............................................................................3
Apply various theories of international and intercultural communication on chosen country....3
Critically evaluate culture sensitivity, while doing business in international market.................6
Discuss the various communication barriers experienced by international businesses by
various examples.........................................................................................................................7
Provide appropriate communication strategies and other relevant recommendations for the
success of the business in developing country............................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
International business is defined as the trade of goods, services, technology, knowledge and
capital among national and international borders. It also involves the cross-border transactions of
goods and services among two countries. there are various factors of international business that
includes the geographical conditions, cultural and social factors, economic aspects, political and
legal factors(Gray, and et.al., 2020). In this respective report, CAFEPOD coffee co. has been
going to expand its business in the developing country which is Venezuela, it is the country of
norther cost of South America with divers of natural attractions. Additionally, its Caribbean
coast and tropical resort inlands includes Isla de margarita and the Los Roques archipelago. This
report will be going to analyse the various theories of international and intercultural
communication in Venezuela and also analyse the culture sensitivity while operating its business
in the international market. Furthermore, define the various communication barriers faced by
international businesses. Lastly, give appropriate communicate strategies and other relevant
recommendations for the growth and success of the business.
Overview of the selected developing country
Venezuela is a developing country and they are ranked 113th as per the Human
development index. The country has the world’s largest known oil reserve and they have been
one of the learning exporter is oil in the world). (Ghaleb and Abdullah, 2021). According to the
international Monetary Fund(IMF), Venezuela is the developing country due to its lower
economic performance. The gross domestic product is poised to grow 20% this year as rise in the
oil production fuel a dramatic rebound for the economy which boast the overall economy. The
country is having the largely command economy in which central government directs the
economy related to the production and distribution of goods and services across the world.
Apply various theories of international and intercultural communication on chosen country.
When a new business is going to expand its market in international boundary so it vital for
them to analyse the cultural and communication of that specific region so that they can be
familiar with the polices and market environment of the Venezuela for effective expansion of
business. In order to analyse the intercultural differences and communication, the Hofstede’s
cultural dimension is being analysed as cultural around the world are getting more

interconnected and the business is becoming increasing globally. There is the six cultural
dimension on which the countries can be ranked which are explained below:
 Power Distance: This respective dimension expresses the degree in which the less
powerful individual o the society accept an expect the power which is unequally
distributed. The main issue here is how a society handles inequalities among the people.
In high degree of power distance, society accept a hierarchical order in which every
individual has their own place and in low power distance, people demand justification for
the inequalities of the power among them. There is low score for UK in terms of power-
distance which suggest the people generally believe that equality must be eliminated. In
Venezuela is having high power distance index as the people are working with proper
equality.
 Individualism: In this, people are concerned for themselves and for their family only,
they do not take much interest in the group of people. On other hand collectivism shows
the preference for a people, relatives or the member of group to look after them in return
of unquestioning loyalty. The UK is considered as one of the most individualistic
counties in the globe(Salvendy and Wei, 2020). Venezuela is having high rate of
collectivism in which people use to work together.
 Masculinity: It is the dimension in which the values are considered and masculinity side
shows the presences in the society for attaining the heroism, material rewards for success.
On other hand, Femininity is for the presence for cooperation, caring for the weak and
ensure quality of life. In context to business, it is related to as tough versus tender culture.

Femininity analyse with gender roles, modest, nurturing & so on. There is comparatively
low rate of masculinity in UK in comparison to Venezuela.
 Uncertainty Avoidance Index: This define the extent in which uncertain situations is
tolerated and this dimension show the unknown situation and unexpected events. In UK,
there is low degree of uncertainty avoidance and in Venezuela, there is high degree of
uncertainty avoidance index.
 Short-Term vs. Long-Term Orientation: In long term and short term, this shows the
time difference which focuses on the future and delay in the short time success, short
term is mainly emphasising goals which can be attained within a shorter period of time.
In UK, the companies are having the long-term orientation in which they make the goals
and achieve with effectives where as in Venezuela, people have low degree of short term
orientation for attaining the goal of the business.
 Restraint vs. Indulgence: This respective dimension basically includes the fulfilment of
social needs. Indulgence is the social allowance of having fun whereas restraint shows
that the society must be regulated on the basis of rules. UK has low degree of indulgence
in which individual have to follow the rules to live where as high-degree of indulgence
found in Venezuela which means that CAFEPOD coffee co. can offering the appropriate
working environment by expanding its business in the international market.
Kluckhohn & Strodbeck’s Cultural Dimensions:
While having the business in a country, an organisation must analyse the target market
and the culture of the business so that they can grow in the field as there are many competitors
and minimum rate of acceptance in the country. There are basically six culture which are given
by the Kluckhohn and strodtbeck are explained as follows:
 Relationship to nature: As the people in the country who are doing business and
expanding which will be presence of need or duty to analyse and dominate and work with
the proper harmony and balance with the given culture of Venezuela and CAFEPOD
coffee co. must focuses on the business nature so that they can easily sustain in the new
market(Prokopenko and Omelyanenko, 2018).
 Beliefs about human nature: There are people who is having go behaviour as well as
negative behaviour. Thus, while expanding the CAFEPOD coffee co. to Venezuela, they

must train their employees to face all such behaviour and comply with that in an
appropriate manner to operating business.
 Relationship between people: The main consideration of the employees is the
relationship with the group of people or their subordinates and this can be varying
person-to-person. For an organisation who is going to expand its business in Venezuela,
they must focus on better relationship of the employees and people at the location.
 Nature of human activity: Individual must focuses on living the current aspects by
which they can achieve the goals in an appropriate manner. this also enhance the overall
working of the business in the international market.
 Conception of space: There is the use of physical space which can be public, private or
can be mixed. Business must analyse the employee public and private space for creating
global business.
 Orientation to time: Individual must focuses on decisions making with content to events
in present, past as well in future. Cultural expansion is the plan which help the future
analysis of the situation.
Critically evaluate culture sensitivity, while doing business in international market.
Culture is the main factor which is considered while expanding the business in the global
market. This basically affects the acceptability rate and audience of location in which they are
expanding its business. The cultural present in given location completely responsible for the
things which also hurdle the overall functionality of the business(Powers, 2021). The best
example of such location here the house is made up of woods and natural things so there will be
less demand of steel in the given situation. In this, business sensitivity will hurdle the consumer
to business that is not helpful for the cultural and not for the society and people are less attracted
for such type of business. This is known that every employee will share the same culture.
As the business must involve the establishing the direct relationship with the individual
who are operating business in the international business. CAFEPOD coffee co. must be
established to serve their business in Venezuela so that they affect the value and behaviour of
people in positive manner. with this, business will be renewed in the location which the people
are respecting their culture. There will be effective presence of brand with good brand image. It
is vital for the company to have the better knowledge of the culture by which they can

understand how to deal in the changing environment and operates its business in an appropriate
manner.
Discuss the various communication barriers experienced by international businesses by various
examples.
When the business is expanding its business in the international market, there are various barriers
which has arises as the country of differentiated cultures and people makes changes in the
operations of any business. High successful business must focus on rely on the communication
by which they can make effective strategic decisions for the employees. Following barriers are
given below:
Physical Barriers:
When the people are having good working environment and proper engagement helps in
the effective colleagues to communicate quickly and effectively. This is totally dependent upon
the work environment and they have the better communication to each other. When the
management decided to open its stores in different locations which makes the situation
unavoidable. This can be minimised with the help of technology and related features. While
expanding the business in new location such as Venezuela, this must be keep in mind in getting
the right location in cities and people can rightly have communication without lingual
differences.
Perceptual Barriers:
Perpetual barriers arise from the mind of the people that they communicate and how they
are being affected by the body language and the behaviour of the individual. An individual must
show interest in conversations and clearly guide the instruction by which negative assumption
are made by other (Adeola, Hinson and Evans, 2020). While establishing business, there are
barriers which are arises in given location such as Venezuela that the target audience don’t
analyse the factors as of their behavioural issues.
Cultural Barriers:
New generation business is operating their business in the global market with networks of
suppliers and retailers. In Venezuela, there is presence of numerous cultural aspects and beliefs
that can affect the business in long run. With not suiting the cultural of people, the community
may not accept and they keep try to engage with the company. This helps in reducing the cultural
differences by applying various business strategies in the business. CAFEPOD coffee co. must

focuses on complying the culture of the new nation so that they can expand its business in the
new location in an appropriate manner.
Provide appropriate communication strategies and other relevant recommendations for the
success of the business in developing country.
In order to overcome the barrier of communication, there are various strategies which can
be implemented while operating CAFEPOD coffee co. in international market so they can easily
expand its business in the market by which they can meet the requirement of the business in an
appropriate manner. following are the strategies which are being applied while establishing the
business for developing nation Venezuela and there are various factors which are given below:
Verbal:
Verbal communication is helpful as it transfers the information while having face-to-face
communication. This is one of the most common type which can be used in conference and
presentations(Fannana, 2019). There are various methods which can be used by the teacher so
that they can have the better functionality in the business are given below:
Using a confident and strong voice: when presenting to people information, they must provide
the clear and strong voice by which people can hear. The idea is clear which can be easily
understand by other individual as well.
Visual:
In this, visual communication includes he photographs, drawing, art and so on. These are
the type of visual which engage large audience with less efforts and people get information for
shorter period of time. Furthermore, company can use the advertisement and take review before
launching the visuals for people in order to communicate. This also helps the people to easily get
understand by the other person and make them understand by which they can rightly overcome
the communication barrier.
Recommendations for company:
It is recommended to the company to use local resources of the company which are easily
available ad having great benefit. This saves cost in huge amount such as import and export
charges. Business can establish the food resources network for the company, how easily the
business can get the allocated aspects and the industry get the low cost feature that is helpful in
the long term sustainability. A good strategy can be used which also includes the analysis of the
market. The market research includes the considering the market opportunities by which they can

retain in the competitive market in domestic location in which the company is going to expand
its business. Demand of market is being include in the world so that they can sustain in the
market for longer period of time by fulfilling it.
CONCLUSION
At last of this report different communication barrier was discussed with providing
recommendations and strategies for the business establishing in developing country. It is
concluded from the above report that international business is the aspects in which the
organisation expands its business to international boundaries and this needs to establish a good
functioned business in the international market. In this, UK based firms is planning to expand its
business in Venezuela which is developing country. In context to the expansion to the
international business, companies using various strategies in get better expansion in the new
nation. In this report, this discussed about the suitability of locations to expand its business.
Moreover, various theories have been used in order to reduce the cultural barrier which are
hofstede and Kluckhohn & Strodbeck’s Cultural Demensions and also analyse the cultural
sensitivity while operating business in new country. Lastly, there various communication barriers
and also give the recommendations with the strategies for expanding business.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fannana, F.Z., 2019. Asiatic Marketing Communications Limited.
Adeola, O., Hinson, R.E. and Evans, O., 2020. Social media in marketing communications: A
synthesis of successful strategies for the digital generation. In Digital transformation in
business and society (pp. 61-81). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Radio-television, C. and Telecommunications Commission, 2018. Ian Scott to the annual
conference of the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications.
Powers, B., 2021. Positioning Strategic Communications within the International Development
Industry: A Qualitative Analysis of Development Communication at the World
Bank (Doctoral dissertation, The George Washington University).
Prokopenko, O. and Omelyanenko, V., 2018. Marketing aspect of the innovation
communications development. Innovative Marketing, 14(2), pp.41-49.
Salvendy, G. and Wei, J., 2020. Design, Operation and Evaluation of Mobile Communications.
Springer International Publishing.
Ghaleb, H. and Abdullah, A.A., 2021. A Conceptual Framework for Impact of Project
Complexity on Success of Railway Construction Projects: The Moderating Role of
Effective Communications to All Stakeholders. The Journal of Management Theory and
Practice (JMTP), pp.62-69.
Gray, and et.al., 2020. Expanding qualitative research interviewing strategies: Zoom video
communications. The Qualitative Report, 25(5), pp.1292-1301.
Knebel, S. and Seele, P., 2020. Introducing public procurement tenders as part of corporate
communications: A typological analysis based on CSR reporting indicators. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal.