1. What I learned in 40 years while working in 35 countries:
CULTURE MATTERS
John Daly
A couple of useful books:
Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Process
Lawrence Harrison and Samuel Huntington
Information Technology in Context
Chrisanthi Avgerou and Geoff Walsham
Doing Business in a Hostile Investment Climate

2. The term "culture" has two usages or definitions within the World Bank.
The first, wider, definition describes particular shared values, beliefs, knowledge, skills and practices that underpin behavior by members of a social group at a particular point in time (with potentially good and bad effects on processes of poverty reduction).
The second definition describes creative expression, skills, traditional knowledge and cultural resources that form part of the lives of people and societies, and can be a basis for social engagement and enterprise development.
In 1952 Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn, American
anthropologists, published a list of 160 different
definitions of culture.

3. CULTURE BASED E-BUSINESSES
B2B and B2C Crafts Sales
B2B and B2C Fabric Sales
B2C Traditional Foods
B2C Ritual products (Pizza, Cakes, Goats)
Music
TV Programs (Brazil)
Film (Bollywood)
Developed Country Examples
Japan: Games, Anime

8. Culture is not static: it changes over time!
Rule 1: If anything can go wrong it will.
Rule 2: Even in nothing can go wrong, it will anyway.
Explanation: You didn’t take culture into account.
It is hard to generalize about Culture!
There is some evidence that there is a “Culture of Poverty”:
That predictable cultural shifts occur with economic development;
That technological change induces cultural changes;
That younger people are more likely to show the new cultural values;
Culture is not static: it changes over time!

9. What are some of the things that seem to be related to culture?
Attitudes toward Authority;
Fatalism
Trust
Beliefs about Corruption;
Willingness to Work with Outsiders;
Attitudes toward Time;
Openness in Interpersonal Dealings;
Attitudes toward Technology;
Attitudes toward Private Enterprise and Government;
Organizational Behavior;
Attitudes toward Employment.
Unintuitive cultural values are as likely
to work for you as against you.

10. In parts of Asia you can cause serious offense by sitting so
That the soles of your shoes face the person you are talking to.
My Irish relatives take great pleasure in baiting authority,
Especially by appearing stupid and letting the boss get himself
In Trouble.
In Latin America it is sometimes helpful to designate
“American” time or “Local” time when making a date.
My rich, highly educated, cosmopolitan friend in Colombia
Assumed he understood other Colombians better than I did
Simply because he was Colombian.

11. Clues to a Persons Cultural Values, Expectations, Behaviors
Nationality
Ethnicity
Age
Gender
Religion
Education
Income
Profession
Organizational Affiliation
Social Class
Occupation
Sector of Occupation
Urban or Rural Location
International Experience
Whose Culture Counts in Your Business Decisions?
Clients, Employees, Managers, Financiers, Owners,
Customers, Regulators, Competitors, Neighbors -- Everyone

12. Look for Different Patterns of Interpenetration of Institutions
What is done in formal versus informal institutions;
What is done in organizations versus what is done in the market;
Patronage;
Nepotism;
Community versus Enterprise.
Americans are sometimes seen as:
Litigious because we use formal legal institutions where
others use informal community institutions;
Bureaucratic because we use formal organizations where
Cold because we separate business roles from family and
associative roles.

13. Suggestions (Things I learned at my mother’s knee and
other low joints.):
Read about the relevant cultures (be they ethnic, organizational,
professional, or economic);
Look for unintuitive behavior, and consider possibly
unjustified cultural assumptions you may have made;
Don’t assume that your cultural values are necessarily shared;
Be sensitive to clues that values are not shared.
Consider if there are any cultural assumptions that underlie
your business (e.g. trust in institutions) and consider
whether they are likely to be shared by key actors.
Remember, other folk are just as sure about their cultural
values as you are about yours.