Mapping Culture

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1967) hypothesized that we live within a socially constructed reality based on the sociology of knowledge[1] about which we take for granted. The sociology of knowledge is information about how we see, live and do in our everyday lives, providing our truths and meanings. The sociology of knowledge is unique to each society. What is real to an Australian may not be real to a Korean and the knowledge of a brick layer will differ from the knowledge of a carpenter. Our very thinking cannot be independent of our own social context.

Perception, thinking and problem solving differs among cultures as different aspects of intelligence are required. Wertsch and Kanner (1992) define culture as shared notions about what counts as efficient problem solving. For example, Western societies heavily utilize verbal, mathematical and spatial skills, while former hunting and gathering cultures a sense of direction and animal knowledge to survive was required. 

Geert Hofstede (1991) drew analogies between culture and mental programming, where every person carries with them certain patterns of thinking, feeling and acting based upon what they have learned throughout their life by experiences. Hofstede (1991, P. 4) goes on to explain how this programming begins to be instilled at infancy within the family, then influences from the neighbourhood, school, youth groups, the work place and so on continue as one travels through life. People in different countries develop different mental programs which are as right for them, just as another program is right for someone else in another country. These programs are a product of social environments and are called culture.

Edgar Schein (2005) of MIT adds to our understanding of culture by describing culture as patterns of shared basic assumptions that enable groups to learn how to solve both external adaptation internal integration problems. As these basic assumptions have worked in the past, they are retained and passed onto new group members as the correct way to perceive, think, feel, and solve their problems. These basic assumptions filter into the group’s belief and value systems through what Clifford Geertz (1973) called the ‘symbols of meaning’, i.e., language, stories, rituals, artifacts, signs, heroes and villains, etc[2]. Clyde Kluckholm (1944) enhanced our understanding even further by providing a number of descriptions of culture as “the total way of life of a people”, “the social legacy an individual acquires from his or her group”, “a way of thinking, feeling, and believing”, “an abstraction from behaviour”, “a storehouse of pooled learning”, “a set of standardized orientations to recurrent problems”, “learned behavior”, “a mechanism for the normative regulation of behaviour”, “a set of techniques for adjusting both to the external environment and to other people”, “a precipitate of history”, and “a behavioural map, sieve or matrix”. This suggests that humans have two basic issues to resolve, that of how to achieve integration with society and how to deal with the external environment.

Culture may appear homogenous at a national level, but usually there are subtle differences at a regional level. Culture exists at a number of levels and influences us at all of these levels (Fan 2000, George and Zahra 2002). Culture also exists at an international level, i.e., East verses West. We are also a citizen of a nation and may also identify ourselves with a number of groups within it, i.e., socio-economic, religious, ethnic, gender, generational or geographical group, etc. We may be a member of a school or university, have a certain occupation, be a member of some specific issue group and/or be a member of a sub-group in society that has counter views to the rest of the nation.

A heterogeneous society does not mean that there is not a national culture, even though some members maybe of different ethnic, social and/or religious backgrounds. Members of these sub-groups usually conform to many of the norms of a national culture while also holding onto norms of their sub-culture, where they deviate from the national culture (Decrop 1999, P. 110). The amount of influence each sub-culture exerts on the national culture and vice versa depends upon the individual strength and numbers within each sub-culture.  For example, in Malaysia, the tolerant Malay culture has some reminisce of a Hindu past, old colonial institutional trimmings which are overlaid with a dominant Islamic culture (Asrul Zamani 2002). The influence of the layers of culture upon society and its individuals is shown in figure 1.   

Figure 1. Some of the Spherical Influences of Culture upon an individual

Although it may be easy to understand what culture is by seeing its manifestation, it is extremely difficult to develop hypotheses that lead to any predictability (Grief 1994), or understanding of the deep meanings behind it without our own biases (Geertz 1973). Culture influences a person at two levels. The first level is at a macro-national level from elements of the social history, religion, political philosophies, economic institutions and organizations, language and customs and media influence. External global influence also affects national culture along with other issues like technology that bring social change. The second level of factors are environmental that are much more localized in their influence upon the individual. These factors include the local geography, location and history, local economic environment, the basis of existence for the local society, family influences, education, community expectations and finally mentors, peers and other examples that an individual is exposed to.  These are summarized in the next few paragraphs. The cultural process is shown in Figure 2. and summarized in the following paragraphs.

Figure 2. The Cultural Process

Social Structure and History

The social structure defines the way members of society organize themselves and interrelate to each other. Society can organize itself along very formal, structured and hierarchical lines, something towards the direction of a feudal society. This resembles many old agricultural based societies, some still existing in parts of Africa and Asia today. Alternatively a formal society may resemble a patriarch type of society like Japan. At the other end of the spectrum, society may be very egalitarian like Australian society where respect is earned through achievement. There are also socialist type societies like Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea and Religious based societies like Saudi Arabia and Iran. How society is organized will have some bearing on how relationships interact. Feudal and patriarch type societies tend to have high respect for elders and as a consequence a wide power-distance relationship between leaders and subordinates. Other societies may be segregated by socio-economic boundaries where two different sub-sets of social structure operate like Brazil, Fiji, Thailand, and Indonesia, etc. Figure 3. shows how social sub-sets based on income will look like in some countries of the Asia-Pacific Region. 

Figure 3. Social Group Sub-Sets based on Income in LDC, NIEs and China.

Some societies may have a collective orientation in the way they handle relationships, where the group is seen as more important than any individual wants, while other societies like the United States value the freedom of the individual. In some societies males are expected to act out their masculine traits and the showing of feminine traits is considered a weakness. In other societies like Western and Southern Europe, some feminine traits in males are desired, i.e., mode of greetings in Southern Europe and Spain, etc[1].  When looking and comparing social structures, one will usually find odd contradictions. For example, Malaysia could be considered a collective society but decision making is usually the discretion of the leader[2], where in Japan’s patriarch system one would expect senior leaders to have a large discretion in decisions, but according to Ouchi (1981) decisions are made collectively through the process of ringi[3].

Many social values are the result of unique historical events, evolution and development. For example, the Thai people have a proud sense of history that they were never colonized by a European power and this is important to their sense of freedom and individualism. Thai people are very nationalistic and support community product programs with strong enthusiasm[4]. Likewise Indonesians and Vietnamese have a strong sense of national pride about their struggles against western powers for independence. Chinese tend to be supportive of their Government over general issues that outsiders are critical of china, especially over issues like Tibet[5]. The love-hate relationship that Mexicans feel about the United States has something to do with the legacy of the Mexican-American wars of the 19th Century[6]. The slow evolution of Japan from Shogun feudal rule, Confucian education and agrarian society has influenced the development of strong family values, company and national loyalty. Urbanization in South-East Asia has influenced women to disregard their traditional roles in favour of workforce careers. Urbanization has also broken down the traditional closeness of families. Values develop as the result of unique historical events that shape different national views of the world. Culture is dynamic, where development and urbanization causes values to continually evolve and eventually form new value sets.  

Religion

Religion defines a person’s relationship with life and eternity. This in varying degrees is reflected in social values, the taboos within interpersonal relationships, ethics and a person’s view of their place in the world. Weber (1930) argued that protestant ethics promoted a rational pursuit of economic gain, which gave worldly activities a spiritual and moral meaning. Weber believed that these values made some contribution to the success of industry during the 16th Century in England. However this has been refuted by a number of other scholars (Tawney 1926). Islam is a religion where it’s very doctrine, the Al Qur’an is written in the metaphor of business and that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself was born into a trading family. Within many parts of the Al-Qur’an life is paralleled to a business venture, where one earns profits to gain entry into heaven – profits meaning faith and good deeds to others and those that accept Allah’s (SWT) guidance as a bargain to save them from punishment on judgment day[7]. Islam urges individuals to strive their utmost to earn large monetary rewards and spiritual profits, while at the same time being inspired to be successful and honest people (Hunter 2008). However, even with Islam’s strong pro-business stance, entrepreneurship in many Islamic countries is below that of other comparable countries.

Religion does influence many patterns of life. Religion helps to define authority relationships, develop a sense of individualistic duty and responsibility to society, and define the boundaries and taboos of behaviour within relationships.  How religion influences opportunity and entrepreneurship is really unknown due to lack of research and conclusive results in this area.

While Islam is on the rise in many countries, the influence of religion in many Western countries is in decline. Many people are taking up alternative spiritual practices as a substitute for the institutionalized religions.

Political Philosophy

Political institutions provide the formal and informal “rules of engagement” in the consumer and business sectors of a country. They define how business is viewed by society. Political institutions are made up of a formal level which includes laws and regulations about property rights, etc., and informal influences made up of norms, customs, traditions and moral codes, etc. (Williamson 2000). The philosophical direction of these institutions and informal influence are deeply embedded unconscious values that will influence policy and regulation (Licht, Goldschmidt and Schwartz 2004). These values and beliefs will shape the business culture over a period of time. Political action will influence whether business pursues innovative and productive activities or tends to pursue rent seeking activities, organized crime, bribery and corruption. For example, studies made by Johnson, McMillan and Woodruff (2000, 2002) found that innovative entrepreneurship was inhibited in the post-Soviet economies of Eastern Europe because of insecure property rights, corruption, with inefficient courts to back-up the law. Values and beliefs emerging from political philosophies will also influence how consumers deal with manufacturers and suppliers, and how management deals with labour, etc.

Political philosophy is important in creating the “business culture” of a country by setting up the ability of businesses and innovators to enforce their rights in society. Government makes laws, regulations and defines business procedures that impact on firm values and behaviour. The legal system adopted or inherited helps define legal relations. Enforcement helps to shape responses and respect for the “basic playing rules” in the economy. For example strong property and intellectual rights stimulate, reinforced by the court system (Khan 2005) will support an innovative and entrepreneurial business culture (North 1990, North and Davis 1971, North and Weingast 1989). 

Economic Institution and Organization

The economic philosophy of the country is very important in shaping general business and economic conditions. A country’s economic institutions involve basic infrastructures and transport and communication networks, level of professional infrastructure and the country’s research and development base. Important areas of economic philosophy include attitudes towards manufacturing, trade and business restrictions, philosophy towards managing the economy, exchange rates and balance of trade, company governance, regulation, and overall trade policies, etc. These factors will play a role, along with political institutions in the general orientation of business, i.e., export or import substitution orientated, manufacturing or trade orientated, etc.  

Generally the stage of economic development will have great influence upon the structure of the economy and level of employment (Acs and Armington 2006). Basic agricultural production dominates the early stages of economic development. This stage would be characterized by basic farming enterprises, some small manufacturing and supply type enterprises. This stage is also characterized by large rates of self-employment and some of the early traditions and ways of doing business begin to develop[8]. During the development phase, manufacturing will increase either as an export orientated sector based on low cost labour or as an import substitution sector protected by tariffs. This will accelerate the growth of cities and wage based employment where people move from rural to urban areas. This changes society from an agrarian trading community to an urban purchasing community, which in turn will shape new ways of life, relationships, where new sets of values emerge.  The first signs of a general rise in wealth will be seen in the urban areas. Eventually the economy develops into a more focused manufacturing sector, accompanied by a developing service industry. Consumer choice increases along with rising incomes and consumer expectations, influenced by advertising for branded and luxury products.

The emerging services sector provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to establish specific specialized enterprises in urban areas. However another effect of the post industrial phase is the decline of urban areas where large scale manufacturing was based, creating a massive reshaping of society. Employment becomes more difficult to obtain, where people require massive vocational retraining. Within society more intense competition makes it more difficult to select economically viable opportunities for individuals to exploit through small to medium enterprises[9]. This leaves large pools of urban unemployment in the cities of the western world (see issues facing generation Y). These large pools of youth unemployment become the breeding ground for sub-cultures in society where they begin to set themselves apart from the mainstream culture, forming alternative assumptions, beliefs and values as a way to cope with anxiety.   

Language and Customs

Language can be seen as the pride of a culture. Many countries still use their respective national languages as the official language and language of education.  Language includes not only written and spoken words, but expressions which have specific cultural contexts and meaning, signs, symbols, gestures, mannerisms and pauses. Words although translated similarly, may in actual fact have wider or narrower meanings, which can change its emphasis and connotation. Language is embedded into custom and manners where it becomes the narrative of meaning for people. Table 3.6. below explains the meaning of the word “entrepreneurship” in a number of languages and shows some differences in cultural contexts[10].

Table 1. The meaning of the Word “Entrepreneurship” in various Language Contexts.

Embedded customs can create obstacles for business. Customs may affect the meaning and the way credit can be utilized as a way of doing business. For example, the Fijian style of observing credit responsibilities within clan (i.e., friends and relatives) is through the concept of kerkere, where there is little compulsion or obligation to pay back the money borrowed. This creates burdens on native Fijian entrepreneurs while Indian and Chinese Fijians do not have this same burden (Benedict 1979). Business practices are also affected by a culture’s sense of time (Coulter 1967, Qalo 1997), property rights, and family relationships, etc[1].

The Influence of Media

The media plays an important role in forming and reflecting opinion and culture in a country. The media influences what people think is important, funny, serious, taboo, acceptable, sacred, scary, what people want, what people aspire, how people live and how people like to be seen and not be seen. The relationship between the individual and the media is a complex one, although the media appears to be able to have some influence on elections in democracies and consumer behaviour through editorial and advertising.

According to McQuail (1983) the mass media plays a number of roles in society. Firstly, media reinforces a person’s behaviour by connecting him or her to defined role values and gender identification. Secondly, media provides a means where a person can connect and identify with others. Thirdly, the media provides a person a sense of security. Fourthly, the media provides a window to the world and opportunity to learn and gain information. Finally, the media offers a sense of escape and emotional release.

The media can influence social agenda over issues and be a change agent of peoples’ values and beliefs. The media has been used numerous times as an instrument of control in many countries over the last fifty years. It is also a powerful carrier of the influence of “globalism” to many societies. This has had great influence of the “westernization” of Asian societies, over the last twenty years[2].

The media is heading into a transformation with the advent of the internet and almost immediate transmission of information around the world by citizens of countries through social media and hand held media devices. The effects of individual interaction with the internet are seen in mass political movements and direct consumer involvement in corporate advertising strategies. This is changing the way politics is played out in both democratic and undemocratic regimes, product and corporate promotion. Social media increases the exchange of information between people on a direct basis. How the traditional television, radio and print media redefine their roles within the new technologies is yet to be fully seen. There is no doubt that relationships between culture and the media will be one of the most important factors in shaping peoples values and beliefs.  

Globalization: Convergence/Divergence

The concept of globalization is very abstract and has many different dimensions including, communication, corporate, cultural, economic, environmental, information, market, political, social, travel and security. Globalization is also confused with the issues of modernization, technology development, especially communication and information technology and issues of transfer. Globalization is not a new phenomenon it dates back to the pre-history period when Homo sapiens left the African continent to inhabit Eurasia, empires and religions developed and spread, and seagoing vessels enabled old Europe to colonize most of the new worlds from the 1400-1800s. Many of the characteristics of globalization today are the consequence of improving transport, communications and government policy changes over the last century. Many claim that the world is becoming more globalized than ever before, but some historians of political economy claim that the world is only returning to the integration it once had before WWI[3].

The major issue from our point of view is the impact of globalization on a culture. There is both some convergence and divergence within the concept of globalism. Cultural convergence leads to homogeneous cultural values between cultures and divergence leads to cultural diversity and localism in cultural outlooks. The dynamics of global convergence and divergence are extremely complex. These issues are subject to fierce and emotional debate and as an issue to stir up political support in many Asian countries. These debates play on fears about western corporate control over national economies, the loss of culture and values to the influences of western media agendas.

However, within a country there are forces that counter or block the impacts of global influences, just as there are also forces that promote the acceptance of global influences. Thomas Friedman (2005) believes that there are two aspects of culture that determine convergence or divergence in a country: how outward is the culture (or how inward)? And how open is it to new ideas?  Friedman (2005 pp. 421-423) continues on to say that some cultures are more outward and open than others to foreign influence, contrasting the differences between the more moderate Islamic countries like Turkey, Lebanon, Bahrain, Indonesia, Dubai and Malaysia to the more fundamental Islamic nations. Some of the forces for convergence and divergence are listed in Table 2. below.

Table 2. Some Forces for Convergence and Divergence

Social Change

Social change evolves in most cultures over time, except in the most rigid and dogmatic societies. There are a number of factors that can be considered precursors for altering social, political and economic structures and changing social patterns.

One of the most influential factors affecting social change is economic development. Economic development disturbs the ‘ways of how things have been done’ through transformation. As economic development is usually urban centred cities will often quickly develop at the expense of rural areas. This brings with it great shifts in lifestyle and behaviour patterns where people become wage and salary earners and live and work within industrial timetables. Often the values of new professionals within society as managers are in conflict with their traditional values as seen in Malay society (Rashid 1988). More changes affect the structure and interrelationships within the family as more women enter the workforce, families rely on dual incomes and those left in rural areas tend to stagnate. Good technical skills become the currency where people advance themselves so education becomes a valuable currency.

Increasing per-capita incomes brings on new patterns in consumer behaviour. Choice becomes an important aspect of consumerism and opportunities open up for new concepts to satisfy sophisticated consumers. As economic development reaches a mature stage, manufacturing industries tend to decline. Companies seek out lower cost countries to manufacture in especially when tariff regimes are taken down and there are cost advantages in sourcing externally or relocating. Such trends can be seen in the US, Canada, EU, Australia, New Zealand, sourcing from China and South-East Asia. Consequently, this post industrial phase sees a rise in service industry which creates another radical change in the ‘ways of how things have been done’, leading to new types of supply chains and new sets of skills and influences. These processes are continual and as they evolve peoples’ attitudes and culture changes without society being aware until the changes have occurred. The edge of social change is where opportunity can be both discovered and created.

Another set of more local environmental factors also influences the cultural environment for individuals. These factors are more specifically local and group specific and can also explain differences in culture across a single country.

Geographical Location and History

A community’s way of life is dictated by the local geography, topography, resources and history of an area. Being close to the sea, bay, inlet, harbour, mountain, plain, jungle, isolated, urban or rural, between two major cities or resource endowed will influence the range of occupations and general outlook on life. Economic and social life in most areas can be explained by the surrounding geography and history of an area.

Geographical characteristics such as the availability of farmland and ease of access to potential markets, physical resource endowments like mineral resources, and the physical ability to access markets through any topographical obstacles will partially determine economic development. 

Why some communities growth and prosper and others stagnate and decline is partly a function of natural and man-made topography and features. Airport, road, rail and sea links tend to bolster economic activity, while lack of them may inhibit growth or even cause decline. One can see the economic decline in many towns where highway extensions by-passed by the town, as has occurred in many places around the world.

The English Channel tunnel between the UK and France and the Loetschberg tunnel between Germany and Northern Italy under the Alps were built to enhance economic activity between nations. These massive transport infrastructure projects improve links between countries that where traditional foes through European history. Not all man-made infrastructure projects have helped all people. The building of irrigation schemes by the Soviets that diverted water from rivers flowing into the Aral Sea since the 1960s has destroyed a prosperous fishing industry, bringing poverty and death to 3 million people in the region (Lean 2006). Another type of problem occurred with the construction of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River in China. Although the dam is producing massive hydro-electricity aiding in economic development, cutting down on greenhouse gases, aiding transport through better shipping and assisting in flood control, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced and silts are no longer being carried downstream to help replenish soil fertility (Kuhn 2008).

How communities react to economic development through tourism, industrialization, increases in trade through their region is very complex, with research providing different conclusions. One can see that communities with a long history of exposure to outsiders appear to be tolerant and appreciative of the opportunities this brings. Conversely, communities with little exposure to outsiders appear to be less open to new ideas and change[1]. Table 3. shows the different influences geographical features could have on lifestyle, occupations and opportunities.

Table 3. The Different Influences Geographical Features Could Have on Lifestyle/Occupation/Opportunities.

Local Economic Development

Local economic development will have some influence over a person’s hopes, aspirations, mobility, employment and opportunity potential. Economic development may diversify activities and occupations beyond traditional ways of earning income. Alternatively economic development within a country can eventually lead to rural decline in certain regions. The level of economic development may influence peoples’ optimism or pessimism about the future. If the general population is involved through employment opportunities, there will most likely be some optimism, whereas if new industries don’t create employment opportunities, pessimism may develop.

The Basis of Local Society

The basis of existence of a local society is primarily historical and will influence the types of traditions and views of life people have. As the basis of the local society may change through development, some traditions and outlooks may stay with the senior populations. Examples of towns built on specific reason include the old coal mining towns of the UK, the fishing towns along the coasts of countries around oceans like UK and Australia and the mining towns in Northern and Western Australia, etc. Towns may have developed because of a specific reason like a gold-rush, peak and then decline. Unless new activities can help define new roles like farming, the town’s prosperity may decline and eventual survival threatened.

Family

People born into and brought up in a family will tend to reflect some, if not most of the assumptions, beliefs and social values from their parents. From an early childhood children within the family environment learn what is safe and dangerous, what is acceptable and taboo, what the truth is and what are not, what ideas are good and what are not and their relationship with the rest of the world, etc. Family fundamentally defines social class for the children, as the school, outside groups they become involved in, and perhaps even sports they play will be influenced by the parents. Social peers and friends are likely to be members of the same or similar social background which verifies their assumptions, beliefs and social values. Children will tend to model themselves upon their parents and may even follow in similar career patterns (Hofstede 1980, P. 32)[1]. Family, social class, education, peers and occupation are closely linked and generally reinforce each other as influencing factors upon a person.

Basic assumptions about life differ from society to society (Douglas 1966). Ethnic values are instilled in children early, helping them learn how to relate to others. For example, children in cultures like Japan and Korea learn to respect their parents and elder people in society. In contrast, parents in western societies like the United States want to teach their children independent behaviour, with the hope that they will learn how to take control of their own lives. The upbringing in Japan leads to a patriarchal society where senior managers have a lot of power and influence over decision making with formal rules of relationship. Children in the United States will tend to grow up doing part time jobs for pocket money and upon adulthood will have a relationship with their parents as friends rather than parent-child.   

Children develop their personal sense of risk taking propensity in their early teens. However as risk taking is situational, a person’s propensity to take risks, particularly in the business area may not come out until later life because as young people, the personal risk of starting a business may be enough to dissuade them due to the responsibilities of buying a house and starting a family (Bolton and Thompson 2003, P. 40).

Finally family background is not a good predictor of who can discover or construct opportunities and act upon them. Entrepreneurs come from both rich and poor backgrounds, with both solid and broken homes. Children of wealthy comfortable families may not have the passion or desire for business and instead of entering a family business, go and do something else. However the key attribute that comes from a family is a sense of self and self assurance.

Education

Education, along with national media and language factors create a strong integration force on a national culture level (Hofstede 1980, P. 12). Both formal and informal education affects culture and the capacity of the human capital quality, which is measured on a macro scale through literacy rate, general education level, range of skill competencies and potential career paths and technical competence, etc. Education instills a degree of mental programming within the citizenry that affects the types of technology people will look to, the type of business models people will use, the types of resources and networks that will be favoured and the types of strategies and supply chains that will be utilized (Le 1999). A person with information and skills will be more likely to exploit opportunities in areas where those competencies and skills are required (Shane 2003, P. 69).

The type and level of education a person undertakes is influenced by social class and what career opportunities a person desires. Diplomas and degrees have a special symbolic purpose of increasing both economic and self worth. In a sense a diploma or degree is an achievement that is recognized by society. The diploma/degree enables someone to associate with higher status groups in business and obtain higher status marriage partners, etc. A degree is traditionally thought of as a ‘meal ticket’. To some extent, undertaking an education can be seen as the beginning of one’s pursuit of their aspirations and dreams, both at the individual and collective level. To a great extent the equality/inequality of a country is influenced by access to education[18].

Education produces professional groups within a culture that have their own cognitive patterns of thinking. For example a mechanic will be able to diagnose symptoms of an engine problem through their hearing from where they can diagnose the problem. In a similar manner doctors identify a patient’s medical problem through examining symptoms and match these symptoms to a probable disease or pathology that fits the symptomatic description. Learning patterns also differ between generations. As people tend to learn only what they need to know. For example, most of the younger generation is poor at mental arithmetic because they rely on pocket calculators which the last generation did not have access to. There are also differences between languages where Chinese students must learn between 5,000 to 15,000 characters by heart to read and write the Chinese language.

Cultural differences also affect learning styles. The extent to which students learn, or don’t learn, may be a product of teaching style used. Therefore the situation arises within national education systems where the majority of students may be congruent with the teaching style, but a minority will be deficient in learning because the teaching style is inappropriate for their learning style. Ramírez and Castarńedu (1974) described Mexican-American students as field dependent learners where white students tended to be field independent (discussed later in this chapter). Although culture has some influence in this situation, it cannot be argued that it is the sole influence on learning ability (Irvine and York 1995). Every society places a different value on learning and achievement at school (Oybu 1991). Minority groups may develop sub-cultures with specific norms or values that deter a person achieving in fear that they may be labeled someone trying to emulate the dominating culture (Kunjufu 1986).

Many highly technical fields like biotechnology and electronic engineering often require very highly educated people (Zucker et. al. 1998), who have undertaken specific research in the field to commercialize new ideas based on new knowledge (Aldrich and Wiedenmeyer 1993).  Similarly, a lot of the internet entrepreneurs attended business schools where they had a long time to develop their ideas, access banks, venture capitalists and network with their fellow students. However, education can be restrictive on impatient people who cannot take the discipline of learning things which they do not see relevant to their ideas. This is why many entrepreneurs leave school or university before getting a diploma or degree, as they don’t see the value in it. For this reason education does not necessary correlate with entrepreneurial achievement.  

Education is experience and this can be obtained in alternative and informal ways like selling lemonade outside the family home during youth, or undertaking some sort of business activities while at school, etc. Doing small things in youth that are entrepreneurial and fun is a learning experience which can lead to bigger things as Michael Dell, as founder of Dell computers testified to in his semi-autobiographical book (Dell and Fredman 1999). Although it is not certain what effect education has on a person’s ability to discover and construct opportunity. Table 4. below lists the advantages education provides people in this regard.

Table 4. Skills and Abilities derived from education and the Advantages They Bring.

 Community Expectations

As people become better educated, wealthier and join an amassing middle class, community expectations will over a wide range of issues become more sophisticated. These include expectations about standards of governance, government services, customer service by companies, wider range of choice, lifestyle, opportunities for advancement and quality of work life. Community expectations influence the ‘buoyancy’ of a culture, i.e., whether a community is generally content or dissatisfied about the present, optimistic or pessimistic about the future, and whether the general outlook is one of hope or despair. This general ‘buoyancy’ influences assumptions and beliefs and will set the background from where individuals will develop their collective and individual aspirations for the future.

Mentors, Peers and Role Models

A mentor is a senior and experienced person who could be a parent, close friend or teacher who assists, advises, helps and guides a usually younger, less experienced person, sometimes called a protégé. Mentorship can be both formal and informal and involves the dissemination of knowledge in a practical way so that the protégé can develop both the explicit and implicit aspects of a trade, art, job or entrepreneurial venture, etc. This way of passing knowledge onto another also passes across attitudes, beliefs and values about the skills and abilities in focus. Mentorship through both formal and informal apprenticeships is a powerful way of transferring beliefs, values and skills to younger people. For this reason organizational mentor programmes are very popular as a means to develop people (Murray 1991, Schlee 2000).

Peer groups usually contain people of similar social status and education, have similar interests and have a common source of bonding. Peer groups form a basis of shared cognitive, social and emotional development in a way that fosters intimacy and security. Peer groups assist a person develop their own personality through their interactions with others which creates their own perceptions and views of themselves. Erik Erikson (1975) argues that this development goes on into adulthood and that there are eight stages of development. These are;

·        Trust verses Mistrust: in infancy when children are dependent upon others, ‘wonder who is going to take care of them?’ and ‘how are they going to be taken care of?’ etc. If children are well taken care of and their needs met, they will develop a sense of trust in their caregivers. Erikson believes that this trust will form the basic assumptions of future relationships and consequently in adulthood the person will approach potential relationships in a trusting manner. If infants are not taken care of, the opposite will occur where the person will develop a sense that no one is to be trusted.

·        Autonomy verses Shame and Doubt: Once children are on their feet, they will test both their physical abilities and boundaries. This results in children running around the room and screaming until they are told to be quiet. Often they will test this authority to find out how much control they really have over the situation. When a child feels a sense of control and mastery over things, they will develop self confidence. If parents inhibit their children’s actions, then their maybe a loss of self confidence and retardation of the want of the child to explore and encounter a wide variety of life events.

·        Initiative verses Guilt: Children in their toddler years will often imitate adults. They will receive their first experience doing adult tasks during play. They learn how to work with people, follow others, lead and settle disputes. When this goes well, children will develop a sense of initiative, which can translate into ambition. If things don’t go well, children may become resigned to failure and not take any initiative in life.  

·        Industry verses Inferiority: around the age of four children start to compare themselves to others, especially those their own age. Many develop a sense of competence and achievement and belief that if they work hard enough they can do most things they desire to do. However if they experience enough failure, they may develop a sense of inferiority, feeling they don’t have the talent and ability to get by in life.

·        Identity verses Role Confusion:  During adolescence people go through all sorts of physical and emotional changes. Where people transition from childhood into adulthood they develop their identity achievement asking questions of themselves “Who am I?”, and “do others recognize me for who I am?” etc. This is also a period of experimentation where different identities are tried (Erikson 1968). Teenagers search for this identity in many places. Eventually most people make the decisions about who they are, what is important to them and what they want, etc. People who don’t resolve these issues wonder in confusion and enter adulthood without a sense of identity and meaning in their lives. People differ to the extent that they commit themselves to the values, careers, relationships in their lives and personal ideologies (Marcia 2002).

Most people go through this stage of identity confusion until they find meaning. Some people develop a negative identity which is founded on undesirable social norms, roles and rules. They often take cues from undesirable role models. Most people have to go through some crisis or realization to find their identity. If they don’t, they may pick up a shallow identity with values and beliefs that they cannot backup with any real rationale or meaning. People with this identity display moralistic and conventional characteristics, but also have a dark and hidden side suppressed inside them.

·     Intimacy verses Isolation: In adulthood connecting to others is a prime concern. People need to develop relationships that are mutually satisfying and intimate. This is the time when people grow emotionally and develop into caring nurturing and providing adults. This often means making a commitment to a single person in life through marriage. On the other hand, isolation is the failure to find and maintain intimacy.

·     Generativity verses Stagnation: During the rest of a person’s years the main issue is whether the person has generated something that he or she really cares about in life. This may take the form of a career, commitment to children, a hobby, volunteering, or something that is generative. When people stop and think back over their years and feel that they have not achieved anything, they feel disappointed. Other people don’t care and just go along in life, not really caring about what they are doing. They go through life and can be seen as phonies.

·     Integrity verses Despair: At this last stage of development, occurring near the end of life, a final crisis occurs. When we let go of our generative role when we retire from the job we loved or maybe the children take on their own lives, or we stop doing the volunteer work we loved and prepare to face death, we look back on our lives and make judgment. “Was it all worth it?”, “did I accomplish anything?”  If positive a person will take satisfaction in their lives and go through our passing with integrity. If dissatisfied with our lives, wishing we had more time to make changes, to repair relationships, and right the wrongs, etc, we experience despair. People who have a lot of regrets in old age will become bitter people.

Consequently, through our life development, the peer group is an important reference and influence upon our lives, especially from infancy into adult life. Peoples motivations and wants are situational and partly come through comparison and observation with others. Through this peer conformity, people develop similar desires, wants and/or aspirations. This is how research clusters and business incubators develop an environment where peer values assist in driving innovation where Silicon Valley is perhaps the most famous example (Larson and Rogers 1986).  

The influence of leadership within organizations is particularly important, especially when the leader is also the founder. The founder imposes his or her assumptions, beliefs and values onto new groups during the formation of the organization. The leader’s assumptions, beliefs and values are espoused to the other members of the organization through what issues the leader focuses upon, how he or she reacts to events, where resources are allocated, what things he or she controls, through talking, speeches and by his or her very own day to day actions (Schein 2004, P. 246).

Basically culture will influence every aspect of life and how things are done. Some examples of areas of everyday life that is affected by culture are listed in table 5. below.

Table 5. Some Areas of Life that Culture Affects

Aspirations

An aspiration can be a national ethos, which is a set of ideals that the majority of people can identify with through cultural conditioning. The national aspiration is a wide and general like principal, extolling something like ‘having a richer and happier life’ or ‘owning our house’, etc. Aspirations create desires and ideals the country’s citizens hope to achieve. These aspirations have developed through a nation’s history and been shaped by some of the cultural factors discussed previously.

Aspirations are an important part of culture and translate through the assumptions, beliefs and values of the culture and often become reflected in individual desires and drive. Aspirations of individuals are orientated to the basic questions of ‘Where am I now?’ and ‘where do I want to be?’  People will have different views on their ability to achieve cultural aspirations based on their own views of self efficacy and control over their own destiny. These aspirations become a person’s motivating drive. Different levels of self motivation may partly explain why people vary in their rates of learning at school (Riessman 1962), vary in their alertness for opportunities, and vary in their business growth aspirations (Tominc and Rebernik 2007).

The entrepreneur through literature and the media has become symbolized as a person who is a brave frontiersman like the mythical cowboy of the past.  Entrepreneurship is portrayed as a road to freedom and reward. Therefore to some, entrepreneurship may be a spirit of expression and perceived as a way of turning one’s own ideals into a reality. This mythology has its basis both in history through the pilgrim settlements in America and entertainment, where characters “Rocky” are personified as the ‘underdog’ who wins against all odds (Hammond and Morrison 1996).

Assumptions, Beliefs and Values

Assumptions are the deep inner core of culture. We all have developed shared sets of assumptions about our place within the environment, the nature of man, the nature of human relationships, the nature of reality and truth, the nature of time and space, and how to adapt to the external environment as a means to achieve our goals.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) described mankind’s three basic environmental orientations as;

1.      The Doing orientation: assumes man can control and manipulate the environment. Consequently a person with a doing orientation will take a pragmatic and proactive orientation towards nature. In such an orientation, people take charge and formulate strategies that try to control the environment. This doing orientation is seen traditionally as a ‘western orientation’, focusing on objectives, task, goals with efficiency. Individuals with this orientation would tend to formulate strategies in an attempt take control and dominate the market.

2.      The Being orientation: is opposite to the doing orientation and assumes that nature is so powerful that all humans are subservient to it. This fatalistic approach has a sense of weakness that one cannot influence events facing him or her and must take what comes along. One focuses on ‘here and now’, ‘enjoyment’ and ‘accepting whatever comes’. Individuals in this frame would look for niche markets with little competition and operate with the goal to survive.

3.      The Being-in-Becoming orientation: is somewhere in the middle of ‘doing’ and ‘being’ orientations where the basic assumption here is that the individual must achieve harmony with the environment by fully developing his or her own capabilities and sense of achieving full unity with nature. In this orientation the focus is on developing full integration so the person rather than what the person has achieved is important.   

Every culture has shared assumptions about the nature of human nature, i.e., ‘what it means to be human’, ‘what are our basic instincts’, and ‘what kind of behaviour is considered appropriate for a human’, etc. Humanity itself is a cultural construction and differs slightly from culture to culture. Through both religion and work, our assumptions about the nature of human nature can be seen clearly.

In most religions man is seen as a figure that can be redeemed and that once shown the ‘right’ path, man is intrinsically good. Salvation is promised in the next life as a reward. However the problem with religion today is that many in the west now live spiritually rather than religiously and the level of commitment to religion varies greatly from person to person. Religion in some parts of the world has taken on a ‘pathological zealotism’ and been used to justify political positions and terrorism (Todd 2010), just as it was once used to justify the persecution of the Christians in Palestine and the Roman Empire and slavery in North America during the 18th Century.

Through looking at the nature of work, one can very quickly pick up the assumptions about the nature of human nature through the observations of policy and action and the relationships between managers and employees.

All management theory is built upon assumptions of the nature of human nature. Very early on in the emergence of modern management Frederick Taylor developed a philosophy called scientific management that assumed that man could not be trusted and had to be controlled. Decades went by until this was disproven through The Hawthorne Experiments carried on by Elton Mayo which lead to a new set of assumptions that man was a being that wanted social interaction and could be motivated through intrinsic means. A clear expression of the two polarized assumptions of the nature of human nature can be seen in McGregor’s (1960) Theory X and theory Y. Theory X and Y are two sets of broad assumptions where Theory X sees man as basically untrustworthy, needing to be closely supervised and extrinsically motivated and Theory Y, which sees man as trustworthy, not needing to be closely supervised and intrinsically motivated. Some of the major characteristics of Theory X and Y are shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Basic Premises of Theory X and Y

Managers often have the view that workers are untrustworthy and behave in a manner that itself could be the cause (i.e., the work group will react to the manager with type X behaviour)[1]. One can still see today Theory X type management in so many organizations. Theory X and Y are two extremes and other management theories have bridged the gap between them with much more sophisticated and less polarized theories. 

Our basic assumptions also define the nature of our relationships with others. Rules emerging from our cultural assumptions provide orientations into how to make our relationships safe, comfortable and productive. To achieve this we must resolve the issues of our own identity and role within the group, our power and influence, our needs and objectives, whether we are accepted and have intimacy within our relationships (Schein 2005, P. 179).  How we relate to each other is culturally defined through group and relationship characteristics which are based on the degree of individualism and collectivism, power distance and acceptable ways of communication between people within the culture.

Our assumptions shape what reality and truth is. Reality and truth are also social constructs that we learn to share with others. Our outermost reality is the physical external reality which we can see, perceive, measure in some objective manner. However meaning is shaped by our two deeper realities, our social and personal realities. Social reality is a consensus reality that is shared with the rest of society, particularly the groups we identify with. We are taught how to identify and interpret people, objects and events through our social reality. Our innermost realty is our own identity which is developed through learned knowledge, experience and ways we have developed to interpret perceptions. 

Time and space are social constructs to make them exist. Without social construction there is no time. Time is a defined concept which society accepts and operates by. Our behaviour is determined by how we define and understand the concept of time. For example, ‘does society think in the short or long term?’, ‘what is meant by sort and long term?’, ‘Is the past important to society?’, ‘Does society value the future?’, i.e., plan and have visions about the future, ‘How is the present valued?’, i.e., as time to prepare for the future by working hard or time for enjoyment, etc.

Space has a symbolic meaning within culture. How space is allocated, distributed, and shared defines many relational aspects of self and others within society. For example, ‘How does one define their own space?’, ‘Is it important to have space exclusively?’, ‘What constitutes sharing and invasion of space?’, and ‘How does space define ownership and authority?’ etc. Intimacy, privacy, and authority are often symbolized through space.

Finally society must have assumptions about how to adapt to the outside environment and how to achieve its goals. From the individual point of view, assumptions that enable one to function coherently within a group must be discovered. This is a process of using assumptions and testing their validity within a group. When feedback is positive, assumptions are validated. When feedback is negative, inappropriate assumptions will be discarded and new assumptions adopted and tested, until a working set of assumptions exists. This is a learning process shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The Learning Process (Hunter 2009)

Strategy is the basis by which we maintain our existence and survival. Developing strategy for personal, group interaction or business strategy is a cultural matter. We consider our goals and formulate strategies to achieve them. Our strategies are therefore a reflection upon our own inner assumptions. If they are valid, then the very way we develop organization, plan and develop products, sell, and treat employees and customers will have some cultural reflection. Any chosen strategy must be within cultural assumptions and values otherwise it will fail and affect our own views of our self efficacy, self esteem and self confidence. 

Assumptions manifest into beliefs and values based on upbringing, social structure, religion, political and economic philosophies, education, media influence, and that of peers and others around them. Beliefs and values influence perception and behaviour in complex ways. There is a significant correlation between national or regional cultural beliefs and values and those of an individual (Mueller and Thomas 2001). Beliefs and values are deeply engrained standards that justify past action and determine future actions (Braithwaite and Scott 1991). Values can be considered transitional goals or objectives that vary in importance but act as guiding principles of life (Schwartz 1996).

Scripts

Beliefs and values form schemata or scripts with specific information that are used during the cognitive process for perception and the creation of meaning. According to Mitchell et. al. (2000) these scripts are composed of culturally specific information. Therefore the perception of opportunities and crafting of strategy is attuned to the specific culture in question. Each script contains heuristics that are rules of thumb that guide a person’s perceptions and judgments (These are discussed later in this chapter under cognition and cognitive biases). Studies by Kitayama et. al. (2003) also postulate that perceptions between cultures also vary. North Americans tend to be field independent in their perceptions while Japanese appear to be field dependent (This will be discussed in its own section). 

The sophistication and development of scripts within the individual are believed to provide the knowledge, confidence and drive to undertake certain actions. Mitchell et. al. (2000) postulate there are three important scripts related to opportunity and action. These are arrangement scripts, willingness scripts and ability scripts. Arrangement scripts contain knowledge that will support someone doing a certain activity, i.e., about resource combinations, supply chain knowledge, potential customer needs, etc. They show the arrangements people know are needed to do something (see figure 3.6.). Arrangement scripts have the knowledge, but the willingness scripts drive a person into consideration of taking action. They drive someone to seek out new opportunity and give thought about pursuing them (McCelland 1968, Sexton and Bowman-Upton 1985). Willingness scripts help to reduce uncertainty (Heath and Tversky 1991) and without this willingness script people will not be motivated to act (Krueger 1993). Ability scripts provide the knowledge of capabilities, competencies, knowledge and skills required to start any action (Bull and Willard 1993, Herron 1990). Situational scripts enable someone to draw on prior knowledge from previous experiences and apply it to a specific situation (Cooper and Dunkelberg 1987, Stuart and Abetti 1990). Finally ability – opportunity scripts enables a person to see ways of how to create the necessary combinations of people, resources, networks and products to make the idea work (Glade 1967, Kirzner 1982).

Internal Struggle – Positive and Negative Cultural Attributes

Within every culture (national, regional or organizational) there are attributes which are irrational, contradictory and negative towards certain types of behaviour. Different cultures will reward or punish behaviour that may be considered innovative, entrepreneurial and positive towards achieving certain goals. What can be worse in some cultures is that the espoused values are positive, but the actual values practiced in action are negative. This is a common trait in many organizations where the mission and vision seems to encourage innovation, but by coming up with new innovative ways to assist the organization, one comes up against covert forces that try to sabotage these initiatives. Cultures that value and reward positive behaviour, promote a propensity to be innovative, while cultures that reinforce conformity, group interests and try to control the future are not likely to develop much risk-taking and entrepreneurial behaviour (Herbig and Miller 1992, Hofstede 1980).

An examination of the difference between what is espoused and what is practiced and what kind of behaviour is rewarded and punished both formally and informally will assist in identifying the positive and negative attributes. Table 6. provides guideline questions to assist in evaluating positive and negative attributes of a culture according to some main assumptions areas. 

Table 6. Guideline Questions to determine Positive and Negative Attributes of Culture.

The key is to look at what values in a culture support entrepreneurship and innovation and what don’t. Values that support a strong work ethic, individual accountability, and a sense of independence are required. Fatalism can destroy any sense of self-efficacy on the part of an individual. Cultural values that are most supportive will be those that support optimism and improvement of one’s own situation. A culture should support cooperation and the concept that cooperative effort pays off. This will be an important determinant of growth. Societies that believe in a ‘fixed pie’ approach to competition will find it very difficult to cooperate with others, as all are competing for a piece of it without considering the possibilities of change and growth. Cultures that support experimentation will provide a better platform for innovation than those which discourage it. Fundamental, collective, and heavily censored societies tend to stifle innovation. It is not necessarily a need for a democracy but an allowance for its citizens to undertake novelty. Finally it is a matter of how a society looks at time, do they live for today? Are they mired in past traditions? Or look optimistically to the future?

Individual behaviour will likely conform to cultural value and attributes unless there is strong influence from a group counter culture. Culture cannot predict behaviour but only provide some contextual background environmental knowledge that individuals and groups operate within[19].

An extract from Opportunity, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 1, Nova, New York, 2012, pp. 189-214.

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[1] This can definitely be seen in the business models and strategies selected in various countries. In some countries SMS advertising would be considered invasive of peoples’ privacy, but in other countries accepted as a fair means of advertising, just as vans with speakers blaring advertising are accepted in some developing countries. Noodle and Asian stall food franchising is culturally acceptable in South-East Asia, while multi level marketing is accepted in some countries and not others.

[2] A Type X manager would be expected to be result driven, intolerant, always give deadlines and ultimatums, be distant and detached, aloof and arrogant, elitist, short tempered, directs without listening, demanding, etc. 

[3] From a Freudian perspective a male may be driven by an unresolved rivalry with his father. The grown up child may be striving unconsciously to rid himself of control from the father. The mother strongly urges the son to achieve more than the father due to her disappointments of the husband. Anger is the main driver for success and for this they will work hard.

[4] For example, in the political turmoil in Thailand, the disposed Prime Minister Dr. Taksin Shinawatra is supported by the peasants in the North and North-East of Thailand (red shirts), where the current Government of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva draws his support from the more educated middle class in Central and Southern Thailand. 

[5] The literature on community acceptance of tourism even though there would be economic benefits showed that there would more than likely be negative attitudes towards tourism (see for example Hjalager 1996, Murphy 1981). One can only observe that communities that have a long history of trade and tourism are more open in outlook to communities with much less exposure. In making these comments the author has cities like London, Paris, Bangkok, Jakarta and Vientiane in mind as cities with positive outlook on outsiders, where negative outlooks would come from country towns in many countries where “outside” traffic is infrequent. However the author is also sure that there will be many exceptions to these cases.

[6] In many parts of the world a business cannot be run and operated according to western concepts of efficiency for various cultural reasons.

[7] This “westernization” reflects more changes in consumer habits rather than changes in core assumptions, beliefs and values. The rapid influence of “western consumerism” and fashion was seen when television was first introduced to Bhutan in the early 1990s. 

[8] International migration was much greater before World War I with almost 60 million people from Europe travelling to the United States, Canada, New Zealand and other countries. This does not include Chinese and Indian migration around the world (see Gilpin 2000, pp. 18-19, 295, and 311-14).

[9] The discussion in this paragraph basically outlines Hofstede’s (1980) cultural values. 1. Power distance: the degree that members of a society accept the right of authority of another over them. In a high power distance culture, a subordinate will expect direction from a superior. In a low power distance culture a participative style of management is preferred. 2. Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which individuals become stressed due to lack of structure or uncertainty. 3. Individualistic verses collectivist: An individualistic culture is where people tend to look after their own interests and consider their own goals and achievements to be important, where a collectivist culture tends to put group interests over individuals. 4. Masculine and feminine cultures: Masculine societies stress material acquisition and success, while feminine cultures are characterized be interpersonal and interdependency in relationships.

[10] This has certainly been the decision making style of political leadership and is also the style of the public sector and larger organizations.

[11] Ringi is a bottom-up, consensus based decision making process. It is used as a way of gauging support for various ideas in informal sessions before decisions are made.

[12] One example is Thai consumer support for the “One Tambun One Product” program (OTOP).

[13] This sentiment could be seen in the Chinese backlash to Tibetan supporters attempted disruptions to the Olympic touch relay prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

[14] Many Mexicans see United States intentions in Latin America as an offensive expression of US influence. This is not only because of the more recent Monroe Doctrine, but also because of US territorial expansion at the cost of Mexico’s sovereignty during the 1700-1800s (see Skirius 2003).

[15] See: Al-Qur’an (92:4), (29:69).

[8] This is where the early signs of “how people approach doing business”. These signs can be seen in how farmers approach business, i.e., whether they are satisfied to produce for middlemen to come and purchase their produce or whether they themselves participate in the marketing process. Other signs can be seen in how rural suppliers do business, i.e., they suppliers restrict their operations to retail, or wholesale as well?, do they offer credit, etc? Future business will tend to operate within these early set ‘modus operandi’, until some entrepreneurs or enterprises in the future change the business models.

[16] An alternative view is that a post industrial economy will provide more opportunities for small sized SMEs because of lower barriers to entry and low initial capital requirements for industry entry (EIM/ENSR 1997).

[17] See Frederick, H. (2006). Definitions of Entrepreneurship in World Languages (DVD), Auckland, New Zealand, Ten3 Asia-Pacific ltd.

[18] The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between thought and social context, and the effect on society. These ideas came from the German sociologist Max Scheler in the 1920s and were used by Berger and Luckmann as a means of gaining a qualitative understanding of socially constructed reality. In cognitive science these concepts may not be too far away from schemata and scripts that give a person structure and meaning to their perceptions, i.e., the means to turn their perceptions into their realties.

[19] Our culture manifests itself in all of society’s institutions. Culture itself cannot be seen, but the instruments and effects of culture can be seen in the way the organization is structured, the rites and rituals, the rules and protocol of the organization, the role of status, formal documents like vision, mission and strategy, etc, logos and designs, slogans, rules and ways of control, informal rules and the way people work and behave, stories, office decor and furnishings and the rhetoric, dogma, actions and behaviour of the leader. See Deal and Kennedy (1982), Schein (2005) and Parker (2000).