The Socio-cultural Framework

This chapter looks at the impact of the social and cultural environment on businesses. It lists the five dimensions of culture that Geert Hofstede identified: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, power distance, and long-term or short-term perspectives. The chapter explains that centralized corporate control is more feasible in societies with large power distance cultures while decentralization is a better fit for small power distance cultures. It explores cultural and social elements that could impact business such as religion, language, time, demography, and youth employment. The chapter discusses the liberal social model and social democratic model using Asia and Latin America as references.

Collectivism · Decentralization · Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory · Individualism · Latin Americans · Masculinity · Political science · Power (physics) · Social science · Sociology · Uncertainty avoidance · Economic Growth and Development · Gender Studies · Global and Cross-Cultural Management