International Business/Business Etiquette

Reference

These databases and books are the best resources to start your research. 

• STAT USA
  Students, faculty, and staff who wish to access this resource from off-campus must login to the portal first.
  
  Features: select GLOBUS/NTDB.  Country Commercial Guides contains "Business Travel", a guide to the customs, negotiating style, beliefs, etc. for all trading partners of the United States.   Other related sections include "Political Climate" and "Country Data".  Updated Annually.
   
• Countries and Their Cultures
  Encyclopedia of World Cultures
  Features:  These encyclopedias focus, in detail, on the customs, beliefs, and practices of peoples around the world.  Countries and Their Cultures is also available as an e-book. Students, faculty, and staff who wish to access the e-book version of these resources from off-campus must login to the portal first.
   
• Culturegrams:  The Nations Around Us
  Features:  Basic information on the geography, people, religion, attitudes, appearance, language, customs, and lifestyles of countries around the world. 
   
• Global Market Briefings
  Features: Extensive details about business laws, customs, and practices in European, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries.
   
• Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands
  Features:  A fully descriptive guide to the business cultures of most countries and regions around the world.  This is considered to be the "Bible of international business etiquette". 
   
• Price Waterhouse Doing Business In........Series
  Features: A comprehensive guide to business etiquette, law, government, taxation, and culture for selected countries.  Available online at http://www.pwc.com>select publications>select advanced publications search>type in "doing business in"

   

• World Trade Press Country Business Guides

Features: Comprehensive guides to doing business in selected countries.  Included is a section on "business culture".  These guides are now available online through the Global Road Warrior database.

Finding Articles 
 Students, faculty, and staff who wish to access these databases from off-campus must login to the portal first.

•  ABI/Inform  
  
      Features: Search for articles from scholarly journals, industry publications, newspapers, and other business sources.  To find articles on a country's business etiquette, type in the country's name on one line as a location and the phrase Business Etiquette on the other as a subject.   For example:

• Business Source Premier
  
  
  Features: Search for articles from scholarly journals, industry publications, newspapers, and other business sources.  To find articles on a country's business etiquette, type in the country's name on one line as a Geographic Term and the phrase Business Etiquette on the other as a subject.   For example:

Lexis -Nexis Academic

Features:  Search for the most up-to-date news from over 8,000 sources including newspapers, magazines, trade publications, transcripts from news broadcasts, blogs, websites, and more.

To search for articles on Business Etiquette in a foreign country, click on News, then type in Business Etiquette on the first line, and select Indexing - All References from the pull down menu.  On the second line, type in the name of the country you want to search for, then click on Indexing - Any Reference from the pull down menu. Choose All News (English, Full Text) from the Select a Source Menu, specify a date range, and click on Search.  For example:

Finding Books
  There are many books in the Pollak library on a country's culture or business etiquette.  Go to the catalog and search for Country Name Business Etiquette as a           subject.  For example:

Also, there are many books on a country's customs, in general, that would apply to business.  For these books, search for Social Life and Customs Country Name.  For Example:
 

Prepared by Robert Sage, rsage@fullerton.edu
An administrative page of the Paulina June & George Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton.
(c) 2008 California State University, Fullerton. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: 22 October 2008.