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; the rest is underwater. The visible part refers to products, buildings as well as traditions, customs, habits and language that characterize a culture. These observable things are in fact an expression of deep values and norms and belief, which are the foundations of a culture. Values establish the culture bedrock of a society. It give members of a certain society standards to judge what is more and less important, and cultural norms tell people whether a behaviour is appropriate or not! Therefore, understanding the different cultural environments that exist among nations and considering the underlying cultural dimensions in all facts of business, undeniably, are of vital importance to the operation of international business negotiations.
2.2 Business Negotiation
Negotiation is a basic human activity as well as a process people undertake every day to manage their relationships.(Nierenberg,23:1987)negotiation plays a subtle part in everyday affairs. Children negotiate to decide what game to play. Lovers negotiate to decide where to date. Workers negotiate with employer for better payment. Business negotiates to purchase raw materials and to sell products. As the stakes in some of these negotiations are not so high, people need not to get pre-plans for the process and outcome. There are other cases like international business negotiations in which the stakes are too high to be ignored. People have to be more cautious. Both parties in this kind of negotiation contact each other to create a better deal rather than simply accept or reject what the other is offering.
The word: negotiation stem from the Roman word negotiari meaning “to trade or do business”. This verb itself was derived from another, negare, meaning “to deny” and a noun, otium, meaning “leisure”. Thus the ancient Roman businessman would mean “no leisure” before a deal had been settled. A modern definition of negotiation is two or more parties with common and conflicting interests who enter into a process of interaction with the goal of reaching an agreement. It takes place within the context of the four Cs: common interest, conflicting interest, compromise, and criteria (Moran and Stripp, 1991).common interest considers the fact that each party in the negotiation shares, has or wants something that the other party has or does. Without a common goal, there would be no need for negotiation. Conflict occurs when the interests of participant are opposed. Compromise involves resolving areas of disagreement. Although a win-win settlement would be perfect for both parities, it is impossible to avoid making any compromise during negotiation. The criteria include the conditions under which the negotiations take place.
2.3 Impacts of Culture on Business Negotiation
Culture has impacts on people’s perception of negotiation and consequently the strategies they take. Some cultures view the negotiating process as a “win-win” situation-process through which both sides gain. Other cultures adopt a zero sum mentality where someone’s gain must always equal someone's loss.
Culture also influences the structure of the negotiation. Different culture has different preference for dates and sites; composition of the negotiation team also vary greatly across culture, for instance, In the Sino-U.S. business negotiation, the American team is often composed of three to five people, whereas the Chinese party may bring fifteen to thirty people to negotiatio