The Effects of Cultural Adaptation on Business Relationships: Americans Selling to Japanese and Thais

Abstract

A 2 × 4 (culture of participants × degrees of cultural adaptation) experimental design with 145 Thai and 101 Japanese professionals is used to investigate the effect of cultural adaptation on attraction and outcomes when Americans adapt to Japanese and Thais. This study extends the research of Francis (1991). The curvilinear relationship between adaptation and attraction found in Francis is not replicated. For Thais, the relationship appears monotonic positive. For Japanese, it reaches a plateau beyond moderate adaptation.© 1999 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1999) 30, 317–337