<p>This study has been written to increase our knowledge about Sino-Western business relations and to understand how to successfully embark in China. It aims to create a deeper context understanding of the Chinese consumer and the Chinese market – in order to successfully manage your business in China. A qualitative case study methodology is used, involving the abductive method and a hermeneutic approach. Appropriate interviewees have been selected, i.e. those having valid and reliable insights and experiences to this study. The empirical results are portrayed as short stories along with reflections, to enlighten key findings in the research. Results of the investigation show that a willingness to understand and being humble are key in the creation of a successful business relationship with the Chinese. Certainly, the importance of guanxi and trust are tremendous. Thus, learn the rules and play by them – use them to your advantage. Show empathy and patience and trust the universal law of reciprocity. Indeed, as we understand the underlying forces, the cultural values and traditions, we appreciate how to effectively communicate with the Chinese and ultimately how to deliver value to create a healthy business relationship in our marketing efforts. A plethora of stories are presented that illuminate various situations that experienced Western business managers have encountered, and how to manage these. Key findings in this research may benefit not only academics, as new theory is introduced, but also everyone interested in China and aiming to create a healthy Sino-Western relationship. Finally, top managerial implications are presented that are of relevance to readers both intending to and already doing business in China. Some of the most important ones advise us to remain patient, to gather all the information possible and to never underestimate the Chinese.</p>

<p>Over the last 30 years, technology has made it possible for people to travel to other cultures in a cheaper and more efficient way. The increased traveling has made it possible for an increase in trade and as the trade flourishes the need for people that can handle the differences between the cultures in the world increase. Some people handle cross-cultural negotiations better than others; we want to know how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process.</p><p>To find out how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process we choose to conduct qualitative interviews with a few Swedish companies that have experiences of cross-cultural negotiations with China.</p><p>The findings indicate that Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process by different factors such as engagement, communication and understanding. The greater engagement and understanding the negotiator has of the different parts the more likely it is that the business negotiation process will have a positive outcome.</p><p>We studied as much literature as we could find about cultural intelligence and the business negotiation process. Out of our findings, we build a model, and this gave the opportunity to test the different parts of the model in our research.</p><p>Our contributions to the field are foremost the discovery of the two new dimensions: Structure and Power Dependency that can be added to both Cultural intelligence and The Business Negotiation Process. In future research, these two dimensions can be further researched and developed. In our research, statements from our respondents create a small practical guideline for cross-cultural business negotiations with China. The negotiators might have use for this guideline when negotiating with Chinese companies.</p>

Between fall 2009 and fall 2010 I conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 19 young-adult women and men of mixed race in Edmonton, Alberta. A prominent theme that emerged was being asked the question ‘what are you?’. I position the ‘moment’ of being questioned as a manifestation of the external gaze. People of mixed race are subject to questioning because they do not fit within dominant racial binaries: they exceed the limited horizon of possible narratives of racial discourse and are socially identified as ambivalent (Anzaldua 1987). Within the literature on the ‘racial gaze,’ it is often positioned as something that fixes (Fanon 1967). However, the very ambivalence people of mixed race pose to the gaze allows them to negotiate it. The narratives of my respondents demonstrate that the inability of the social gaze to ‘fix’ them opens up the possibility of making identity through negotiating the gaze in multiple ways.

In the international climate change negotiations it has been hard to find a sustainable agreement about how to address the anthropogenic impacts on the climate. This is because the issue is very complicated and comprises many social and economic aspects. Because of the struggling in the international negotiations is it necessary to analyze how the climate change issue is understood in different regions and countries of the world. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how actors within the climate policy sphere in China frame the climate change issue. In the near future, China will become the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide and with a population of 1.3 billion people; China is one of the key countries in the international climate negations. The thesis analyses how two key actor groups - decision makers and scientists connected to the Chinese climate change administration - frame the climate change issue in semi-structured interviews. The respondents frame the climate change issue as a large obstacle for a future Chinese development, both economically and socially. To address climate change in China the respondents think that technology innovations and transfer of technology from the developed countries will be very important. Therefore the respondents think it is vitally important to continue with the international climate negotiations in the future.

This study has been written to increase our knowledge about Sino-Western business relations and to understand how to successfully embark in China. It aims to create a deeper context understanding of the Chinese consumer and the Chinese market – in order to successfully manage your business in China. A qualitative case study methodology is used, involving the abductive method and a hermeneutic approach. Appropriate interviewees have been selected, i.e. those having valid and reliable insights and experiences to this study. The empirical results are portrayed as short stories along with reflections, to enlighten key findings in the research. Results of the investigation show that a willingness to understand and being humble are key in the creation of a successful business relationship with the Chinese. Certainly, the importance of guanxi and trust are tremendous. Thus, learn the rules and play by them – use them to your advantage. Show empathy and patience and trust the universal law of reciprocity. Indeed, as we understand the underlying forces, the cultural values and traditions, we appreciate how to effectively communicate with the Chinese and ultimately how to deliver value to create a healthy business relationship in our marketing efforts. A plethora of stories are presented that illuminate various situations that experienced Western business managers have encountered, and how to manage these. Key findings in this research may benefit not only academics, as new theory is introduced, but also everyone interested in China and aiming to create a healthy Sino-Western relationship. Finally, top managerial implications are presented that are of relevance to readers both intending to and already doing business in China. Some of the most important ones advise us to remain patient, to gather all the information possible and to never underestimate the Chinese.

Over the last 30 years, technology has made it possible for people to travel to other cultures in a cheaper and more efficient way. The increased traveling has made it possible for an increase in trade and as the trade flourishes the need for people that can handle the differences between the cultures in the world increase. Some people handle cross-cultural negotiations better than others; we want to know how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process. To find out how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process we choose to conduct qualitative interviews with a few Swedish companies that have experiences of cross-cultural negotiations with China. The findings indicate that Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process by different factors such as engagement, communication and understanding. The greater engagement and understanding the negotiator has of the different parts the more likely it is that the business negotiation process will have a positive outcome. We studied as much literature as we could find about cultural intelligence and the business negotiation process. Out of our findings, we build a model, and this gave the opportunity to test the different parts of the model in our research. Our contributions to the field are foremost the discovery of the two new dimensions: Structure and Power Dependency that can be added to both Cultural intelligence and The Business Negotiation Process. In future research, these two dimensions can be further researched and developed. In our research, statements from our respondents create a small practical guideline for cross-cultural business negotiations with China. The negotiators might have use for this guideline when negotiating with Chinese companies.

The aim of this study is to re-contextualize prior negotiation theory emanating from the field of communications in a unique contemporary setting. The research focuses on the Canadian residential telecommunications sector, where the dominant business model involves the use of a rather peculiar variable pricing strategy, which has compelled a proportion of consumers to adopt competitive negotiation strategies. Through a series of three focus groups, the project gleans insight into the participants’ experiences and perceptions of the telecommunications procurement process. Based on prior theoretical assumptions and on this original research, the study tests the appropriateness of descriptive phase models of negotiation in the Canadian telecommunications industry, providing a new dimension to the nascent body of academic research in this area.

The aim of this study is to re-contextualize prior negotiation theory emanating from the field of communications in a unique contemporary setting. The research focuses on the Canadian residential telecommunications sector, where the dominant business model involves the use of a rather peculiar variable pricing strategy, which has compelled a proportion of consumers to adopt competitive negotiation strategies. Through a series of three focus groups, the project gleans insight into the participants’ experiences and perceptions of the telecommunications procurement process. Based on prior theoretical assumptions and on this original research, the study tests the appropriateness of descriptive phase models of negotiation in the Canadian telecommunications industry, providing a new dimension to the nascent body of academic research in this area.

The current Internet presents a high barrier to entry for new service providers, due to its inability to accommodate new protocols and technologies, and lack of competition among the network providers. Recently, network virtualization has gained considerable attention as a possible solution, as it enables multiple networks to concurrently run over a shared substrate. It allows for deploying diverse network protocols and technologies customized for specific networked services and applications. Moreover, any party can take on the role of a network provider by simply offering his virtual network infrastructure to customers, increasing competition in the market. However, the first challenge in realizing a fair and competitive market in a virtual network environment is to have a service negotiation and contracting mechanism in place, that will allow (i) multiple infrastructure providers to participate in a fair and faithful competition, and (ii) a service provider to negotiate the price and quality of service with the providers. In this thesis, we present V-Mart, an open market model and enabling framework for automated service negotiation and contracting in a virtual network environment. To the infrastructure providers, V-Mart fosters an open and fair competition realized by a two stage auction. The V-Mart auction model ensures that bidders (infrastructure providers) bid truthfully, have the flexibility to apply diverse pricing policies, and still gain profit from hosting customers’ virtual resources. To the service providers, V-Mart offers virtual network partitioning algorithms that allow them to divide their virtual networks among competing infrastructure providers while minimizing the total cost. V-Mart offers two types of algorithms to suit different market scenarios. The algorithms not only consider virtual resource hosting price but also the service provider’s preference for resource co-location and the high cost of inter-provider communication. Through extensive simulation experiments we show the efficiency and effectiveness of the algorithms under various market conditions.

Mega projects are in most cases considered as the necessary evil of development. Before their benefits can be reaped, a lot of sacrifices and tough choices have to be made. The fear and uncertainties surrounding such projects range from the impacts on the local people, on the environment, the costs of investment, and to, if the project will deliver the promised benefits. Because of these fears and uncertainties, it is not unusual that most if not all such projects meet a lot of critics and resistance before their success or failures are witnessed. Today, it is more of a requirement than a belief (although without a guarantee) that stakeholders’ involvement and their active participation in all decision-making process concerning a project is the surest way of minimizing conflicts and ensuring justice. The Bujagali hydropower project being an example of such projects and without immunity to the problems faced by other mega project around the world has been a case study for this thesis. This study has therefore focused on institutional arrangements that governed the management and utilization of water resources in connection to hydropower development along the Nile River in Uganda, the procedures and stages of the negotiations for hydropower infrastructure development in Uganda, identified the major stakeholders that take part in such negotiations and looked in detail for what their issues and interests are. It has also examined the attitudes and opinions of stakeholders on the potential and benefits of hydropower against (solar, bio-fuel and geothermal) energy sources in the context of Uganda, taking into consideration the need for socio-economic development, preservation of culture and environmental protection. Finally, it has analyzed the conflicts/controversies that have arisen in the Bujagali hydropower project.