The subject of this diploma thesis is the foreign policy of Japan in the period since the Second World War to the present and its cultural and historical determinants. The aim of the thesis is to identify fundamental cultural and historical factors reflected in Japan's foreign policy and in its behaviour in international relations. The thesis comprises analysis of history, culture and foreign policy of Japan and the connections between them. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is focused on the history of Japan. The second chapter concerns Japanese culture and its specifics. The third chapter characterizes Japanese culture using cultural dimensions models by Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars. The fourth chapter focuses on the analysis of Japanese foreign policy. The final chapter attempts to identify the major cultural and historical determinants of Japanese foreign policy.

This thesis deals with the ethics approaches in advertising in different countries. First of all I describe the culture influence to the ethical values in the countries which need to be respected in the advertising appeal selection especially in the international advertising. In order to identify the concrete ethical values and attitudes in particular countries, the legal regulations and self-regulatiuons rules in advertising were analyzed. Furthermore, I choosed the unethical ads in particular countries and explained that approach through the theory of Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Model. The conclusions of such ethical analysis could be used in the international advertising. For this cross-country ethical comparison was chosen Czech Republic, China, India and Great Britain.

Tato práce zkoumá vzájemné vazby mezi kulturou, společenskými normami a principy, sociální diversifikací a politikou Mexika. Jejím hlavním cílem je určení, do jaké míry se latinskoamerická kultura promítá do politického vývoje Mexika. Při charakteristice mexické kultury vychází z výzkumů Geerta Hofstedeho a jeho kulturních dimenzí. Odpovídá na otázku, co vedlo k tomu, že politický vývoj Mexika byl zcela odlišný od vývoje ostatních zemí latinskoamerické kultury. Analyzuje kulturní podmíňenost faktorů, které zapřičinily to, že Mexiku vládla po sedm desetiletí jediná politická strana ? Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), aniž by se jednalo o diktaturu. Dochází k závěru, že tato nevídaná stabilita není v rozporu s kulturními dimenzemi, ale že PRI dokázala vhodně využít kulturně daný charakter mexické společnosti, vyznačující se vysokou mírou sociální diversifikace. Vytvořila specifický politický systém, v dané kultuře fungující. K jeho změně pak docházelo postupně, s tím jak se proměňoval charakter mexické společnosti. V souvislosti s dynamickým vývojem mexické společnosti následně předpovídá změny kulturních dimenzí.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze mutual business cooperation between the Czech Republic and Finland considering culture and cultural differences as an aspect with a considerable influence. Special attention is paid to the process of business negotiations. These two countries are compared on the basis of cultural dimensions by Geert Hofstede as well as on the basis of research conducted in cooperation with native Finns.

Using 2 of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) associated by the research of Albers-Millers and Gelb with some of Pollay's value appeals used in advertising, this study successfully replicated 3 of 8 dependant relationships when analyzing the content of print magazines in U.S. and France. Going beyond the scope of a highly educated audience in which Hofstede's cultural dimensions were developed and retested, we indirectly found that these 2 dimensions of culture are partially salient in non-business, less elitist environments in the form of value appeals such as "dear", "untamed", "magic", and "youth" reinforcing the idea that cultural differences can sometimes be empirically tested by contrasting these appeals.

The study examines attitudes toward and effectiveness of cause-related marketing initiatives in Poland. As the results indicate, the factors, which lead to the popularity and effectiveness of the cause-related marketing initiatives in the United States and the United Kingdom, lack in the Polish culture. Even though CRM is popular in Poland, it does not influence the purchase decisions. Poles do not have any expectations toward businesses in the area of corporate social responsibility. They believe that the government should take the responsibility for solving social issues, and value only the functional dimensions of the products, because their emotional needs are fully satisfied by their families, friends and religion.

Bakgrund: Idag slåss många företag om att få en plats i vårt medvetande och de lägger därmed ut stora summor på varumärkesbyggande och varumärkesvård. Det handlar inte längre om att bara pränta in logotypen, utan även att ge sitt varumärke en "själ" och ladda det med olika värden. I och med dagens globalisering är det också ur ett kulturellt perspektiv mer intressant. Men att exportera ett varumärke till en utländsk marknad är inte samma sak som att ta med sig sin kunskap och tro att det ska fungera lika bra i det nya landet. Ett varumärke är medvetet och omedvetet laddat med värderingar, både kulturella och affärsmässiga. I Sverige har vi typiskt svenska värden som man kanske inte direkt tänker på men som faktiskt följer med oss. Dessa värden kanske inte passar in på den nya marknaden, utan vissa värden kanske tas med medan andra byts ut. Vi finner det därmed intressant att undersöka dessa kulturella värden. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva vad för slags kulturella värden svenska företags varumärken avser kommunicera utomlands.Genomförande: Vi har gjort en kvalitativ studie. Vår empiriska studie är huvudsakligen baserad på de personliga intervjuer och den telefonintervju vi gjort. Referensramarna bygger på väletablerade teorier inom området. Resultat: Vår studie har visat att svenska företag laddar sina varumärken med värdena kvalitet, pålitlighet, enkelhet och modern&innovativ. Vi har funnit att dessa värden finns återspeglade i den svenska kulturen både vad gäller national- respektive affärs och företagskultur. / Background: Today many companies are competing to get space in our minds. Companies spend a tremendous amount of money on building strong brands. It is not just about making us aware of their logo, today it’s more about giving the brand a ”soul” and to load it with different values. Due to today’s globalization there is also interesting to look at it from a cultural perspective. To export a brand name into a new market abroad is not the same as just transferring your knowledge and believe it should work in another country and culture. A brand is consciously and unconsciously loaded with values, especially cultural values. In Sweden there are values typically Swedish that might not be obvious to you but still follow us. These values might not fit the new market the company is entering, therefore some values might get left behind, while others are easily transferred to another country. We therefore find it very interesting to study these cultural values. Purpose: The purpose with this essay is to describe which cultural values Swedish company’s brands intend to communicate abroad. Performance: We have done a qualitative study. Our empirical study is based mainly on personal interviews. The frames of references are based on well established theories within the brand- and cultural field.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund. Svalorna’s staff was interviewed on their experiences of intercultural communication. Both employees at the Swedish office and employees on location in India and Bangladesh were interviewed. The method used in the study was qualitative interviews where the interviewees could expand their answers fully as the interview developed. The main theory used was Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, presented in the thesis and considered in the study. It was concluded that being aware of cultural differences and having knowledge of other cultures but also your own is important for understanding the so-called non-verbal communication in an intercultural situation. There are also differences in to what extent a certain culture uses non-verbal communication. Both India and Bangladesh, according to the interviewees, are high context cultures whereas Sweden has a low context culture. All the interviewees had similar experiences when it comes to intercultural communication. A cultural difference in the perception of time is an example of when verbal communication can be inadequate, if one is not aware of cultural differences. Both India and Bangladesh use polychronic time whereas in Sweden monochromic time is used. This is indeed confirmed by all interviewees. Many of Hofstede’s cultural dimension theories are found to be coherent with the results of this study, for example the Individualism.

AbstractTitle: Swedish social media services (A study about Swedish social media services birth andhow they benefit from the Swedish climate)Number of pages: 38Author: Robin SchwabeggerTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Science CPeriod: Fall 2009University: Division of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: To see if the Swedish advantage or interest in developing new social mediaservices and networks has anything to do with our society. With society I mean our culture,attitudes and history. Do people, especially young people, have a more positive attitudetowards the Internet and has the fact that we, as a country, were among the first to use theInternet anything to do with it.Material/Method: Data collected from books, newspapers and articles from several sites onthe internet. I’ll use the information I’ve gathered to try to find an answer to my givenproblems for the paper. To mark off my problem and information gathering I’ve decided touse three research questions which my work will circle around.Main Result: You can clearly tell that Sweden has a great climate for social media services tobe created. Sweden, as a country, had access to computers and internet in a very early stageand took great advantage of that. Their culture encourages creativity which is important andpeople in Sweden aren’t afraid to run into problems. Teenagers start uses internet in a veryearly age and they have a higher percent of daily usage then other countries.Keyword: File-sharing, Social media, Sweden, Skype, Spotify, Voddler, The Pirate Bay,Communication, Internet, Culture, Users, Consumers, Developers, Hofstede, Hartley

Why Do Borrowers Choose Arms Over FRMS? : A Behavioral Investigation in the U.S. and Japan by Masaki Mori In the U.S., a considerable number of borrowers still choose adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) over fixed rate mortgages (FRMs), even with historically low interest rates. During 2004-2005, when interest rates remained at 30-year lows, ARMs accounted for approximately one-third of all mortgage originations. Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory’s reflection hypothesis suggested that people tend to be more risk-averse in positive decision situations, while they tend to be more risk-seeking when making negative choices. The first purpose of this study is to examine descriptive reasons for the popularity of ARMs in the U.S. People of different cultures often evaluate uncertain events in different ways. Hofstede developed a cultural dimension, uncertainty avoidance (UA), where UA is defined as the extent to which people feel threatened by uncertain situations. The second purpose of this study is to test the role of UA on the choice of mortgage products using data from two cultures (U.S. and Japan), potentially differing in attitude toward uncertain situations. Controlled experiments were conducted using 92 U.S. participants and 49 Japanese participants. Results of analysis supported Prospect Theory’s reflection hypothesis, suggesting that risk-averse people tend to become more risk-seeking when choosing a mortgage type, leaning more toward ARMs when people frame the mortgage choice problem as part of a loss situation. The results of the intercultural comparison portion of the study supported the research hypothesis that UA works as a moderating variable for Prospect Theory’s reflection hypothesis, suggesting that risk-averse people with lower UA scores more dramatically change from a risk-averse preference for a fixed-rate bond to a more risk-seeking preference for an adjustable-rate mortgage, than risk-averse people with higher UA scores do. Overall, results of this study suggested that borrowers behave differently depending on their propensity for current consumption, the level of UA, and how they frame the mortgage choice decision. This study contributes to existing mortgage choice literature by incorporating psychological and cultural traits to examine borrowers’ attitudes towards interest rate risk with regard to residential mortgages. The findings are of great importance globally for governments and lenders in creating and introducing new mortgage products in countries with diverse cultures.