Do you think a host country's sociocultural factors have important implications when it comes to a company's decision about when and how to do business there? Justify your answer.

Answers will vary. A country's sociocultural factors have important implications when it comes to a company's decision about when and how to do business there. Sociocultural factors include the method and style of communication, major and minor religions, common values and ideologies, educational standards, and social structure. For instance, because of language similarities and low labor costs, many U.S. companies have found India to be an attractive place to locate their facilities, particularly those focused on communication, such as call centers and software development companies. Eastern Europe has also begun to attract interest because citizens there are often well educated and speak fluent English. Similarly, the U.S. military's long-term stay in Panama developed a bilingual workforce that already understands the U.S. work culture. Now that the Panama Canal has been expanded to accommodate new, larger freight ships, the United States is looking to take advantage of these close ties to and cultural similarities in the workforce there.
Managers stand a better chance of understanding the culture of a host country-a country in which an international business operates-by recognizing and accommodating different ideologies, religious beliefs, communication styles, education systems, and social structures. Even in countries that have close linguistic or cultural links, management practices are often dramatically different. For example, night shifts may be taboo. Employers might be expected to provide employees with meals while at work and transportation between home and work. In most of the Islamic Middle East, it is completely acceptable to ask coworkers very personal questions about their children, especially their sons, but never about their wives.
The section "Sociocultural Factors" on page 23 discusses how a country's sociocultural factors have important implications when it comes to a company's decision about when and how to do business there. Students can use this section to make their own interpretation and answer this question.