UC Irvine

Crucial to every business alliance are the face‐to‐face negotiations that occur during the formulation and maintenance of the commercial relationship. Our study of American and Chinese businesspeople in simulated intracultural negotiations suggests both similarities and differences in style. For example, negotiators in both cultures were more successful when taking a problem‐solving approach. Alternatively, the Chinese negotiators tended to ask many more questions and to interrupt one another more frequently than their American counterparts. Such subtle differences in style may cause problems in Sino‐American negotiations, which may, in turn, sour otherwise fruitful commercial alliances. Copyright © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.