COMPARATIVE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE AND KOREAN BUSINESS CULTURE AND THEIR IMPACT ON KOREAN COMPANIES’ PERFORMANCE IN VIETNAM

Abstract

“All people on the world are the same, only their habits are different” (Confucius). Or “All people on the world are the same, only their cultures are different”, because “culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category from another” (Hofstede, 1997). The culture differences affect deeply all aspects of people’s lives, including business relation. Vietnam and Republic of Korea have a long term and friendly relation. Nowadays Korea ranks first of all countries investing into Vietnam with a great success. But at the same time, some conflicts were arising, making a negative influence on the companies’ performance, partly because the people from both countries still do not understand the cultures and business cultures of the partner. Based on a survey of 110 Korean companies, the paper provides an overall view of present Korean investment in Vietnam and the influence of business culture on companies’ performance. Finally, it will provide some useful implications for Koreans and Vietnamese in doing business with each other!