Steve Kafka was born and raised in the United States. He is a successful businessperson in the United States. He is a franchisor for Chicago Style Pizza, overcoming many difficulties to achieve this success. Steve is familiar with living, working and doing business in the United States, an open business economy and a very diverse culture. Doing business in Prague, Czech Republic is going to be different from doing business in Anytown, USA.
Although Steve has knowledge of the Czech Republic's culture, has he done is homework in regards to doing business in the Czech Republic? Has he examined the economic and social climates of the country? Does it make good business sense to open a pizza business in the Czech Republic?
Cultural Differences
Researcher and developer of the Cultural Dimensions Professor Geert Hofstede did not actually study the Czech Republic; however, ITIM International developed an estimate of how the Czech Republic would score on the four dimensions of culture, based on European countries, which will help Steve evaluate the business and social cultural environments. The traditional four culture dimensions are power distance index, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance index.
The Czech Republic became a democratic nation January 1, 1993 after being under communist rule for 75 years. The Czech Republic is in a state of transition from communism to democracy, a country cannot change its culture overnight. Still today, the communist ideals influence the culture of the democratic Czech Republic.
The highest-ranking culture dimension for the Czech Republic according to Geert Hofstede is uncertainty avoidance. The world average score is 64, the Czech estimated score is 74, the United States score is 46 (Hofstede). In the Czech b ...