The Seven Cultures of Capitalism

Rating:
Summary: Why this book is out of print...
Review: I borrowed this book from the local public library after a recommendation by an international business expert who has dealt significantly with Japan. I personally am an American ex-management consultant, Kellogg MBA, and now work in an international business capacity for a foreign government, one of the seven cultures studied by the authors. First off, I will say that this book does offer value; the study findings and cultural insights are extremely useful, even ten years later. However, I found the book absolutely frustrating in its arrogance and leaps of logic, taking the micro-level findings of the research to try to explain macroeconomics of the time. Since I found no dissenting voices on the Internet regarding this book, I felt compelled to offer a different perspective.

If you read this book, you would not expect US GDP to outgrow Japanese GDP in real terms EVERY SINGLE YEAR OF THE TEN YEARS SINCE THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED in 1993, which was exactly what happened. The authors seem to have taken advantage of the alarmist environment of Western management circles at the time to take pot shots at Adam Smith, Michael Porter, business schools, economics, financial analysis, management consultants, lawyers, etc. You would think that the American way of doing business logically, factually, and rationally is inherently flawed. The authors do not take their own prescription to "bring seemingly opposed values into balance", but rather extoll the virtues of the opposing value while dismissing the "Anglo-American" value to obsolescence.

Indeed, it is the convenient neglect of American-style fact-based analysis that may be the fundamental flaw of this book. The authors take very little data to make broad, sweeping conclusions. One laughable passage on page 37 asserted that one reason the Japanese may prefer to locate many of their plants in the South is that Americans there tend to take more time to converse informally before proceeding to business discussions. Never mind right-to-work laws, state economic development incentives, and the opportunity to build on a clean slate in the South -- Japanese motivations can be monolithically explained by culture, if you ask Turner and Trompenaars. (I am certain the Japanese do their fair share of fact-based analysis.)

READ THIS BOOK, but take it with a grain of salt. The study facts and cultural insights are essential, but the authors' larger extrapolations are dangerous and could be discredited by what has transpired since the book was published. Americans can and must benefit by learning from other cultures, adapt their strengths to new environments, and assimilate ideas that might at first be uncomfortable. But do not throw away all Anglo-American values so readily. The irony that this book is out-of-print while "Wealth of Nations" remains after 227 years suggests that Smith's invisible hand exists to strangle those who make feeble arguments against it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: The authors used questionnaire-based research to study twelve countries through the lens of seven oppositional pairs (the cultures from the title).

These pairs are:
Universalism vs. Particularism
Analyzing vs. Integrating
Individualism vs. Communitarianism
Inner-Directed vs. Outer-directed Orientation
Time as Sequence vs. Time as Synchronization
Achieved Status vs. Ascribed Status
Equality vs. Hierarchy

They make the point that capitalism is not a choice for or against but a range of behaviours made up of a multiplicity of choices. Using their grid and research data, they position various countries on this range.

As someone who works and lives in a country where I was not born, I found the book a very useful frame for looking at my adopted work environment.

I really call this 4.5 stars, the -.5 is because sections of it are much more dated than others and there are places where I think the tone of the book is lessened by the authors' temptation to give in and make value judgements.

Rating:
Summary: An absolutely fascinating book
Review: Though this book was first published in 1993, it is still every bit as relevant and interesting today. In this book, the authors examine the values and cultural habits of seven major capitalist countries (the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands), and examines how their cultural differences has given to each an entirely different capitalist system. After first explaining how the differences were quantified, the authors then examine these cultures, giving the reader an in-depth understanding of how each country's culture (and as such, capitalist system) works, and how it produces wealth.

I found this to be an absolutely fascinating book. I was always aware of the cultural differences between various countries, but this book did an excellent job of defining those differences, and showing how they affect the way that the country does business. If you are interested in any of these seven countries, or interested in international business, then I highly recommend this book to you.