Cultural environment in Singapore and Hong Kong - International business
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If a US-based company decides to move its operations to Hong Kong and Singapore, could you please explain what the managers would face in terms of cultural aspects? in other words, provide a specific comparison of the cultural environment for each of those two countries. How do these 2 countries differ in terms of cultural environment? in other words, how does it affect the US company that has to chose between doing business in Singapore or Hong Kong?
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The cultural environment in Singapore and Hong Kong is discussed for international business. The differences between doing business in Singapore or Hong Kong is provided.
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If a US-based company decides to move its operations to Hong Kong and Singapore, could you please explain what the managers would face in terms of cultural aspects? In other words, provide a specific comparison of the cultural environment for each of those two countries. How do these two countries differ in terms of cultural environment?
Singapore
One of the world's advanced economies. It's per capita GDP is $61,000, where Hong Kong was a solid $10,000 behind. Citizens spend more time at work than almost every other comparable state (they hover around 46 hours a week, whereas HK is at 43). As a result, they are stressed (see the Shih article below).
Singapore, like HK, is an island city. It is also highly multicultural. Its ethnic makeup is 76% Chinese (who are generally unpopular with the Malaysians), 15% Malay, and Indians make up almost 10%. About half the population is bilingual. Immigrants are viewed negatively in this very crowded city. However, investors, especially from the west, are not a problem. On occasion, anti-Chinese riots break out. An American firm might drop the hint that they don't hire immigrant Chinese for the sake of local support (not as a matter of policy). In general, Chinese are seen as rich upstarts. The Anti-China sentiment normally does not refer to native born, but to recent immigrants from Peking. About a third of the city is foreign born. Culture shock is not an issue here either. They are not trusted in Singapore, which of course, is a very anti-communist city.
Like HK, English is an official language here. Unlike HK, it is one of four: Mandarin, Malay, Tamil (from Sri Lanka) and English. English is the lingua franca for Singapore as for HK. Hence, in neither of these cities do US businessmen need to worry about anti-US sentiment or endless bribes.
In a New York Times article from last year, the author states:
These days, mainland Chinese get blamed for driving up real-estate prices, stealing the best jobs and clogging the roads with flashy European sports cars. Coffee shop patrons gripe that they need Mandarin to order their beloved Kopi-C (coffee ...