Bridging Across Cultural Differences: Business Contact between Jordanians and Israelis

Abstract:

The long awaited peace between Israel and Jordan brought high expectations for a new area of economic prosperity to both countries. Yet, soon after trade began, many businesspersons from both countries voiced their concerns regarding obstacles for trade– obstacles that have grown during the last two years. In a study of business persons from Jordan and Israel, we explored the role of culture in explaining willingness and intentions to engage in Jordanian-Israeli joint ventures. As hypothesized, Israeli businesspersons are more ready for social and business contact with Jordanians, the more importance they attribute to universalism values. These values emphasize understanding, acceptance and tolerance toward all people and nature. Although universalism values play a similar role among Jordanian businesspersons, their readiness and intentions for contact with Israelis are also predicted by attributing high importance to self-direction and stimulation values that emphasize openness to new ideas and experiences, and to hedonism values that emphasize enjoyment and gratifying personal needs. Cultural differences in meaning and in importance of values partly explain these differences. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.