1st Edition

Rethinking Business Anthropology Cultural Strategies in Marketing and Management

By Alf H. Walle Copyright 2013

    Qualitative methods of business research are emerging as vital tools. Business anthropology is at the heart of this movement. Although many recent books provide nuts-and-bolts advice regarding the field, Rethinking Business Anthropology: Cultural Strategies in Marketing and Management discusses the intellectual traditions from which the discipline has emerged and how this heritage opens up new vistas for business research. Gaining these broader perspectives is essential as business anthropologists transcend being mere research technicians and seek to influence organizational policies and strategies.  Opening chapters deal with the current status of the field and its relationship to ecological and cultural sustainability. This is followed by discussions of the intellectual foundations of anthropology and their continued importance to business anthropology. An array of chapters provides illustrative applications of business anthropology in order to demonstrate the field's unique and powerful potentials within both scholarly and practitioner research.  The book concludes with a discussion of the role of business anthropologists in dealing with indigenous people, rural populations, and cultural enclaves. Increasingly, businesses seek to connect with such communities even though mainstream leaders and negotiators often lack the skills necessary to effectively do so. Business anthropologists, with their dual background in business and cultural diversity are poised to excel in this capacity.  An appendix by Robert Tian, editor of the International Journal of Business Anthropology, provides a useful overview of the field as it now exists.  As business anthropology comes of age, this timely monograph provides the perspectives needed for the growth and further development of the field and those who work within it. Excellent for the professional bookshelf and as a textbook.

    Preface  Part I: Business Anthropology, Indigenous Views, and Sustainability1. The Maturity of Business Anthropology: Policy and Strategy in a Global Age2. Business Anthropology and a Little Glass of Rum3. Moving Towards a Macro and Sustainable Focus  Part II: Pioneering Ideas4. Friedrich Hegel and the Concept of Culture5. Social Structuralism vs. Mental Structuralism6. Existentialism to Postmodernism: Alternatives to Structural Analysis7. Marxist Theory and Business Anthropology  Part III: Anthropological Perspectives in Cultural Analysis8. Studying Cultures at a Distance9. Myths, Symbols, and Business Anthropology10. Archetypes and Business Strategies11. The Price of Fame: Business Anthropology Looks at Dysfunction  Part IV: Business Anthropology in the Developing World12. Tribal Management in an Evolving World13. Negotiating with Indigenous People14. Substantive Paradigms and Business Anthropology15. Strategies of Empowerment  Epilogue  Appendix: Business Anthropology: An OverviewDr. Robert Guang Tian Index

    Biography

    Alf H. Walle