Here’s a selection of websites that provide country profile guides. When using these sites we need, of course, to think critically about their validity. How accurate are they? How up-to-date is the information? Do they have a cultural bias? This said, they may provide insights into cultural differences, customs and ways of doing business that business people and students may well find useful.
If you have any experience of using the sites listed, or if you know of any resources that should be added to this list, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Click the preview thumbnails to view the websites.
Passport to trade
This website offers a series of country profiles that have information on a range of topics of relevance to employees of global organisations or students of international trade. According to the website managers the information “has been compiled by … leading experts on global business culture who have many years of practical international experience.” The profiles include information on
- Business culture
- Being a foreigner in the country in question
- International business
- Educational standards
- Cultural taboos
Kwintessential Country Guides & Profiles
This website offers country guides, information about etiquette, culture, customs and how business is conducted in over 50 countries.
Commisceo Global Country & Culture Guides
This website offers country guides, information about language, society, culture, food, beliefs, business practices and social etiquette for over 80 countries.
On its Management Guides page, it also offers advice on areas such as
- management styles
- business management
- project management
- time management
- management skills
in relation to many countries around the world.
World Business Culture – Country profiles
After choose a country you are interested, you are prompted to identify yourself as a student or as a business person. Choose ‘student’ to access brief notes on the country’s business culture that cover:
- Background to business
- Business Structures
- Management style
- Meetings
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Women in business
- Entertaining
If It Were My Home
This interesting site that allows you to compare the living conditions in different countries using key indicators such as life expectancy, employment, incomes and so on. The comparisons are based on information gleaned from the CIA’s World Factbook.
CIA World Factbook
As the name suggests, the CIA’s World Factbook offers information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. Use the interactive maps to access information on the country you’re interested in.
The Observatory of Economic Complexity
The Observatory of Economic Complexity is a tool that provides a visual representation of countries’ economies and the products they import and export.
NationMaster
This site allows you to graphically compare nations and provides statistics on “everything from obesity to murders”.
ANZ Be Trade Ready
This site provides trading information on different countries and includes, for example, indices on the ease of doing business and IP protection.
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