Networking Bricks and Clicks: Convenience Stores and the Organization of E-Commerce in Japan

The purpose of this study is to provide a reflexive argument regarding business ethics in intercultural communication. Cultural relativist positions (which give priority to cultural idiosyncrasy) in intercultural communication have traditionally dominated the underlying assumptions of conducting and practising communication across cultures. On the other hand, universalist positions such as the integrative social contracts theory of Donaldson and Dunfee (1994) have been discussed in international business ethics. In reality, both positions have pros and cons when discussing the praxis of business communication across cultures. Can intercultural communication scholars advocate the phrase ‘respect other cultures, traditions, and customs’, for example, when people from cultures with high legal and ethical standards are confronted with corruption, scandal, bribery, embezzlement, fraud, and the severe working conditions in Asian work places? Universalist positions, on the other hand, have been criticized for the imperialism of their economic rationality and Christian-based morality. This study postulates a third way and incorporates apects of both praxis and theory in the light of Habermasian projects on the theory of communicative actions (1984, 1990). Since the latter would unfortunately come to a deadlock on the soil of the Far East, an alternative methodology is proposed.