1.4 A Paradigm for Business Communication

Business communication can be defined as communication in workplace with the goal of having fixed practical efficacy （Kameda, 2005）. Therefore, this study defines business communication as communication used in the business world, covering various forms of communication, either verbal or non-verbal communication to achieve particular objectives. These objectives concern the promotion of business and product （export） that attempts to embrace both the government and the private sector of other countries to conduct business transactions （commerce, investment, travel, tourism, etc.）. Cross-culture communication occurs when one communicator is a member of a culture while the other communicator is a member of another culture. The issue arising is the encoding of a message in a culture and the decoding of such message in another culture. Cross-culture communication is communication used in the business world, either verbal or non-verbal form, with due regard to the cultural factors of a region, territory or nation （Darwis, 2013）.

The goal of communication can be taken as the business strategy of an organization. And the efficacy of the goal can be identified as organizational efficiency and effectiveness achieved in the process of communication for business purposes. In a business context, the sender of source messages is the organizations or individuals that work as suppliers to provide goods and services in the home country. The sender encodes its business intention into messages in audio, video or verbal forms. In the course of encoding the messages, the sender is under influence of such setting factors or contextual elements as business strategies, legal and political factors. After encoding the messages the sender sends the messages to the target customers through channels called media mix, which is composed of newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, internet, or word of mouth. The consumer or organization uses setting factors like business strategies or purchase intention and language skills to decode the messages. If the messages decoded by the consumer or buyer in the host country are compatible with the message encoded by the suppliers, both the sender and receiver may realize their respective objectives. If the messages decoded by the receiver is competing against what is encoded by the sender, the supplier, they turn out to be noises, which cannot realize any communication objectives of both the sender and the receiver. The communication process and elements are structured in a paradigm for business communication as Fig. 1.1 reveals.

Fig. 1.1 A Paradigm for Business Communication

Source: This paradigm is developed out of two models from Solomon, Marshall & Stuart.2009. Marketing: real people real choice. Upper Saddle River （New Jersey）: Pearson Education, Inc. pp.371;Liu, Yongqiang.2007. IMS （Information Management System） Business English: Communication. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press.p.3.

The ultimate purpose for developing communication skills is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of communication strategies. Communication efficiency is defined as making the best use of contextual elements in communication to avoid competing messages while keeping unnecessary waste and effort to a minimum—“doing things right”to reduce noise and misunderstanding of the message. Communication effectiveness is defined as realization of the communicative objectives to get the desired result—“doing the right things”to increase compatible messages between the sender and receiver of the message.

This paradigm serves as a basic framework for developing effective and efficient business communication between cultures. However, business communication across cultures is far more complex than this framework, for it happens in an even more complex environment, i.e., in a context of diversifying and conflicting cultures. Consequently, it is necessary to review the international business environment in which these business functional activities and communicative activities interact with each other.