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This article presents an empirical analysis that shows what stereotype elements are significant for international managers when they decide to conduct future business interactions. The study also suggests a basic structure of international managers ' stereotypes. Results show that relationship, work attitude, and professionalism are the most important dimensions for international managers and that there is significant relationship between this perceptual structure and the tendency of managers to conduct business. Results also show that there is a meaningful difference between women and men in the factors that relate to the tendency to conduct businesses with others.
INTRODUCTION
Stereotypes are generalizations about a group (Brigham, 1971 ). According to several scholars, stereotypes are the result of ordinary cognitive processes in which people construct abstract knowledge that influences their perception and behavior toward others (Hagendoorn & Kleinpenning, 1991; McCauley, Stitt, & Segal, 1980). Yet there are others who consider stereotyping as overgeneralization. From this perspective, stereotyping carries with it an ideological position. Characteristics of the group are not only overgeneralized to apply to each member of the group, but they are also taken to have some exaggerated negative or positive value (Scollon & Scollon, 2001).
Whether stereotypes are seen as the result of cognitive processes or as overgeneralization with an ideological bias, they may directly influence behavior. As cognitive structures they influence the way people perceive, process, store, and retrieve information (Dovidio, Brigham, Johnson, & Gaertner, 1996; see their references). For that reason, it is important to understand the effects of stereotypes on business decisions, and in particular, the possible influence of stereotypes on the tendency to conduct business with out-group members before direct contact occurs.
One kind of stereotype is the national stereotype, which is a generalization about a group of people coming from the same country. While much of the work on stereotypes has focused on discrimination against women and minorities in the workplace (Burns, Myers, & Kakabadse, 1995), existing research pays little attention to the role that national stereotypes play in international business. This, we argue, should be a focus of conceptual and empirical examination as the internationalization of business increases.
Several studies demonstrate the impact of country-of-origin stereotyping on business decisions. Thorelli and Glowack (1995), for example, show that buyers categorize...