Abstract
This study investigates the tendency of negotiators to endorse the signing of formal business contracts in Germanic and Turkic cultural contexts. Theory of culture suggests that people in some cultures would prefer to formalize business contracts in formal documents, while people in other cultures would tend to rely on relationships to secure business agreements and, therefore, would resort less to signing formal documents. A questionnaire, translated from English to German, Turkish, Kyrgyz and Russian, was administered to 679 negotiators in the Germanic countries of Austria, Germany, and Luxembourg and to 745 negotiators in the Turkic countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. Negotiators’ ethical predisposition influenced their preferences toward the signing of formal contracts. This relationship was observed to be moderated by negotiators’ trust propensity levels. From a cross-cultural perspective, Germanic negotiators endorsed the use of formal contracts significantly more than the Turkic negotiators. Theoretical and practical applications are discussed.