Cultural accountability for business-practice differences and beyond: A comparative study on bank loan classification between japan and the USA

The aim of this interdisciplinary essay is to demonstrate locally shared senses of values (“cultural values”) as the root causes of the cross-national differences in business practice between Japan and the USA; in particular bank loan classification and its value-driven consequences. For this aim, it investigates three levels of bank lending; decision-making at an individual level, bank loan classification at an organisation level and aggregate bank loans at a national level. The essay first examines the historical debate in economic anthropology, with the focus on cultural values. The second part explores research-proven differences in individualism and collectivism. The third part investigates the bank loan classification systems at an organisation level. The fourth part examines the CME-LMC distinction (Hall and Soskice 2001) as a culturally-driven dichotomy of how differently aggregate bank loans appear at a national level. The essay concludes that global frameworks need to accommodate value differences across the world.