A Guide to Enhance Successful International Negotiations in the Mexican Market

The increasing globalisation of markets accentuated a myriad of opportunities and challenges inherent to the internationalisation process of companies. The prevalent role of international business negotiations accentuated the role of culture, which has been perceived as a fundamental part of the negotiation process, influencing its every step. As the second largest economy in Latin America, Mexico offers great potential for foreign investment, mainly due to the crescent manufacturing industry and its wide range of trade agreements. In the last decades, Portuguese companies have sought out international markets in search of opportunities to increase their competitiveness. One of the most relevant manufacturing sectors in Portugal is the mould industry. With its export vocation, it has been seizing the opportunities the Mexican automotive industry presents to these companies. This reality incited the motivation to evaluate how to succeed in business negotiations in Mexico. Although there is increasingly information about negotiating in Mexico, the literature is scant from a non-US American perspective, and it rarely embraces cultural and negotiation aspects with the deal-making process. To fill this gap, this investigation examines the stages of the negotiation process, respectively connecting effective common business practices and cultural aspects to each stage. By applying a semi-structured interview to 10 managers in Portuguese mould companies, the study ascertains practical knowledge of cultural and negotiation aspects through the Portuguese business experience in Mexico. The results obtained allowed the development of a practical guide to enhance successful negotiations in the Mexican market.