Nancy Buchan

Background

Nancy R. Buchan is an associate professor at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina and director of the International Business Undergraduate Program. Buchan combines the methodology of experimental economics with theory from psychology, sociology and political science to understand the factors that influence the development of trust and cooperation in cross-cultural relationships. Of most interest are the impact of membership in groups and networks in trust building and the effect of globalization on individual attitudes and behaviors toward others locally, nationally and globally. To pursue this research agenda, Buchan has planned or personally conducted experiments in 14 countries. In a second research stream, along with Wendi Adair and Xiaoping Chen, Buchan has developed a scale to measure individual communication and interaction patterns and examines the variance of such patterns across cultures. The scale is used by the Fuqua School of Business, among others, helping students and managers to understand their own patterns of communication and those of others to improve cooperation and chances for success when operating cross-culturally. 

Buchan’s work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science as well as in the American Economic Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Psychological Science, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of International Business Studies and others. She has been on the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Business Studies and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. She received her doctorate in marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1998 and a Masters in International Administration in 1996 from the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania as an East Asian specialist in the Japanese language program. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, majoring in international relations and economics and studied as an exchange student at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, from 1986 to 1988. 

Buchan has taught international negotiations and cross-cultural communications seminars for large (Fortune 100), mid-size and entrepreneurial companies as well as universities and not-for-profit organizations. Recent clients include Westinghouse, BlueCross BlueShield South Carolina, the World Council of Credit Unions and Upward Unlimited. She teaches international marketing at the undergraduate level and international negotiations at the graduate level and in the executive education programs at Monterrey de Technological in Guadalajara and the Mediterranean School of Business in Tunis each year.

Education

• Ph.D., Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, 1998
• M.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1996
• B.A., University of Wisconsin, 1989