International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management, 1(1), 1-11, January-March 2012 1 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Keywords: Culture, Probability, Risk Assessment, Risk Identification, Risk Mitigation, Uncertainty INTRODUCTION The perception of the terms ‘risk’ and ‘con- tingency’ vary across disciplines and cultures (Smith & Fischbacher, 2009). It is not often culture is discussed within risk management, but it is a relevant factor. Interestingly, in Asian cultures, where Buddhism, Confucianism, and Islam religions dominate, risk is often attributed to spiritual governance such as the wishes of Buddha, Confucius or Allah - the equivalent of God from Christian testament (Strang, 2011e). Eastern cultures (notably in the Middle East, Africa and Asia) typically refer to negative events as bad luck instead of unfavorable risk outcomes and therefore the tendency is to avoid risks rather than manage them, while the opposite is true of risk attitudes in the west such as in Europe and North America (Strang, 2010a). This phenomenon can be explained by a di- mension in the global culture model known as ‘risk avoidance’, which refers to a bipolar tendency to either avoid uncertainty (high) or at the other extreme (low) to control or leverage risk (Hofstede, 2009; Strang, 2009). The cultural implications of risk are rele- vant to cite. Strang and Chan (2010) found Asian marketing and design teams avoided ‘unlucky perceptions’ when creating contemporary tech- nology products such as certain colors (white, and red, are spiritual) or names such as “1414” which in Mandarin sounds like “easy to fall to Socio-Cultural and Multi-Disciplinary Perceptions of Risk Yölande Goodwin, APPC Research, Australia Kenneth David Strang, State University of New York Plattsburgh, USA, and APPC Research, Australia ABSTRACT This is a review of the extant risk theory literature that hypothesizes new cross-cultural perceptions and multi-disciplinary techniques have emerged in risk management practice. Basic concepts in risk theory are introduced and then the generally accepted risk management framework is explained (identification, assess- ment, planning, and control). Global macro-environment factors and contemporary risk assessment practices are briefly explored. A multi-disciplinary socio-cultural meta-model of risk theory is developed. The paper concludes with ideas and proposes research questions for future studies. DOI: 10.4018/ijrcm.2012010101