291 German Entrepreneurs and Expatriates in Turkey: Their Action Strategies and Their Life-World in the Diaspora Asker Kartari, Klaus Roth 1 Objectives 1.1 Aim The research project investigating the areas of conflict in the interaction between Turk- ish and German managers in German-Turkish firms brought to light that the actions of the managers from different (national) cultures in the studied companies were determin- ed by their respective national cultures and the strategies of their head offices. These are, however, the very factors that impede own initiative and own development of the ability to react flexibly to drastically changing economic and political conditions. Turkey’s crit- ical economic and political situation demands flexible, initiative company behavior. According to the hypothesis as well as observation, German entrepreneurs in Tur- key proved to be better equipped to deal with crises and their aftermaths, because they had developed flexible strategies that were more adapted to Turkish conditions. Unlike transferred company representatives, who usually only stay for a few years, many Ger- man entrepreneurs in Turkey even have their company headquarters located in Turkey and their livelihood is dependent on the country. Their working world and their private lives are closely interconnected with their host country and the German community, evi- dence of this is that many speak Turkish. This observation forms the basis of this research project . The goal was to determine and describe the behavior of German entrepreneurs in Turkey, their mode of communication, collaboration and cohabitation with their Turkish counterparts. For this purpose, we observed and interviewed German entrepreneurs in their interaction with their Turkish partners and with other members of the German diaspora community in their daily work and daily lives. We studied their business strategies, their intercultural competence and experience using American entrepreneurs working in Tur- key as a reference group for comparison. Finally, we wanted to learn to what extent the results obtained on self-employed entrepreneurs are applicable to German executives of German-Turkish companies sent to Turkey. Despite differences between the entrepreneurs and the transferred managers, Fo1ARoth.pmd 26.11.02, 21:34 291