The Impact of Socio-cultural Context on Composing Business Letters in Modern Kazakhstani Business Community: A cross-cultural Study

ABSTRACT With the greatest economic potential of the countries in the Central Asian region, the Republic of Kazakhstan is currently engaged in international commercial activities with more than 190 countries. At the same time, while actively pursuing modern marketing strategies and when communicating with business partners of different cultural and linguistic background, particularly, in business correspondence, Kazakhstan also bears witness to a Soviet legacy combined with specific Asian characteristics. The aim of this study is to examine socio-cultural factors identified in 316 business letters composed in Kazakh, Russian, and English, the most commonly used languages of the modern Kazakhstani business community. The forms of relationships between business communicants in the hierarchical chain of a superior and their subordinate are also considered, including their role statuses, social distance, the factors involved in the constructing a business text and other aspects.