Industry and cultural backgrounds affect strategic choice. For example, executives with strong ties within an industry tend to choose strategies commonly used in that industry. Other executives who have come to the firm from another industry and have strong ties outside the industry tend to choose different strategies from what is being currently used in their industry. Country of origin often affects preferences. For example, Japanese managers prefer a cost-leadership strategy more than do United States managers. Research reveals that executives from Korea, the United States, Japan, and Germany tend to make different strategic choices in similar situations because they use different decision criteria and weights. For example, Korean executives emphasize industry attractiveness, sales, and market share in their decision, whereas U.S. executives emphasize projected demand, discounted cash flow, and ROI.