From product to Person: A cross-national study on packaging personality and consumer stereotypes

Purpose – A considerable body of literature has evolved on the topic of appropriate research methodology for cross-national data collection. Additionally, prior commentaries on cross-national research in the marketing have cited significant deficiencies in this body of research in terms of the theoretical foundations, methods, and analytical techniques used. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize guidelines for conducting cross-national research in marketing and assess the degree to which these rules are being followed. Design/methodology/approach – The literature on cross-national research methods in marketing studies is first reviewed to identify key issues and methodological guidelines. A content analysis of cross-national studies appearing in 10 major journals in the marketing and advertising field for the period from 2005 to 2010 is conducted to assess whether the guidelines for researchers are being followed. The chapter also explores whether recent research is addressing key deficiencies identified by prior commentaries on this body of research. Findings –Results are indicative of some promising trends. A wider range of theory bases, methodological techniques, and analytical techniques are being used in cross-national marketing studies. Additionally, methodological guidelines for conceptualizing studies, including following appropriate procedures to ensure equivalence and verifying the existence of cultural differences, are being followed at a higher rate than in the past. Still, some studies do not follow accepted guidelines, and there is a need for a wider range of theory bases and methods to be used. Research limitations/implications – The study examines only cross-national studies published in 10 journals over a recent six years (2005–2010). As a result, no direct comparison to earlier periods is made. Originality/value of paper – This chapter outlines key guidelines for conducting cross-national studies in marketing. It also calls attention to the need to follow these guidelines based on the trend toward a majority of studies complying with them. Finally, the chapter calls attention to the need for certain theory bases and methods to be used more frequently.

Dans les parutions recentes de sociologie et d'education, on constate une penurie de travaux d'etudes longitudinales et comparatives sur les changements dans les programmes d'etudes. En particulier, les etudes systemiques sont rares. Cet article vise a combler ce manque puisqu'il produit une etude du programme d'histoire a l'Universite dans plusieurs pays de 1895 a 1994.

The spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has brought advantages and disadvantages, particularly impacting youth, who use the Internet and social media applications daily. In preadolescents' social development, problematic social media use (PSMU) and cyberbullying (CB) are potential risk factors across several countries. PSMU is defined as the lack of regulation of social media platforms that is associated with negative outcomes in everyday life, while CB refers to using digital technology to harass, threaten, or embarrass another person. Among preadolescents, CB perpetration is frequently associated with cybervictimization (CV) experiences. The underlying mechanisms that drive this relationship have received limited attention. The aim of the cross-national comparative study, rooted in the general aggression model, is to investigate the direct and indirect effects between cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization, testing a model involving PSMU and moral disengagement (MD) as serial mediators in this association. A total of 895 Italian and Spanish preadolescents (Mage = 11.23, SDage = 1.064) completed a self-report survey during school hours. Descriptive statistics were computed, and a serial mediation model was run. The results show that CV is positively associated with CB, and that PSMU and MD positively serially mediate the CV-CB link. This study's insights suggest the need for tailored educational interventions targeting European youth, to promote more positive online social interactions and a safer digital environment.

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI) might change the communication profession immensely, but the academic discourse is lacking an investigation of the perspective of practitioners on this. This article addresses this research gap. It offers a literature overview and reports about an empirical study on AI in communications, presenting first insights on how professionals in the field assess the technology.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative cross-national study among 2,689 European communication practitioners investigated four research questions: RQ1 – How much do professionals know about AI and to what extent are they already using AI technologies in their everyday lives? RQ2 – How do professionals rate the impact of AI on communication management? RQ3 – Which challenges do professionals identify for implementing AI in communication management? RQ4 – Which risks do they perceive?FindingsCommunication professionals revealed a limited understanding of AI and expected the technology to impact the profession as a whole more than the way their organisations or themselves work. Lack of individual competencies and organisations struggling with different levels of competency and unclear responsibilities were identified as key challenges and risks.Research limitations/implicationsThe results highlight the need for communication managers to educate themselves and their teams about the technology and to identify the implementation of AI as a leadership issue.Originality/valueThe article offers the first cross-national quantitative study on AI in communication management. It presents valuable empirical insights on a trending topic in the discipline, highly relevant for both academics and practitioners.

Given the increasing global focus of many aspects of our society, researchers have taken significant steps in understanding the impact of culture on various psychological states. This review focuses on the stressor–strain relationships within the context of cross-cultural and cross-national studies. Using research findings from the United States as a baseline, we identify common and unique themes concerning the stressor–strain relationships between different countries, and clarify the differences between cross-national and cross-cultural studies. Furthermore, we consider cross-cultural and cross-national occupational stress research from an individual differences perspective. We encourage future studies to adopt this perspective and carefully consider the implications of cultural values on occupational stress research at the individual, group, and country levels.

Mr. Cai discusses ways to use cross-national studies not simply to rank nations but to help teachers improve their students' learning of mathematics. OVER THE past several decades, a number of cross-national studies of mathematics achievement have been conducted. The researchers who conduct them collect a great deal of descriptive information and try to understand the observed differences in performance from the perspectives of differences in schooling, in cultural and social factors, and in student characteristics. Yet the public, educators, some other researchers, parents, and policy makers focus much of their attention on the international rankings of mathematical performance. Since the U.S. generally places lower in these rankings than many Americans would hope, this focus on the rankings has led to the widely accepted view that the U.S. is doing poorly in mathematics, especially as compared to students from Asian countries. Consequently, the reform of mathematics education - with the attendant efforts to raise curriculum standards, improve the quality of classroom instruction, and reform teacher education programs - has become a national priority. Meanwhile, some researchers have argued that U.S. students rank low in these comparisons because the content of the international tests disadvantages U.S. students. That is, the test items cover material not taught in the tested grades in American schools. Indeed, some researchers have even challenged the validity and reliability of previous cross-national studies and argued that the tests lack proper statistical sampling procedures and are not representative of the participating countries. This debate continues. My purpose here is not to add another coal to this fire. Rather, I wish to consider the broader purposes of international comparisons and to promote ways that researchers can use their findings to improve student learning. Moreover, I agree with Ian Westbury's conclusion that an overemphasis on rankings sidetracks the search for what is responsible for the cross-national differences in mathematics performance.1 Consequently, I will present here information from a series of cross- national studies involving Chinese and U.S. students to show how a variety of assessments, detailed analyses, and interpretations in cross-national studies can help inform education reform. Assessing Performance Differences in Mathematics Obviously, a cross-national study involves much more than simply collecting data in different countries and comparing the results. In these studies, mathematical performance has generally been assessed on a set of tasks and represented by a numerical score. And the conclusions reached depend to a great extent on different formats of the tasks used. In order to better understand the differences in students' mathematical performance, it is desirable to use a variety of types of assessment tasks to measure different facets of students' mathematical thinking.2 Some tasks are better measures of students' high-level thinking skills, while others may be better measures of students' procedural knowledge and routine problem-solving skills. Indeed, some cross-national studies have already started to use various types of assessment tasks, and analyses of the results are beginning to reveal interesting patterns of performance differences.3 For example, I recently conducted a study examining the mathematical performance of U.S. and Chinese sixth-graders, using four types of assessment tasks: 1) 13 multiple-choice tasks measuring computation skills, 2) 18 multiple-choice tasks measuring simple problem-solving skills, 3) six process-constrained performance assessment tasks measuring complex problem-solving skills, and 4) six process-open performance assessment tasks measuring complex problem-solving skills. A process-constrained task requires students to carry out a procedure or a set of routine procedures in solving the problem. …

Cross-national studies offer a unique contribution to the internationalization of mathematics education. In particular, they provide mathematics educators with opportunities to situate the teaching and learning mathematics in a wider cultural context and to reflect on generalization of theories and practices of teaching and learning mathematics that have been developed in particular countries. In this chapter, we discuss a series of cross-national studies involving Chinese and U.S. students that illustrate to how cultural differences in Chinese and U.S. teachers’ teaching practices and beliefs affect the nature of their students’ mathematical performance. We do this by showing that the types of mathematical representations teachers present to students strongly influence the choice of representations students use to solve problems. Specifically, the Chinese teachers overwhelmingly used symbolic representations of instructional tasks, whereas the U.S. teachers relied almost exclusively on verbal explanations and pictorial representations, illustrating that mathematics teaching is local practice which takes place in settings that are both socially and culturally constrained. These results demonstrate the social and cultural nature of teachers’ pedagogical practice

Comparative cross national (CNC) drug utilization studies are challenging. However, there can be concerns with the accuracy and robustness of the data collected with previous studies showing differences in utilisation rates between different databases. In addition, if utilisation rates vary appreciably between countries with no logical explanation. These studies have been carried out for the same class across countries. This has now been extended to compare utilisation rates between different databases among four high volume classes among administrative and commercial databases in one country (Lithuania) between 2004 and 2012 alongside health policies. There were appreciable differences in the utilisation of PPIs (5 to 7 fold) and statins (2 to 6 fold) between the different databases with limited differences for the other two classes. This could be explained by restricted reimbursement for the PPIs and statins, with similar utilisation of renin-angiotensin inhibitors in Lithuania between the databases and with Western European countries in the absence of prescribing restrictions. Low utilisation of anti-depressants in Lithuania versus Western European countries also explained by ongoing policies. Essential to always record the database content in CNC studies alongside health policies otherwise the findings could be misinterpreted. Joint reporting should become standard for future CNC studies.

:Background: An inverse relationship between obesity and suicide has been observed in younger adults, but this has not been examined in the elderly. Methods: A cross-national ecological study examined the independent relationship between the prevalence of obesity and elderly suicide rates, by controlling for potentially confounding variables, using data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Results: Elderly suicide rates in females were independently associated with the prevalence of obesity. Conclusions: Caution should be exercised in attributing a causal relationship from this cross-sectional ecological study due to ecological fallacy and requires confirmation in individual-level case-control or cohort studies.

This study discusses some problematic issues around comparability and equivalence in empirical research, particularly focusing on the case of indicators and taking a cross-national study on linguistic skills and use of foreign languages in the scientific production of researchers from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile as reference. The discussion is framed within broader epistemological and methodological debates concerning the status of comparisons in the social sciences and, mainly, the case of cross-national comparative studies. Within these debates, and resorting to concrete examples arising from research into scientists’ linguistics skills, we address the comparability issue of target populations and samples, as well as that of indicator equivalence, with emphasis in the problems of questionnaire design, reliability, and validity.

This paper is based on a six-country cross-national research study of Alternative Policies for the Care of Children under the Age of Three. study is sponsored by the German Marshall Fund and directed jointly by Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn, codirectors, Cross-national Studies, Columbia University School of Work. 1. Although I have no question about the importance and value of work, the term is used here to mean market work. Recent scholarship has revealed that this dichotomy between work and family did not occur at the same time for all families (or all family members) in all industries or in all places. Over time, however, this has become the dominant pattern. literature on this subject is far too extensive to be reviewed here. For illustrative purposes, see Tamara K. Hareven, Modernization and Family History: Perspectives on Change, Signs 2, no. 2 (Summer 1977): 89-115; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Family in the United States: A Critical Review and Agenda for Research and Policy (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1977). 2. For the consequences for children, see Urie Bronfenbrenner, The Origins of Alienation, Scientific American 231 (1974): 53-61, and Who Cares for America's Children? in Family: Can It Be Saved? ed. Victor C. Vaughan III and T. Berry Brazelton (Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1976). For the consequences for women, see George Brown, Marie Bhrolchain, and Tirrel Harris, Social Class and Psychiatric Disturbance among Women in an Urban Population, Sociology (May 1975); Ann Oakley, Housewife (London: Allen Lane, 1974); and N. Fonda and Peter Moss, eds., Mothers in Employment (Uxbridge, England: Brunel University, 1976). For a very different perspective-the negative consequences on family life when the separation of work and home occur in a country undergoing modernization, where women historically have always been in the labor force-see Christina Oppong, Modernization and Family Change in Ghana: With Special Reference to Work (paper presented at the Aspen Institute-Iran Workshop, Iran, May 25 to June 2, 1978).

Young people worldwide use social media. Besides the benefits, such as communication, entertainment, or social support, users also have to deal with negative incidents, such as cyberbullying and its serious consequences. One key factor in mitigating cyberbullying is empathy. Therefore, we developed an empathy training for adolescents, which is led by a virtual learning companion in a social media-like environment and includes direct conversations between the user and the virtual learning companion as well as a video explicating the concept of empathy. This empathy training shall contribute to decreasing users’ bullying intentions and increasing their empathy. Since previous research shows that social media use and cyberbullying are linked to country-specific factors, we evaluated the empathy training in a cross-national experimental study with N = 332 participants from Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Data were collected via surveys during workshops in schools. Among others, participants answered questions regarding their cyberbullying intentions, levels of cognitive and affective empathy, intentions to help a victim of cyberbullying, and perceived support of the measure. Results show neither decreased bullying intentions nor increased empathy after empathy training. However, cross-national differences were found. Participants’ intentions to bully were significantly higher in Spain and Brazil than in Germany. Furthermore, in the current study, cognitive and affective empathy was significantly higher in the Italian sample than in the German sample. Possibilities for improving the empathy training and the role of cross-national differences are discussed.

A cross-national qualitative suicide study was conducted by Tsinghua University and the University of Toronto with two samples of Chinese women in Beijing and Toronto. The aim of this article is to reflect on lessons learned from this collaborative study. A literature review guided the analysis. A focus group was conducted with members of both research teams. A semi-structured interview guide was developed to explore the researchers’ experiences of participating in the cross-national study. Focus group transcript data and observations from authors informed the analysis, situated in the existing literature on cross-national qualitative health research and guided by Baistow’s cross-national research frame. Our study highlights how cross-national research involves conceptual and practical challenges that require negotiation. Such research also holds many opportunities, including (1) using a different cultural lens to understand differences and clarify similarities cross-culturally; (2) co-constructing knowledge through collaboration; (3) deconstructing one’s own assumptions; and (4) engaging in an inspiring and empowering experience in collaboration.

The importance of trend and cross-national studies on general social attitudes has become widely recognized. However, very little published trend and cross-national data or studies on general social attitudes, which persistently use identical survey systems, have been identified. Up to now, despite some methodological limitations, the studies published in recent years have provided an encouraging base for the future of trend and cross-national studies of general social attitudes. Cooperation will be essential for future studies as they apply various improved methodologies not only to existing trend and cross-national data but also to new survey data collection procedures. Like the development of cohort analysis for trend studies of general social attitudes, as well as the development of correspondence analysis for cross-national studies of general social attitudes, combinations of both cohort and correspondence analyses have been proposed. Finally, it is suggested that for both trend and cross-national studies of general social attitudes, it is better not only to develop the hard-mode approach but also to develop the soft-mode approach by fully utilizing the hard-mode approach. Conducting this type of research in the context of trend and cross-national analyses will enable empirical analyses to verify existing sociological theories as well as contribute to the establishment of new or modified theories.

Elderly suicide rates may be influenced by mental health funding, service provision and national policy. A cross-national study examining the relationship between elderly suicide rates and (i) the presence of national policy on mental health, (ii) funding for mental health, and (iii) measures of mental health service provision was undertaken by utilizing data from the World Health Organization website. The main findings are: (i) there is no relationship between suicide rates in both sexes in both elderly age-bands and different measures of mental health policy, except they were increased in countries with a substance abuse policy; and (ii) suicide rates in both sexes in both elderly age-bands were higher in countries with greater provision of mental health services, including the number of psychiatric beds, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, and the availability of training in mental health for primary care professionals. Cross-national ecological studies using national-level aggregate data are not helpful in establishing a causal relationship (and the direction of this relationship) between elderly suicide rates and mental health funding, service provision and national policies. The impact of introducing national policies on mental health, increasing funding for mental health services and increasing mental health service provision on elderly suicide rates requires further examination in longitudinal within-country studies.