Teaching with Cross-Cultural Simulations: Some Effects of BaFá BaFá

Abstract

Intercultural simulations represent a useful instrument to improve intercultural competencies and cultural adaptation of expatriates. Existing research is mostly limited to the analysis of its affective outcomes. Based on Social Identity Theory and Experiential Learning Theory, we analyze the effects of the intercultural simulation BaFá BaFá on participants’ behavioral preferences as well as their behavioral choices in an Asian and a Western context. We assess the effects of BaFá BaFá for 190 international business students from Germany and 162 business economics students from Denmark. Our findings indicate that BaFá BaFá may improve participants’ ability to behave appropriately in foreign cultures. In particular, participants learn to adapt to dominant individualistic and collectivistic behavioral patterns in diverse cultures. The learning effects seem to be stronger for participants that were assigned to an artificial culture, which differs greatly from their own. We believe that taking the perspective of a contrary culture facilitates the first three phases of Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning cycle, concrete experience, reflective observation, and abstract conceptualization, and thus leads to enhanced learning. Our findings demonstrate the great potential of intercultural simulations for the preparation of expatriates and allow us to derive implications for the effective design of such interventions.