Comparative Cultural Studies Research Articles

The Effect of Accounting Education and National Culture on Accounting Judgments: A Comparative Study of Anglo-Celtic and Chinese Culture

Countries adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) need to educate and train their professional accountants so that they are able to interpret and apply IFRS in a consistent manner. This study examines the effect of national culture and education on the judgments of Australian (Anglo-Celtic) and Chinese final year undergraduate accounting students in Australia. It seeks to understand whether culture influences student interpretation and application of uncertainty expressions, which are used as recognition and disclosure thresholds in IFRS. Results obtained on the cultural dimensions of Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, Power Distance, Masculinity and Long-Term Orientation provide evidence that Chinese students exhibit greater conservatism and secrecy compared to Australian students. The results of the study indicate that national culture has a significant effect on the judgments of accounting students when interpreting and applying selected IFRS containing uncertainty expressions. The results also imply that educational similarity does not moderate the effect of culture in influencing the judgments of accounting students. An important implication of the study is that regulators and standard-setters involved in the international convergence of accounting standards need to pay greater attention to cultural factors that may result in a difference in the interpretation and application of IFRS.

Introduction: Religion and Masculinities – Continuities and Change

Author affiliation Bjorn Krondorfer is Director of the Martin Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University (USA) and Endowed Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies. His field of expertise is religion and gender, (post) Holocaust studies, and reconciliation studies. He is the recipient of the Norton Dodge Award for Scholarly and Creative Achievements. Publications include Male Confessions: Intimate Revelations and the Religious Imagination (Stanford), Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism (London), and Remembrance and Reconciliation (Yale). Email: bjorn.krondorfer@nau.edu

Goddard, Michael. Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism, and the Subversion of Form. Comparative Cultural Studies (review)

Goddard, Michael. Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism, and the Subversion of Form. Comparative Cultural Studies (review)

Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies

Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies

International Don Quixote

International Don Quixote

Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies

Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies

Symmetric and asymmetric leadership cultures: A comparative study of leadership and organizational culture at Hyundai and Toyota

This study compares national cultures, leadership strategies, and work environments in two successful global automobile companies, Hyundai Motor Group and Toyota Motor Corporation. Despite competing head-on in the same market, it was found that these companies use very different leadership strategies as a basis for both global competition and local operations. Based on the results of a comparative case study, structured interviews, and related media and empirical data, it was found that Toyota competes both strategically and managerially by emphasizing planning and work systems to mitigate the impact of any turbulence in the external environment (stability is key), while Hyundai competes by accepting environmental uncertainty and risk as a part of normal daily operations (flexibility is key). We refer to these approaches as symmetric and asymmetric leadership and organizational cultures. As a result of these differences, Hyundai is able to change course more quickly than its larger competitor as new opportunities and technologies emerge. While national cultures played a role in differentiating between the two firms, leadership differences had a more pronounced effect on organizational behaviors and subsequent performance. Results are consistent with previous research and reinforce the conclusion that top management leaders’ behavior can have a significant influence on emergent organizational cultures and performance.

Possibilities and Limits of Comparative Literature Today

Abstract: In his article “Possibilities and Limits of Comparative Literature Today” Dario Villanueva discusses the itinerary of comparative literature and its problematics and queries the discipline's adherence to literary history and its identification with the theory of literature. Villanueva's discussion is with particular reference to Spanish-language works such as by Claudio Guillen's systemic view of literature and the study of literature, as well as similar approaches to the study of literature such as by Siegfried J. Schmidt, Itamar Even-Zohar, and Steven Totosy de Zepetnek. Further, Villanueva discusses aspects of the field of (comparative) cultural studies he sees relevant and useful for the study of literature comparatively. In an attempt to abandon the identification of genetic relationships to justify comparativist research, the last twenty-five or thirty years have seen the emergence of a new paradigm of comparative literature. A basic principle of the new paradigm is that whenever the same or a similar phenomenon appears in two separate literatures or in one literature and in another type of artistic expression, the comparative approach must include a fundamental theoretical element, that is to say, a possible or hypothetical point of departure. The immediate consequence of such an approach is comparative literature's if not exclusive, then at least preferential link with literary theory (see Fokkema 3). Thus, since the 1970s, roughly, comparative literature developed with a theoretical component and that gave the discipline its innovative character.

Traduire la culture poétique du français en anglais

That literary texts appear to be more difficult to translate than technical ones is no longer a subject of debate. This truth is fundamentally as a result of obvious challenges the literary translator has to face, since he is under the obligation to translate not only the literal meaning of his source text, but also its literary style. Even within the literary field of translation, if the translator of prose or drama rarely has an easy task, the translator of poetry is likely to meet harder obstacles in the course of his exercise. Poetry — especially when it has to do with traditional poems – appears, thus, the most dreaded terrain for the translator.<p>This article presents a comparative study of the poetic culture of French and English with the principal objective of demystifying the theoretical and practical problems associated with poetic translation. Supported by a critical analysis of an English translation of a French sonnet, the paper argues that the work of the poetic translator would be made more simplified if priority is given to the culture of the target language. The article thus recommends faithfulness to the poetic culture of the target language in order to produce a translation that will be acceptable to the reader of that language.<p>

Business Management of Japanese Corporations in China: Focusing on the China-Japan Comparative Study of Leadership and Organizational Culture

The purpose of this article is to explore what Japanese corporations in China can do to build an attractive leadership and organizational culture. In the field of leadership theory and studies of organizational culture, there have been few studies targeting Chinese corporations although studies on Japanese and Western corporations abound. I will analyze the influence of performance through appropriate leadership and organizational culture upon organization, clarify the leadership style and organizational culture best suited to the improvement of organizational performance, and then recommend them to Japanese corporations for their local management in China.

(Inter)mediality and the Study of Literature

In his article "(Inter)mediality and the Study of Literature" Werner Wolf elaborates on the "intermedial turn" and asks whether this turn ought to be welcomed. Wolf begins with a discussion about the definitions of "medium" and "intermediality" and the impact these concepts and practices exert on scholarly, as well as student competence. He argues that despite of the fact that literary studies ought not simply turn into media or cultural studies, mediality and intermediality have become relevant issues for both teaching and the study of literature especially in the fields of comparative literature and (comparative) cultural studies. Following his postulate of the relevance of mediality and intermediality in the study of literature, Wolf explores ways of integrating the said concepts and practices into the study of literature and, in particular, their integration in the field of narratology. In this context, Wolf presents a typology of intermedial forms.

A Comparative Study of Civilizations: Classical and Modern

The paper is an attempt make a comparative study of world civilizations to see the similarities and dissimilarities and to make clear Islamic view that there is no God save Allah and Hadrat Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (صلی اللہ علیہ و آلہ وسلم) towards the whole mankind and a Mercy for all the worlds. Questions raised in the article are:The role of human beings on the earth started since the time the first male and female were sent down by the Creator on this earth. Who was the Sender? What is the proof and where is the proof that who was the sender? Who was sent? With what purpose sent? What was the role to be played on this earth by the sent ones? How was it to be performed? How was it to be judged? What was the guidance available? What was the consequence? and On what basis such consequence?

A comparative study of organizational strategy and culture across industry

Purpose – The present study examines the strategy and culture of 32 Indian organizations belonging to seven industry segments namely construction, banking, information technology (IT), pharmaceuticals, power, steel, and telecom. Further it also examines the linkage between the organization's strategy and the culture of the organization.

The Overarm-Throwing Pattern Among U-14 ASA Female Softball Players: A Comparative Study of Gender, Culture, and Experience

The Overarm-Throwing Pattern Among U-14 ASA Female Softball Players: A Comparative Study of Gender, Culture, and Experience

Globalization, Pedagogical Imagination, and Transnational Literacy

In his article, "Globalization, Pedagogical Imagination, and Transnational Literacy," Ezra Yoo-Hyeok Lee explores the juncture of comparative literature, globalization and postcolonial studies as to how creative writers, literary critics, and cultural theorists respond to globalization and its challenges. Arjun Appadurai expounds that globalization has demanded new research conceptualization and invention in academia. Subsequently, Lee investigates methods through which educators and scholars in comparative literature take up such a demand. In turn, Lee proposes a transnational literacy which offers a responsible form of cultural explanation, through which to explore the interrelations between the national and the postcolonial or global paradigms, both emergent as frames of current cultural change. Lee also offers a close reading of critical works by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Diana Brydon, and David Damrosch to elaborate on the concept of transnational literacy and to consider ways of circumnavigating around Eurocentrism in comparative literary and cultural studies.

Nutritional evaluation of yoghurt prepared by different starter cultures and their physiochemical analysis during storage

Yoghurt was prepared with two different types of starter cultures; Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Lactobacillus acidophilus. The preparation was made by 3, 4 and 5% concentrations. It was stored at 4°C for 12 days. To analyze the effect of the two different cultures and their concentrations on the properties of yoghurt, different physio-chemical tests were performed. These two starter culture slightly enhanced the quality of yoghurt. The results showed that the protein, lactose, ash, fat, acidity and total solid mass were slightly increased while pH and moisture values gradually decreased during the storage period of 12 days. The comparative study of starter cultures showed that L. acidophilus produced good quality yoghurt as compared to L. bulgaricus.

A Compositional Approach to a First Dynasty Inscribed Label Fragment from the Abydos Tomb Complex Ascribed to Qa′a

The case study presented in this article takes a compositional approach to the reconstruction of an ivory label fragment (Ashmolean E.1262) discovered over a century ago by Flinders Petrie and his team at the Abydos tomb complex ascribed to Qa’a, the last ruler of the First Dynasty. Previous methods applied to the study of labels and other early inscribed objects and the modes used for their reproduction in printed media are discussed and critically assessed. I argue that the pitfalls presented by anachronistic and de-contextualising approaches can be avoided by anchoring analysis in the artefact in tandem with detailed comparative study of contemporary graphical culture. Previous reproductions and reconstructions are thus reviewed and an adjusted reconstruction of the label fragment is proposed from this grounded perspective.

Disposable and Usable Pasts in Central European Cities

In Central European cities memories and material histories of socialist regimes remain particularly difficult to address and incorporate into the new democratic present. After 1989, city authorities in the region have chosen to emphasize some pasts and neglect others and, thus, (re)write their own versions of (urban) history and (re)shape their (urban) identities. In my paper I inquire into how post-1989 Central European urbanities are shaped by and communicated through various designations including signs and symbols on city streets, monuments, and buildings. Predictably, many material remnants of the socialist regimes have been destroyed or hidden from the public eye – my interest lies not only in which various designations on buildings and which monuments had to go, but also in why and how they disappeared. I discuss the most popular methods of hiding and/or effacing the remnants of socialism that range from subtle (surrounding of communist landmarks with tall buildings) through the obvious (renaming of streets, squares, metro stations; giving old communist buildings new names and functions) to the irreversible and, thus, most controversial (the razing of socialist architecture and monuments). The disappearance of the material capital of the socialist past has been accompanied by intense commemoration practices verging on memorial obsessions. New monuments, plaques, street names, and museums appeared almost as quickly as the old “disposable” ones were forced out from the urban landscape. The complexity of an urban identity as communicated through city streets, monuments, and buildings not only invites, but necessitates an interdisciplinary approach and, thus, my analysis includes elements from such diverse areas of knowledge as aesthetics, architecture, communication studies, comparative cultural studies, economics, history, and political science.

‘God’s Real Name is God’

In the early 17th century, two Jesuits reached opposite conclusions about the feasibility of ‘domesticating’ or ‘foreignizing’ key theological terms and concepts in classical Chinese. Matteo Ricci proposed cultural equivalents that would allow the use of Chinese terms to translate key Catholic concepts on the basis of his own reading and interpretation of the Confucian canon. Niccolo Longobardi consulted contemporary Chinese scholars in order to understand the orthodox native interpretation of that canon. When he discovered that Neo-Confucian cosmology did not recognize the separation of matter and spirit, he decided that cultural equivalents did not exist, and insisted on transliterating key Catholic terms. The disagreement between Ricci and Longobardi constitutes an early modern laboratory situation for testing approaches to cross-cultural transfer and developing a theoretical model for comparative cultural studies. This model – combining aspects of Karl Popper’s Three World conjecture, Hans Georg Gadamer’s metaphor of a cultural horizon, the concept of a hermeneutic circle initiated by Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Sinological considerations – offers a framework through which to analyze the contrasting approaches and conclusions of Ricci and Longobardi in the contexts of ethnocentrism and of linguistic-cultural relativism.

Hugo Meltzl and That Dangerous American Supplement; Or, A Tale of Two 1877s

Hugo Meltzl de Lomnitz's 1877 list of ten “founding” languages for comparative literature implicitly includes the Americas, where at least five of the originary ten languages (English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish) were widely spoken at the time. Yet until very recently American texts in these languages have been largely excluded from comparative literary studies. A comparative reading of two 1877 texts—Meltzl's “Tasks of Comparative Literature” and José Martí's prospectus for the Revista Guatemalteca—reveals that the literatures of the Americas, and the Caribbean especially, are a supplement (in the Derridean sense) to Meltzl's Eurocentric model. Martí's 1877 prospectus for a comparative American literature is more inclusive than Meltzl's Eurocentric model of “polyglottism,” and it offers a vision of global comparative literary and cultural studies that we ignore to our peril.