Culture In International Business Research Articles

Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business using an ethnographic design: a multinational family business case study

PurposeThe negative cultural bias vis-à-vis international business and cross-cultural management has been duly acknowledged, necessitating recommendations towards investigating its positive effects. Methodologically, quantitative research clearly predominates, and there have been calls for alternative approaches. Thus, this conceptual paper addresses the research gap (methodological and thematic) by investigating if multicultural teams can be an essential part of the global workforce and whether positive effects exist regarding dynamic capabilities, learning and knowledge transfer.Design/methodology/approachThe underlying ethnographic research design enabled exploring within the embedded single case study from an emic perspective, including qualitative observation and semi-structured expert interviews, and provided detailed insights into the company’s multicultural work environment.FindingsThe results reveal that applying a qualitative design allowed the needed exploration and show that multicultural, geographically dispersed teams are positively experienced and considered necessary in today’s globalised world. They are likely to increase in the future. Moreover, dynamic capabilities (multicultural competencies) are indispensable for multicultural teamwork. Regarding learning opportunities, different viewpoints for discussion and the ability to reflect on these offer valuable insights. In line with theory, multiculturality is considered a “two-edged sword”, providing simultaneous benefits and challenges. Contrary to the theory, even highly important information transfers can occur virtually, although occasional physical contact is essential for trust building.Originality/valueThe multinational family business offers a unique example of a positive relationship between multiculturalism and organisational excellence and demonstrates how the application of a qualitative methodology can support theory building by delivering a revised model of dynamic capabilities in multicultural environments with geographical dispersion.

Using interdisciplinary lenses to enrich the treatment of culture in international business

Culture is studied in a great variety of disciplines, including the natural sciences, humanities, the social sciences, and area studies. Yet, in business scholarship, including international business (IB), one finds little by way of variables, theories, methodologies, and insights that originate in fields that lie beyond “the usual suspects” of traditional parent disciplines. This narrowing of lenses limits the scope and depth of IB research, blocking opportunities for novel approaches that could enrich and advance IB as well as related fields. In this essay, I take a small step towards filling this gap by taking a brief look at interdisciplinary research in general and in IB in particular, using culture as an illustrative case.

Communication and culture in international business – Moving the field forward

The centrality of communication in international business (IB) is undeniable; yet our understanding of the phenomenon is partially constrained by a cross-cultural comparative focus as opposed to intercultural, process-oriented research designs that capture the dynamic nature of communicative interactions. Our brief review of studies at the intersection of culture and communication in the context of global work interactions reveals the dominant research trends that guided IB scholarship to date in this domain. We propose eight shifts in perspective to advance the field’s theorizing and create avenues for further research.

Multiple interpretations of “national culture” and the implications for International business: The case of Taiwan

This paper considers the implications for international business of cases whereby a country may have two, or more, conflicting interpretations of its “national culture”. A case study of the different ways in which Taiwanese self-initiated expatriates of the benshengren and waishengren social categories use their status as “Taiwanese” to do business in London suggests that the varying interpretations which people of the same national origin and ethnic group have of their “national culture”, as a symbol of identity, affects the social resources they can use. The paper concludes by considering new directions for studying national culture in international business, and for re-evaluating earlier research.

International Indigenous Business and Trade and the Role of Culture: A Comparison between Aotearoa Maori and Alaska Native Enterprises

Indigenous enterprises are increasingly engaging in international business and trade, mainly in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and tourism, to grow Indigenous economies. The experiences of the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand (the Maori) and of Alaska provide a context and case through which to explore cross-cultural exchanges in business. In this conceptual paper, we review literature on the role of culture in international business and trade, focusing on indigeneity in international Indigenous business. We find that when commonality and mutual respect are established in cross-cultural exchanges in business, there is said to be cultural congruity. When material cultural differences inhibit cross-cultural business, there is cultural discordance. Specific examples are used to show how Indigenous firms in Aotearoa New Zealand and in Alaska compare. This paper provides scope for other Indigenous peoples to explore how their cultures influence firm-level performance and international trade.

How can research on culture in international business be made more interesting

How can research on culture in international business be made more interesting

The tortuous evolution of the role of culture in IB research: What we know, what we don’t know, and where we are headed

This paper takes stock of the literature on culture in International Business by looking back in terms of evaluating what we know and what we do not know; and looking forward by identifying emerging trends and outlining avenues for future research. Unresolved issues, gaps and limitations include: (1) narrow conceptualization of culture and fragmented approach to the study of culture; (2) failure to adopt a multilevel approach and insufficient attention to level of analysis; (3) insufficient attention to context and process; (4) failure to adopt a more dynamic view of culture; (5) tendency to equate country with culture and failure to explore other national differentiators; and (6) Western-centric approach to the study of culture. Suggestions on redressing the unresolved issues include: (1) broadening the definition of culture and transcending the values-based approach to include schemas, norms, and “memes”; (2) paying more attention to process/context by exploring the situation-dependent and dynamic nature of culture; and (3) entertaining alternative research designs/methods, such as emic approaches, qualitative methods, experimental designs, neuroscience-based methods, and replication studies. While these may represent a major departure from methodologies popular in our field, their use can hopefully help us overcome the fragmented, discipline-based approach which has contributed to the persistent problems that have plagued the study of culture in IB in the past.

Innovative Trends in Culture in International Business Literature: Toward Multiparadigmatic and Nonlinear Studies of Culture

Culture in International Business (CIB) literature has traditionally been dominated by the objectivist tradition, resulting in the following three problems: (1) grounded in the realist ontology, these studies detach culture from its social context, (2) since every paradigm has “blind-spots,” an excessive reliance on one paradigm results in a body of knowledge that is partial at best, and (3) such studies oversimplify culture by reducing it to linear cause–effect relations. Consequently, some scholars have shifted from this dominant trend toward multiparadigmatic studies of culture, some of which are grounded in post-positivism and facilitate nonlinear and asymmetrical analyses of culture. This conceptual article offers four examples of multiparadigmatic studies of culture, which, it argues, offer more innovative insights into cultural phenomena than is possible through monoparadigmatic and linear cause–effect studies. Insights gleaned from this article are geared toward CIB scholars, but they are just as relevant to scholars in other management subdisciplines.

How can research on culture in International Business be made more interesting?

This paper looks at a particular feature of international business (IB) research on culture that seems to be, on reflection, a curious omission from existing reviews and analyses - its potential for interestingness. To tackle this issue, we ponder two interconnected issues that sociologists and management scholars have wrestled with for quite some time: namely, what exactly is interesting research and why does it matter? We promote the value of the notion of contextualisation, highlight the need for more research into language and advance the case for research into intracultural variation. Conducting research on these three topics involves a break with national value systems, on the one hand, and the embrace of non-cultural variables, on the other. The current shifts and changes in the world open up new vistas of truly interesting research, at which IB scholars can and indeed should be at the forefront.

Promoting multi-paradigmatic cultural research in international business literature

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to address four questions: what are the drawbacks of an over reliance on the objectivist tradition in culture in international business (CIB) scholarship? Is a shift from mono-paradigmatic to multi-paradigmatic cultural research justified? What explains scholars’ hesitation in engaging in multi-paradigmatic studies? What arguments can we offer to convince them otherwise?Design/methodology/approach– Informed by the critical perspective, this paper encourages a shift from mono-paradigmatic to multi-paradigmatic cultural studies. Guided by an emancipatory interest, and treating the field of culture studies as a complex system, this paper offers an integrative complexity (IC) based argument in favor of multi-paradigmatic studies. It argues that multi-paradigmatic studies allow scholars to employ higher IC than mono-paradigmatic studies, resulting in more innovative research outputs.Findings– While mono-paradigmatic studies can achieve either predictability of output or in-depth understanding of cultural phenomena, multi-paradigmatic studies are capable of attaining both. The authors illustrate this through the example of a recent multi-paradigmatic study.Research limitations/implications– This paper does not offer insights for operationalizing multi-paradigmatic research, nor does it address factors other than IC that may impede scholars from engaging in such studies.Practical implications– Shifting from mono-paradigmatic to multi-paradigmatic studies will enable scholars to address questions hitherto left unaddressed in CIB literature, facilitate a better understanding of new organizational forms, and redress the power disequilibrium between different paradigmatic schools. Implications are also offered for the training of cultural researchers in business schools.Originality/value– This paper is the first of its kind to relate IC to merits of multi-paradigmatic cultural studies.

Culture studies in international business: paradigmatic shifts

Purpose– This paper aims to unfold the path of how the complexity of culture issues leads to a rising pressure for paradigm changes in the research on culture in international management. In terms of academic debate about culture, the crucial paradigm shift has not yet happened. Research and writing are still dominated by a mechanistic-rational approach which does not quite know to handle cultural phenomena which by nature are mutuable, often transient and invariably context-specific. Rising pressure is observed for paradigm changes through three main trends: integration of West-East dichotomy, coexistence of convergence and divergence; and dynamic vs static perspectives. It is argued that the unresolved debate on the culture construct and its measurement, the epistemological stance by researchers and associated methodological choices in culture studies reinforce these trends pressuring for a paradigm shift.Design/methodology/approach– This paper reviews the knowledge based on culture studies to establish the contributions of culture studies in international business and the foundation of its knowledge base. The conceptual foundation of culture, its multi-level and multi-dimensionality and critical issues in research epistemology and methodology are analyzed to discuss emerging trends in the process of an imminent paradigm change.Findings– By unfolding the nature of abstract and high-order definition of culture, the focus is on deciphering the complex construct and multi-level and multi-dimensionality in measurement, which, in turn, interact with the epistemology of culture researchers and the choice of methodology used to carry out culture studies. Eventually the interaction of the three studied elements drives the proposed three paradigmatic changes in the evolving business environment.Research limitations/implications– The identified trends in existing culture research keep the importance of culture studies in international business management thriving as we point to their relevance for the envisaged paradigm shift.Practical implications– The three paradoxes discussed challenge researchers who aim to contribute to the knowledge base of culture in international business. In addition, the debate cannot be ignored by international business managers as culture is a key informal institutional driver that influences international business performance.Originality/value– The review of the knowledge base on culture studies in management contributes to a better understanding of the envisaged paradigmatic shift of the discipline. The debate on the complexity of culture studies is extended to three tendencies for potential paradigmatic change, with implications discussed to suggest future research.

Conceptualizing and measuring culture in international business and management: From challenges to potential solutions

Understanding the influence of culture on business operations has been one of the most enduring components of international business (IB) and international management (IM) theorizing and empirical investigation. While several critiques and debates questioned the significant progress made in this domain, the special issue we introduce here is meant to demonstrate that further advancement on how we conceptualize and measure culture is not only needed, but also possible. We provide an overview of past and current approaches in the measurement of culture in IB/IM and the challenges associated with these approaches, and emphasize the important, yet insufficiently acknowledged, link between the theoretical conceptualization of culture and its measurement. We then introduce the four articles included in the special issue and highlight how they break away from the “addiction” to approaches that have been very useful in getting where we are today, but that might not always be useful in advancing knowledge beyond what we already know. Last but not the least, we offer our own perspective on promising directions in conceptually and methodologically rethinking the study of culture in IB and IM.

Knowledge of the Impact of the Cultural Aspects of International Business of the Colombian Companies (Conocimiento Del Impacto De Los Aspectos Culturales En Materia De Negocios Internacionales De Las Empresas Colombianas)

This article makes a review of theoretical concepts and theories about culture in international business, since they are topics that can not be treated in isolation for the Colombian businessmen, and much less as independent topics. They are concomitant and interdependent elements. The importance of the knowledge of cultural aspects before, during and after the development of an international negotiation goes beyond obvious aspects, such as feeding, clothing, ways of thinking and seeing things, the processes by which people relate. Today, thanks to globalization accompanied by the use of the tic's processes, organizations, access more quickly a greater share of market and large amount of goods and services from other latitudes who a few years ago nor dreamed feasible. For these reasons, it is essential to know and understand the cultural processes related to transactions in other countries, at the time of consolidation approaches and relationships of a commercial nature, whereas there are substantial disparities that make these relationships more complex. Culture in international business is being analyzed very carefully; however, there are still companies of all types that do not lend you the required importance to this element. Requires teaching through case that it concerns situations of business failures, but at the same time is needed also, demonstrate successful situations about the knowledge of the cultural environment so that enterprises efficiently apply their knowledge and relationality with business for the proper management on the international stage.

Mindscapes across landscapes: Archetypes of transnational and subnational culture

Most research on culture in international business either aggregates people within a country into a single, homogeneous, national culture, or examines heterogeneity within countries based on exogenous criteria. In this study, we explore heterogeneity in cultural values within and across countries endogenously through the configurations of values people share in common. We develop a theory of culture archetypes and use a novel methodology that identifies a small number of distinct configurations of values – archetypes – in our data. These data come from the World Values Survey 2005 and Schwartz’s model of culture. We identify four culture archetypes in Japan, USA and China, and six in India. The existence of transnational and subnational archetypes across the four countries suggests the need to recognize culture as a combination of universal – etic – as well as unique – emic – characteristics. Our approach also distinguishes between those individuals represented by our archetypes and those individuals who more closely resemble the average values of a country. By unifying both archetypes and national averages within one theoretical and methodological schema we thus reconcile the conflicting perspectives in the field.

Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship

The results of a content analysis of 1141 articles published in the Journal of International Business Studies over a 24-year time period (1989–2012) reveal that a pervasive tendency exists in the international business (IB) literature towards emphasizing the adverse outcomes associated with cultural differences more than the positive effects. We argue that this imbalance is not an accurate reflection of the reality of cross-cultural contact in IB and that it has hindered our understanding of the processes and conditions that help organizations leverage the benefits of cultural differences in a wide range of contexts. We offer several explanations for the predominance of the negative over the positive in theory and research on culture in IB; and, using a Positive Organizational Scholarship lens couched in the context of March’s (1991) exploration vs exploitation organizational learning framework, highlight a complementary perspective, namely the idea that cultural differences can be an asset, not just a liability in a range of IB contexts. We conclude by offering an integrative framework within which both positive and negative effects of cultural differences can be understood and provide a road map for future research on culture in IB.

The Consequences of Culture in International Business: A Long Overdue Commentary

It has been observed that “culture”―note the inverted commas―”is said to be one of the two or three most complex words in the English language” (Eagleton, 2000: 1). Despite Raymond Williams’ admonishment―“culture is ordinary” (Williams, 1958; see also Williams 1976, 1981)―over the years the general international business (IB) literature has been awash with definitions of this troublesome term. The dominant one in the general management literature is that of the Dutch scholar, Geert Hofstede, which by now must be as famous for its lasting power as for its content. In this contribution I am going to overwhelmingly confine the discussion about the influence of Hofstede to the academic discipline of cross-cultural management, which we might term the specialist sub-division of IB for leading―let us hope―the latest thinking about culture in the context of international business endeavour.1

Interculturality: A New Approach to Understanding Culture in International Business

Extant mainstream research on culture in IB literature has been characterized by the focus on value-directed orientation as a deterministic understanding of the relation between culture and behavio...

The Upside of Cultural Distance: A Positive Organizational Scholarship Perspective

Current theory and research in cross-cultural and comparative management tend to emphasize the “dark side” of culture, in that a pervasive bias exists towards emphasizing the adverse outcomes associated with cultural differences while de-emphasizing the potentially positive role of cultural diversity in organizations. The idea that there are negative consequences associated with cultural differences lies at the heart of the “cultural distance”, “psychic distance” and “liability of foreignness” concepts that have guided hypotheses formulation and empirical testing in much of the literature in international business and international organizational behavior. Recently scholars have argued that this negative bias has hindered our understanding of the processes and conditions that help organizations leverage the benefits of cultural differences. In this symposium, we provide evidence that this negative bias permeates the literature and argue that it has hindered our understanding of the processes and conditions that help organizations leverage the benefits of cultural differences. The presenters apply a Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) lens (Cameron, 2008) to highlight a complementary perspective, namely the idea that cultural differences can be an asset rather than a liability in a wide range of international business contexts, including foreign market entry, cross-border transfer of knowledge, multinational teams, and international alliances, mergers, and acquisitions. The Upside of Foreignness—Exploring Outsider Competitive Advantage Presenter: Mary Yoko Brannen; U. of Victoria/ INSEAD Positive and Negative Biases and Cultural Distance Presenter: Kim Cameron; U. of Michigan Positive Global Team Leadership: Leveraging Culture Across Distance Presenter: Kristiina Mäkelä; Aalto U. School of Economics Presenter: Lena Zander; Uppsala U. Presenter: Peter Zettinig; U. of Turku Negative Biases in the Study of Culture in International Business: The Need for Positive Scholarship Presenter: Günter K. Stahl; WU Vienna and INSEAD Presenter: Rosalie L. Tung; Simon Fraser U. An Integration Capability View of Cultural Differences in Global Strategy Implementation Presenter: Taco Reus; Erasmus U. Rotterdam

Dynamic versus static culture in international business: a study of Spanish banking in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically identify two types of cultural perspective in cross‐cultural management studies: dynamic versus static perspectives, in particular their interaction in the international business of the firm.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an exploratory approach using qualitative data. After two phases of data collection, the management by values concept is taken to identify both the manifested and latent levels of characteristics of these two different approaches to cross‐cultural management in international business.FindingsThe study results identify the characteristics of two cultural perspectives: dynamic versus static. Tables on static cultural comparison and the acculturation process illustrate their different natures and highlight their potential implications for further business and theoretical development.Originality/valueThe paper empirically identifies dynamic and static cultural perspectives in international business process, highlighting the relevance of distinguishing these two perspectives in the globalizing business world. The characteristics of dynamic and static culture illustrated build a base for further research in this line for international business and cross cultural management.

The internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise: A review of the progress of a research agenda after 30 years

This paper reviews the progress of the research agenda initiated by The Future of the Multinational Enterprise (1976). Focusing initially on the problem of explaining the existence of the multinational enterprise, the agenda soon broadened to encompass the analysis of alternative modes of foreign market entry, the role of international joint ventures, the impact of innovation on corporate growth, and the role of culture in international business. The core philosophy – based on the Coasian nature of the firm and on rational action modelling – has remained constant, while the widening range of applications has encouraged synthesis with theories developed in other fields of research. Success in answering any one question invariably generates new questions, which must in turn be answered through a further extension of the theory, and this dynamic continues to drive the development of the theory today. Internalisation theory has retained its validity and its vitality over the past 30 years, and is currently being extended into new fields of international business research.