the kogut and singh national cultural distance index time to start using it as a springboard rather than a crutch this counterpoint investigates the continued relevance of the 30 year old kogut and singh ks index of cultural distance ks was a seminal contribution highlighting the relevance of cultural differences in ib however since then simplistic replications of the original arguments and index have prevented us from progressing towards a better understanding of how cross national differences matter we discuss the mechanisms underlying the construct and how they relate to the algorithm data and its critiques we call for more theoretically informed approaches highlighting the underlying mechanisms and specifying which data and algorithms best capture those mechanisms in each research context

performance diversity and national identity evidence from association football the increasing national diversity of coworkers has no consensus on its impact on performance using a team s predominant nationality as a proxy for national diversity and national identity there is robust evidence that it affects team and individual performance detailed worker level data from a highly globalized industry association football show a nonlinear relationship between performance and the predominant nationality of a team s roster as the number of members from the predominant nationality increases performance declines however beyond a threshold level performance rises it follows that performance benefits from national diversity when the predominant nationality is small and from national identity when it is large jel m14 z21 z22 j15

the attention stimulus of cultural differences in global services sourcing contrasting with extant research centred on the organizational challenges of sourcing services in culturally distant countries we show that cultural differences between home and host countries do not prevent firms from achieving their cost savings targets instead the effect is positive both for the captive and outsourcing governance models using insight from social psychology research and the theory of organizations we build the argument that the positive effect is due to cultural differences providing an attention stimulus for decision makers to thoroughly gather and process information on the costs and benefits of global sourcing thereby reducing the risk of cost estimation errors the empirical validation uses a data set of 624 global services sourcing initiatives obtained from the offshoring research network complemented with multiple external sources of cross country data on cultural differences languages geographic distance and education levels the main contribution of the article is to add much needed nuance to the otherwise monotonic negative view of cultural differences in extant global sourcing literature moreover the original theoretical framework and resulting attention stimulus argument we develop open new avenues for research on the consequences of cultural differences in international business operations more broadly

an overview of hofstede inspired country level culture research in international business since 2006 kirkman lowe gibson s 2006 jibs article summarized and critiqued international business research inspired by the most cited book in the field hofstede s 1980 culture s consequences international differences in work related values hofstede 1980 2001 they identified a number of issues in this research and offered several recommendations for improving it in the future thus laying a strong foundation for hofstede related work since 2006 in this commentary we assess kirkman et al s 2006 impact on the field our review shows that their ideas have informed and inspired their own and other scholars work and have led to significant progress in the way in which hofstede s framework has been used in international business in the last decade here we specifically focus on the country level culture studies and assess how research has implemented kirkman et al s three main recommendations to explore cultural dimensions beyond those introduced by hofstede to distinguish between country effects and cultural effects and to show not only if culture matters but also how much it matters in addition to the overview we provide a comprehensive test of these recommendations showing how they can be put into research practice underscoring the theoretical and empirical relevance of the original 2006 article our commentary concludes with additional ideas on further strengthening hofstede inspired research at the country level of analysis

coalitional politics economic reform and technological upgrading in malaysia summary many attribute malaysia s admirable economic growth to liberal economic policies however this view ignores the way coalitional politics often drove illiberal government intervention in the economy to correct ethnically based economic inequality create national heavy industries and favor politically well connected entrepreneurs a more nuanced analysis reveals a complex mix of liberal and illiberal economic policies designed to balance competing coalitional interests these policies led to rapid economic growth sufficient to support redistributive politics yet they also retarded technological development leaving malaysia mired in mediocrity neither price competitive with china nor technologically competitive with singapore the east asian nics or the oecd countries

the cross cultural research imperative the need to balance cross national and intra national diversity this paper provides a brief overview of the evolution of comparative management theories paradigms and highlights the contribution of the cross vergence construct despite progress most studies of work values across countries continue to suffer from two primary limitations the first is the fallacious assumption of cultural homogeneity with nations given the growing diversity of the workforce within country intra national variations can often be as significant as cross national differences the second is the fallacious assumption of cultural stability over time since cultures evolve albeit slowly it is important to take these changes over time into consideration and be aware of the paradoxes inherent within any given society hence the paper calls for the need to balance cross national and intra national diversity in order to truly understand cross cultural phenomena and thus further improve the quality of cross cultural research

differences in managerial values a study of u s hong kong and prc managers in this study of convergence divergence of managerial values four western developed measures machiavellianism locus of control intolerance of ambiguity and dogmatism and the four dimensions of the eastern developed chinese value survey confucian dynamism human heartedness integration and moral discipline were the measures used the findings indicate that often times both culture and the business environment interact to create a unique set of managerial values in a country

flexible production systems and local machine tool subcontracting electronics components transnationals in malaysia this paper examines the influence of flexible production systems on the development of local sourcing using information gathered on production relationships between firms it shows that the introduction of flexible production systems in electronics components transnationals in malaysia stimulated the growth of local machine tool firms a combination of market forces and cooperation strengthened subcontracting links between electronics components transnationals and local machine tool firms such that the latter experienced considerable technological broadening and deepening thereby transforming them from simple parts to high precision tooling and automation systems manufacturers copyright 1994 by oxford university press

enhancing international customer supplier relationships through it resources a study of taiwanese electronics suppliers the growing popularity of outsourcing and offshore partnering activities raises the issue of what strategies are appropriate for firms to successfully manage customer supplier relationships in the international context little has been written about how information technology it systems may impact on international exchange relationships in the present study we report on how suppliers use it as a strategic resource to govern their international exchange relationships with multinational enterprise customers taking the supplier s perspective we propose that two types of it resources it advancement and electronic integration create value for suppliers with respect to innovativeness and market performance we argue that this value creation process is mediated by three specific forms of governance cooperativeness output monitoring and behavior monitoring to test these arguments primary data obtained from 240 taiwanese electronics suppliers are used for hypothesis testing the survey results provide evidence that suppliers it resources enable them to work effectively with their international key customers importantly of the three governance mechanisms cooperativeness has the strongest impact on supplier performance owing to supplier electronic integration post hoc analysis revealed that cultural distance does not play a role in moderating the relationship between it resources and governance mechanisms in international exchange

when is traditionalism an asset and when is it a liability for team innovation a two study empirical examination team innovation requires idea generating and idea implementing in two studies we examine how these team activities are affected by the extent to which members value traditionalism that is placing importance on preserving old ways of doing things over breaking precedent and forging new approaches we proposed that higher average levels of team traditionalism would be negatively associated with idea generating but positively associated with idea implementing conversely we proposed the opposite effects for diversity on team traditionalism further we argued that these effects would be mediated by team process conflict because diversity on team traditionalism might make it more likely that members will debate what to retain versus newly adopt and team agreement is more likely to occur when team members values are shared rather than discrepant with one another supporting our assertions we found that whether traditionalism is an asset or liability for team innovation depends on whether 1 the average level versus diversity of team traditionalism is examined and 2 idea generating versus idea implementing is of primary importance specifically idea generating benefits from higher diversity on team traditionalism whereas idea implementing benefits from higher average levels of team traditionalism we discuss theoretical and practical implications

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

a framework to update hofstede s cultural value indices economic dynamics and institutional stability this study offers an update of the hofstede cultural value dimensions we argue that changes in economic conditions are the source of cultural dynamics while the endurance of institutional characteristics provides the foundation for cultural stability it is found that national wealth measured by gdp per capita has a curvilinear relationship with individualism long term orientation and power distance scores relatively speaking uncertainty avoidance and masculinity mainly reflect some rather stable institutional traditions such as language religion climate ethnic homogeneity and legal origin and are less likely to change over time

the globe debate back to relevance this is a critical summary review of the debate about the global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness globe study in jibs and other journals between november 2006 and the present issue several contributors did not realize that globe used three essential constructs taken from my publications in a sense entirely different from mine values practices and organizational culture not recognizing the ensuing confusion they had no answer for the question in my 2006 review what did globe really measure if you do not know what you are talking about you can continue arguing for ever beyond the fuzziness of what is measured the debate leaves us with an even more fundamental question what is the use of the globe dimensions

from crossing cultures to straddling them an empirical examination of outcomes for multicultural employees international organizations ranging from large mncs to small born global firms are increasingly recognizing that multicultural employees can help them operate across countries and across cultures however multiculturals individuals who identify with and internalize more than one culture are a diverse group and organizations seeking to leverage their potential can benefit from a deeper understanding of the resources they possess and the challenges they face we conducted three studies with a total of 1196 participants to test relationships between multicultural identity patterns and personal social and task outcomes consistent results across studies indicated that individuals with more cultural identities higher identity plurality had more social capital and higher levels of intercultural skills than those with fewer cultural identities while individuals who integrated their cultural identities higher identity integration experienced higher levels of personal well being than those who separated them based on these results we advocate for two directions in future research on multicultural employees moving beyond cognitive mechanisms alone and examining monocultural and multicultural individuals simultaneously along the spectrum of identity plurality

the multifaceted role of language in international business unpacking the forms functions and features of a critical challenge to mnc theory and performance language lies at the heart of international business ib activities yet language as a key construct in the field of ib has not been sufficiently articulated or theorized language presents itself in forms such as national corporate technical or electronic in functions in terms of defining hierarchies exercising power or facilitating integration and in features such as the use of mixed syntax or gender marking understanding the complex interplay between the multiple facets of language and how they affect day to day operations is becoming increasingly critical to global business effectiveness the purpose of this special issue is therefore to catalyze and set a course for the development of a new domain in ib scholarship originating from an explicit focus on language

cultural friction in leadership beliefs and foreign invested enterprise survival cultural friction posits that cultural differences may be either synergistic or disruptive but does not specify when or how synergies or disruptions emerge we theorize that synergies will emerge in foreign invested enterprises fies when cultural differences in leadership beliefs are less central to the host nation s cultural identity while disruption will occur when differences are in more culturally central leadership beliefs analyzing survival data from 274 fies in china we found support for these hypotheses with five of the six globe leadership dimensions as predicted differences in the participative and team oriented dimensions were associated with higher firm death while differences in the charismatic autonomous and self protective dimensions were associated with firm survival our results indicate that while there are areas where differences may indeed need to be accepted or minimized there are other areas where differences can be beneficial this requires that managers identify more central aspects of local culture to determine whether to minimize differences or to leverage their synergistic potential

will the stork return to europe and japan understanding fertility within developed nations we seek to explain the differences in fertility rates across high income countries by focusing on the interaction between the increasing status of women in the workforce and their status in the household particularly with regards to child care and home production we observe three distinct phases in women s status generated by the gradual increase in women s workforce opportunities in the earliest phase characteristic of the 1950s and 1960s in the united states women earn low wages relative to men and are expected to shoulder all of the child care at home as a result most women specialize in home production and raising children in an intermediate stage women have improved but not equal labor market opportunities but their household status lags women in this stage are still expected to do the majority of child care and household production increasing access to market work increases the opportunity cost of having children and fertility falls female labor force participation increases working women in this phase of development have the strongest disincentives to having additional children since the entire burden of child care falls on them in the final phase of development women s labor market opportunities begin to equal those of men in addition the increased household bargaining power that comes from more equal wages results in much higher if not gender equal male participation in household production female labor force participation is higher than in the intermediate phase the increased participation of men in the household also reduces the disincentives for women to have additional children and fertility rates rise compared to the intermediate phase the intermediate low fertility phase might describe japan italy and spain in the present day while the scandinavian countries the netherlands and the modern day united states may be entering the final phase after presenting the empirical evidence we predict that high income countries with the lowest fertility rates are likely to see an increase in fertility in the coming decades

science s reproducibility and replicability crisis international business is not immune international business is not immune to science s reproducibility and replicability crisis we argue that this crisis is not entirely surprising given the methodological practices that enhance systematic capitalization on chance this occurs when researchers search for a maximally predictive statistical model based on a particular dataset and engage in several trial and error steps that are rarely disclosed in published articles we describe systematic capitalization on chance distinguish it from unsystematic capitalization on chance address five common practices that capitalize on chance and offer actionable strategies to minimize the capitalization on chance and improve the reproducibility and replicability of future ib research

how non native english speaking staff are evaluated in linguistically diverse organizations a sociolinguistic perspective the aim of this paper is to examine the effects of evaluations of non native speaking staff s spoken english in international business settings we adopt a sociolinguistic perspective on power and inequalities in linguistically diverse organizations in an anglophone environment the interpretive qualitative study draws on 54 interviews with non native english speaking staff in 19 uk business schools we analyze along the dimensions of status solidarity and dynamism the ways in which non native speakers on the basis of their spoken english are evaluated by themselves and by listeners we show how such evaluations refer to issues beyond the speaker s linguistic fluency and have consequences for her or his actions the study contributes to the literature on language and power in international business through offering fine grained insights into and elucidating how the interconnected evaluative processes impact the formation and perpetuation of organizational power relations and inequalities it also puts forward implications for managing the officially monolingual yet linguistically diverse organizations

job complexity and learning opportunities a silver lining in the design of global virtual work a vast majority of research on global virtual work focuses on the struggles for workers as they navigate geographic cultural language and time zone differences our research suggests that despite these struggles global virtual work may offer significant benefits to workers we interviewed 78 engineers about their experiences of working globally and then surveyed 515 knowledge workers who worked either with globally distributed or exclusively collocated colleagues global virtual work was associated with workers positive appraisal of the work s complexity and learning potential which in turn improved innovation satisfaction and engagement these effects however relied on workers off job recovery between workdays

cultural and language skills as resources for boundary spanning within the mnc we examine the role of cultural and language skills as resources for individuals boundary spanning ability in multinational corporations our combined qualitative and quantitative analysis shows that cultural and language skills influence the extent to which individual boundary spanners perform four functions exchanging linking facilitating and intervening boundary spanners with both cultural and language skills perform more functions than those with only cultural skills and language skills are critical for performing the most demanding functions key boundary spanners have properties that potentially make them not only valuable organizational human capital but also rare and difficult to imitate theoretical and practical implications are discussed

cultural gap bridging in multinational teams multinational teams are an organizational reality but they present several challenges the literature suggests that individuals with multicultural identities are more likely to show behaviors that aim at improving intercultural interactions in multinational teams though scholars have yet to determine the precise nature of these behaviors we address this research gap in a multimethod two study design by identifying five team cultural gap bridging behaviors cgb behaviors facilitating translating integrating mediating and empathetic comforting in study 1 we draw on one qualitative and two quantitative datasets to identify within team cgb behaviors and develop a measure of cgb behaviors in study 2 drawing from two wave survey data we investigate and find support for the direct relationships between cultural identity plurality and cgb behaviors and the indirect relationships via cultural intelligence

the accumulation of dis advantage the intersection of gender and race in the long term wage effect of marriage a sizable literature examines whether and why marriage affects men s and women s wages this study advances current research in two ways first whereas most prior studies treat the effect of marri

culture and international business recent advances and their implications for future research the paper provides a state of the art review of several innovative advances in culture and international business ib to stimulate new avenues for future research we first review the issues surrounding cultural convergence and divergence and the processes underlying cultural changes we then examine novel constructs for characterizing cultures and how to enhance the precision of cultural models by pinpointing when cultural effects are important finally we examine the usefulness of experimental methods which are rarely used by ib researchers implications of these path breaking approaches for future research on culture and ib are discussed

inflation and other aggregate determinants of the trend in us divorce rates since the 1960s this article extends empirical research on the determinants of divorce in two ways first i examine the effect of inflation on divorce second the use of a structural time series modelling approach attributes unobservables and omitted variables to an unobserved component which allows for the model s parameters to be estimated consistently inflation is statistically significant positive and persistent i show that the effects of inflation are robust to the inclusion of additional explanatory variables and various trend specifications the long run implications of inflation are also substantial i conclude that price stability has the potential to reduce divorce rates

national culture and dividend policy this interdisciplinary study examines how national culture affects corporate dividend policies the dividend puzzle is one of the most studied yet unresolved issues in financial economics prior theoretical and empirical research has suggested several explanations of the dividend puzzle that are rooted mainly in agency asymmetric information bird in hand and pecking order theories the main intuition behind our analysis is that dividend policy may be determined not only by an objective assessment of the severity of agency and asymmetric information problems within a firm but also by management s and investors subjective perceptions of these problems which hinge on their national culture using schwartz s national culture dimensions conservatism and mastery we find that conservatism is positively related and mastery negatively related to dividend payouts for a sample of 27 462 firm years from 21 countries between 1995 and 2007 these effects are robust to controls for a wide variety of other determinants of dividend policy including investor protection stock market performance financial system configuration tax advantage economic development and dividend catering premium and to alternative culture proxies and sub period windows our findings that national culture affects perceptions of and responses to agency and information asymmetry have important implications for policymakers and multinational enterprises

a comparative study of the work values of north and south vietnamese managers we examine managerial work values and subsequent behaviors of vietnamese managers that foreign investors may face doing business in vietnam to establish a global reference point we compare the managerial values of vietnamese managers with those of chinese and u s managers the findings from this exploratory study while not always intuitive should help foreign investors to better understand vietnam furthermore the study raises important theoretical issues concerning individualism and collectivism as cross cultural measures

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

employees willingness to adopt a foreign functional language in multilingual organizations the role of linguistic identity language holds a central role in sustainable international expansion for multinationals the choice of the functional language can facilitate or hinder communication between headquarters and subsidiary locations in order to communicate effectively with the parent organization host country employees often have to adopt a language that is not native to the subsidiary region we take a subsidiary employee perspective in presenting an interdisciplinary theoretical model of host country employees willingness to adopt a foreign language in multinational organizations the construct of linguistic identity shaped by the linguistic landscape of the host location is introduced as an important determinant in this process specifically the foreign functional language may pose a threat to the employees existing linguistic identity willingness to adopt the foreign functional language may depend upon the extent of this perceived threat we incorporate the effects of foreign language proficiency and individuals motivation for enhancement in the theoretical model both high proficiency in a foreign language and need for social economic and career enhancements can increase individuals willingness to adopt the foreign functional language finally we develop and present implications of the linguistic identity processes for entry mode location and language strategies

avoiding uncertainty in hofstede and globe this paper compares the uncertainty avoidance ua dimension of national culture across the hofstede and globe models looking at relationships in both data and analysis rather than mutual support we detail major differences and anomalies across the studies we show how these anomalies are resulting in contradictory explanations in research on national differences across a range of individual firm and country level phenomena we clarify the ua measurement in both hofstede and globe and find that the two models are measuring different components of the ua construct we propose a two component model of ua namely ua stress and ua rule orientation and confirm its validity with national culture data from the hofstede and globe studies and economic data from the world bank we also explain the negative globe ua practices values relationship using motivational theories a way forward in future ua related research is suggested the hofstede ua index the globe ua practices scores and the globe ua values scores should be used within the specific domains that they represent that is stress rule orientation practices and rule orientation aspirations respectively resolving the contradictions in ua between and within hofstede and globe will help cross cultural researchers develop more robust theories and more practical recommendations for international business management

a retrospective on culture s consequences the 35 year journey abstract our 2006 journal of international business studies article a quarter century of culture s consequences a review of the empirical research incorporating hofstede s cultural values framework provided a comprehensive review of 180 empirical journal articles and edited volume chapters published between 1980 and june 2002 that incorporated hofstede s cross cultural values framework we examined empirical research that positioned culture as either a main or moderating effect the review attempted to make sense of the almost quarter century of research examining the impact of culture at the individual group organization and country levels in the present commentary we provide a a summary of the progress that has been made in the intervening decade and most importantly b a new set of recommendations for the next decade to guide those wishing to study the role of national culture in organizations

distance without direction restoring credibility to a much loved construct in this commentary we build on shenkar s 2001 award winning critique of cultural distance arguing that most distance constructs in fact suffer the same flaws because they oversimplify the relationship between countries overlook their subjective and context specific nature and pay insufficient attention to the mechanisms through which distance operates the idea of distance however has intrinsic value moreover its considerable appeal and undeniable effectiveness have made it a well entrenched construct therefore we see merit in redressing its weaknesses and offer several suggestions for doing so these include allowing for the influence of firm level characteristics that either moderate the effects of distance or render distance at least in part subjective with varying consequences for different mnes maintaining directionality by distinguishing between distance and the tendency toward a particular characteristic and acknowledging asymmetry and conceptualizing the effects of distance and the mechanisms through which it operates more carefully by drawing on concepts and measures from a variety of disciplines by offering ways to strengthen both its theoretical foundations and measurement we hope to enhance the usefulness of one of international business theory s most central constructs

values and marginal preferences in international business in a recent paper in this journal maseland and van hoorn argued that values surveys tend to conflate values and marginal preferences this assertion has been challenged by brewer and venaik who claim that the wording of most survey items does not suggest that these elicit marginal preferences this commentary responds to their claim and restates our original argument we stress that the distinction between values and marginal preferences is a conceptual rather than a semantic issue conflation of the two is a problem of stated preferences methods in general regardless of question formats what is more we argue that support for the marginal preferences interpretation of values survey data does not come from the specific wording of questions used in surveys but from a growing number of paradoxical relations between values ratings and outcomes in values research implications are twofold first we argue that in order to measure values we need to look at alternatives to the stated preferences approach such as revealed preferences and experienced preferences of which the latter seems most promising second we find that values surveys eliciting marginal preferences are useful for understanding and predicting differences in behavior in a given context

does the welfare state destroy the family evidence from oecd member countries we study the effect of the size of the welfare state on family outcomes in oecd member countries exploiting exogenous variation in public social spending due to varying degrees of political fractionalization i e the number of relevant parties involved in the legislative process we show that an expansion in the welfare state increases the fertility marriage and divorce rates with a quantitatively stronger effect on the marriage rate we conclude that the welfare state supports family formation nevertheless we also find that the welfare state decouples marriage and fertility and therefore alters the organization of the family authors abstract

cultural intelligence a theory based short form measure this article reports the development and validation of a theory based short form measure of cultural intelligence sfcq the sfcq captures the original theoretical intent of a multifaceted culture general form of intelligence that is related to effective intercultural interactions the validity of the scale is established with 3526 participants in five language groups from around the world results provide evidence for construct and criterion related validity of the measure and indicate that cultural intelligence is a single latent factor reflected in three intermediate facets in support of construct validity the measure is modestly related to but distinct from emotional intelligence and personality and correlates positively with several indicators of multicultural experience with regard to criterion related validity it relates as predicted to several dimensions of intercultural effectiveness implications for the measurement and understanding of culture and the influence of culture on management practice are discussed

the positive role of global leaders in enhancing multicultural team innovation this study contributes to the empirical research on leadership of multicultural teams from the positive organizational scholarship perspective pos following the information decision making processes perspective on team cultural diversity we examined the positive effect of leaders global identity on multicultural team innovation we proposed that r d multicultural team leaders with high global identity foster team shared innovation goals and motivate team members to adopt communication inclusion behavior making sure that they all understand each other furthermore we propose that the effect of fostering team shared innovation goals on communication inclusion will be stronger for teams with perceived high rather than low cultural diversity and that team communication inclusion will positively affect team innovation participants were 574 r d multicultural team members their leaders and their leaders managers in 82 co located teams in a chinese branch of a large german global organization using sem analysis our findings supported our research model demonstrating that multicultural team leaders with high global identity leveraged cultural diversity to promote innovative goals which further enhanced team communication inclusion and its positive impact on team innovation we discuss the theoretical and practical implications to the pos perspective on cultural diversity

national culture and expatriate deployment we hypothesize that expatriate deployment is a control function predicted by home country culture dimensions with transaction cost and agency repercussions rather than culture in the aggregate this departure from the traditional conceptualization and measurement of cultural impact also yields a hypothesized asymmetrical effect which is tested for a multi country sample of 236 multinational subsidiaries using multiple measures of national culture hypotheses are supported with assertiveness and power distance confirmed as prime predictors of expatriate deployment

language as a lightning rod power contests emotion regulation and subgroup dynamics in global teams based on an ethnographic study comprising interviews with and observations of 96 globally distributed members of six software development teams we propose a model that captures how asymmetries in language fluency contribute to an us vs them dynamic common in global teams faultlines formed along the dimensions of asymmetries in lingua franca fluency location and nationality of team members were associated with subgrouping in some but not all of the teams our findings suggest that divisive subgroup dynamics occurred only in teams that also suffered from power contests suggesting that power contests activate otherwise dormant faultlines our findings extend theory on subgroup dynamics in global teams by adding language as a potential faultline dimension showing how power struggles activated faultlines and were in turn reinforced by them and documenting the emotion regulation processes triggered by subgrouping and enacted through language related choices and behaviors

re considering language within a cosmopolitan understanding toward a multilingual franca approach in international business studies much of the literature on language in international business ib has sought either to lay out the advantages of a common language or lingua franca that crosses the linguistic boundaries of a multinational company mnc harzing koster magner 2011 luo shenkar 2006 or to identify the imperialistic and hegemonic effects of using such lingua franca which mostly turns out to be english on actors in local subsidiaries piekkari vaara tienari santti 2005 tietze 2008 in our view looking into the relationship between globalization and language s is more complex than simply pointing at the proliferation of english and the effects of its linguistic imperialism within one global market place actually there is within every process of globalization simultaneously a genuine concern about issues of localization and contextualization appadurai 1996 bauman 1998 also increased mobility has provided people access to very fragmented and incomplete language repertoires often consisting of spoken vernacular and accented varieties of different languages in which they have differentially developed literacy skills blommaert dong 2010 such complexities between globalization processes and linguistic repertoires raise the question of how until now studies on language in ib tend to approach the notion of language itself and how they often implicitly think about the relationship between universality and particularity when studying language within globalization processes

do labor market opportunities affect young women s work and family decisions experimental evidence from india do labor market opportunities for women affect marriage and fertility decisions we provided three years of recruiting services to help young women in randomly selected rural indian villages get jobs in the business process outsourcing industry because the industry was so new at the time of the study there was almost no awareness of these jobs allowing us in effect to exogenously increase women s labor force opportunities from the perspective of rural households we find that young women in treatment villages were significantly less likely to get married or have children during this period choosing instead to enter the labor market or obtain more schooling or postschool training women also report wanting to have fewer children and to work more steadily throughout their lifetime consistent with increased aspirations for a career copyright 2012 oxford university press

upgrading the technological capabilities of foreign transnational subsidiaries in developing countries the case of electronics in thailand although substantial research shows the importance of transnational corporations tncs to export led growth in some developing countries it cannot be assumed that tnc subsidiaries will automatically upgrade their capabilities through time or in a uniform fashion this paper explores the pattern and pace of a sample of exporting tnc subsidiaries operating in the electronics industry in thailand showing how the different architectures of global value chains centralised versus decentralised shaped the technological progress of subsidiaries in this country the case evidence suggests a wide variety in upgrading through time with some subsidiaries failing to develop capabilities and remaining as assembly only plants other more dynamic plants developed process engineering and product design skills investing heavily in capability building one common determinant in capability building appears to be the overall technology strategy of the global value chain leader or parent company in those subsidiaries which did not upgrade beyond assembly technology decisions and processes were tightly controlled within the parent headquarter locations in relatively centralised international value networks by contrast the more dynamic plants exercised more discretion over local capability building the latter operated in relatively decentralised networks more open to domestic policies to encourage upgrading the study suggests that governments should tailor upgrading policies not only according to the approximate level of capabilities attained by local subsidiaries but also according to how receptive subsidiaries are to upgrading arguing that capability building and policy receptiveness go hand in hand other countries hoping to upgrade the quality of foreign direct investment might also wish to focus policies on the more technologically capable ambitious and receptive categories of foreign subsidiary

exploring the present through the past claudia goldin is one of the world s leading economists and economic historians and has made a series of outstanding and original contributions particularly to the cliometric or the new economic history literature in this interview professor goldin discusses with brian snowdon who first provides a background introduction several important issues relating to her research on economic history and cliometrics the economics of slavery us economic history corruption in america the role of human capital and education in us economic development wage inequality female labour force participation and the quiet revolution the influence of the contraceptive pill women s surnames the reversal of the college gender gap and women in the economics profession

widening the lens rethinking distance diversity and foreignness in international business research through positive organizational scholarship the point of departure for the special issue is that current theory and research in international business ib may have overly emphasized a negative view on foreignness distance and differences of all kinds national cultural organizational and institutional with an emphasis on liabilities and adverse outcomes associated with such differences while existing research is certainly valuable we argue that focusing on mostly negative processes and outcomes has hindered our understanding of the dynamics processes and conditions that enable organizations to benefit from diversity in a wide range of ib contexts the goal of this special issue is to promote research that is in line with a positive organizational scholarship perspective which encourages scholars to look at commonly considered phenomena in new ways as well as to explicitly consider positive phenomena in ib research we then introduce the three articles included in the special issue and highlight how they help ib scholars better understand when and how foreignness distance and diversity can enhance organizational effectiveness and performance at multiple levels

the impact of natural culture and economic ideology on managerial work values a study of the united states russia japan and china this study assesses the impact of economic ideology and national culture on the individual work values of managers in the united states russia japan and china the convergence divergence crossvergence cdc framework was used as theoretical framework for the study while the schwartz value survey svs was used to operationalize over investigation of managerial work values across these four countries the findings largely support the crossvergence prospective while also confirming the role of national culture implications from the findings are drawn for the convergence divergence crossvergence of values as well as for the feasibility of multidomestic or global strategies for a corporate culture

economic creativity and innovation implementation the entrepreneurial drivers of growth evidence from 63 countries this paper examines the effect of culture on national innovation and prosperity because culture shapes the way people think about and behave in regard to risk opportunities and rewards it should influence the nature of entrepreneurial activity and by extension economic outcomes using structural equation modeling on a sample of 63 countries we propose and test a comprehensive explanation of how culture as an umbrella construct as opposed to an analysis of its constituent parts affects innovation and national prosperity we propose a two stage model of innovation and find support for our hypothesized relationship that economic creativity influences innovation implementation at the national level we find that culture does indeed influence economic creativity we also find that innovation implementation explained some of the variation in prosperity across countries by establishing that big picture culture matters to innovation the door has opened for researchers to evaluate this relationship using data from any one of a number of rival culture frameworks moreover these empirical finding buttress the theoretical arguments that culture powerfully shapes the character of national innovation

an analysis of out of wedlock childbearing in the united states this paper relates the erosion of the custom of shotgun marriage to the legalization of abortion and the increased availability of contraception to unmarried women in the united states the decline in shotgun marriage accounts for a significant fraction of the increase in out of wedlock first births several models illustrate the analogy between women who do not adopt either birth control or abortion and the hand loom weavers both victims of changing technology mechanisms causing female immiseration are modeled and historically described this technology shock hypothesis is an alternative to welfare and job shortage theories of the feminization of poverty excerpt

how to promote clusters policy experiences from latin america abstract in this paper we propose to differentiate between three types of clusters when it comes to formulating cluster oriented policies in latin america survival clusters of micro and small scale enterprises owe their existence more to unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and less to entrepreneurial competence and dynamism their competitive potential is limited support measures should mainly aim at improving the conditions for survival since these clusters are important in creating employment opportunities the impetus should be to break through the low skills low investment vicious circle more advanced and differentiated mass producers have been flourishing in the import substitution era but are coming under enormous pressure with the transition to open economies in these clusters the main challenge is to create an environment that stimulates and supports learning innovation and constant upgrading clusters of transnational corporations are typically dominated by foreign firms not only at the final assembly stage but also in parts production these clusters often are showcases of best practice manufacturing this can be used to stimulate the upgrading of domestic firms notably by involving them in the supply chain of transnationals

unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams a meta analysis of research on multicultural work groups previous research on the role of cultural diversity in teams is equivocal suggesting that cultural diversity s effect on teams is mediated by specific team processes and moderated by contextual variables to reconcile conflicting perspectives and past results we propose that cultural diversity affects teams through process losses and gains associated with increased divergence and decreased convergence we examine whether the level surface level vs deep level and type cross national vs intra national of cultural diversity affect these processes differently we hypothesize that task complexity and structural aspects of the team such as team size team tenure and team dispersion moderate the effects of cultural diversity on teams we test the hypotheses with a meta analysis of 108 empirical studies on processes and performance in 10 632 teams results suggest that cultural diversity leads to process losses through task conflict and decreased social integration but to process gains through increased creativity and satisfaction the effects are almost identical for both levels and types of cultural diversity moderator analyses reveal that the effects of cultural diversity vary depending on contextual influences as well as on research design and sample characteristics we propose an agenda for future research and identify implications for managers

leader openness nationality dissimilarity and voice in multinational management teams we argue that leader directed voice i e communicating critical suggestions for change to the leader is a relational phenomenon and that it is affected by an inherent feature of multinational teams members dis similarities in nationality we tested our hypotheses in a sample of middle managers who were working in multinational teams the results of this study show that leaders of multinational teams are more likely to profit from the local know how of employees from underrepresented nationalities when they are open to their ideas and when they have the same nationality the study also shows that the effects of being open to employees ideas and sharing the same nationality are mediated by affective commitment and psychological safety respectively we discuss how even though the current relational demography perspective with its dichotomous understanding of dis similarity is not suited to capture the dynamics of cultural differences it does set the stage for future studies to examine the cultural dynamics behind an individual s experience of being different from other team members in multinational teams we also discuss the practical implications of these findings for multinational companies

the effects of rural electrification on employment new evidence from south africa this paper estimates the impact of electrification on employment growth by analyzing south africa s mass roll out of electricity to rural households using several new data sources and two different identification strategies an instrumental variables strategy and a fixed effects approach i find that electrification significantly raises female employment within five years this new infrastructure appears to increase hours of work for men and women while reducing female wages and increasing male earnings several pieces of evidence suggest that household electrification raises employment by releasing women from home production and enabling microenterprises migration behavior may also be affected jel h54 l94

the rise of female professionals are women responding to skill demand for years college educated women were limited mainly to lower paying female dominated professions such as teaching and nursing over the past several decades however there has been a remarkable increase in the percentage of college educated women in higher paying traditionally male professional occupations in 1967 the fraction of college educated women working in these occupations was less than 20 percent by 1997 this number had increased to almost 40 percent this increase is particularly striking when compared to the slightly declining trend among college educated men what can explain this increase in female professionals there are a number of possible explanations one explanation is a demand shift favoring women over men in these highly skilled occupations while the notion of a gender specific demand shift is compelling in the case of high school graduate men and women who work in very different industries and occupations the story is much less convincing for the college educated group collegeeducated men and women work in more similar occupations and are presumably closer substitutes for each other to the extent that they are different the available evidence suggests that this may have worked to the disadvantage of women see francine blau and lawrence kahn 1997 another explanation and the one we focus on in this paper is that college educated women have responded to the rise in overall skill demand a phenomenon which has characterized the u s labor market during the 1980 s and perhaps even as early as the 1970 s an important margin of response for these women may have been labor market participation in 1970 less than 60 percent of college educated women were working the economy wide rise in skill demand may have attracted educated women not only from other occupations but from nonparticipation as well since virtually all college educated men work labor market participation is less likely to be a factor for men while we postulate that the overall increase in skill demand played an important role we are also aware that this is not the only explanation within these high wage professional occupations women s wages rose relative to male wages even as women increased their share this suggests to us that declining discrimination which both made it easier for women to enter these occupations and resulted in wage convergence vis a vis the male workers or unobserved skill upgrading also may have played a role in addition the spread of more effective birthcontrol devices roe v wade and no fault divorce laws just to name a few of the factors which changed marriage and fertility patterns of women also most likely contributed to women s willingness and ability to invest in career jobs see claudia goldin and lawrence katz 2000

birth control and female empowerment an equilibrium analysis we analyze from a theoretical perspective the impact of innovations in birth control technology on intrahousehold allocation of resources we consider a model of frictionless matching on the marriage market in which men as well as women differ in their preferences for children moreover men unlike women must marry to enjoy fatherhood we show that more efficient birth control technologies generally increase the power hence the welfare of all women including those who do not use them this empowerment effect requires that the new technology be available to single women an innovation reserved to married women may result in a disempowerment effect

managing formalization to increase global team effectiveness and meaningfulness of work in multinational organizations global teams may help to integrate across locations and yet with formalized rules and procedures responsiveness to those locations effectiveness and the team members experiences of work as meaningful may suffer we employ a mixed methods approach to understand how the level and content of formalization can be managed to resolve these tensions in multinationals in a sample of global teams from a large mining and resources organization operating across 44 countries interviews observations and a quantitative 2 wave survey revealed a great deal of variability between teams in how formalization processes were enacted only those formalization processes that promoted knowledge sharing were instrumental in improving team effectiveness implementing rules and procedures in the set up of the teams and projects rather than during interactions and utilizing protocols to help establish the global team as a source of identity increased this knowledge sharing finally we found members personal need for structure moderated the effect of team formalization on how meaningful individuals found their work within the team these findings have significant implications for theory and practice in multinational organizations

what did globe really measure researchers minds versus respondents minds the globe research program expanded the hofstede model of five dimensions of national cultures to 18 a re analysis based on globe s 2004 summary book produced five meta factors one was significantly correlated with gnp capita and from the hofstede dimensions primarily with power distance three more correlated significantly with hofstede s individualism uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation the fifth included the few globe questions that related to hofstede s dimension of masculinity versus femininity globe s respondents minds classified the questions in a way that the researchers minds did not account for and which closely resembles the original hofstede model

media choice in multilingual virtual teams this study investigates the impact of language barriers on multilingual virtual teams members choice between different communication media in their inner team interactions through interviewing team leaders and members in both mono and multilingual virtual teams we discover discrepancies in media choice and media performance between these two settings and identify foreign language induced cognitive load as a key reason for these divergences our study advances research on communication and knowledge exchange in multilingual virtual collaboration by showing how language barriers alter the process of converging different viewpoints through team interaction by suggesting language related modifications to the seminal media synchronicity theory and by demonstrating the benefits of new media in multilingual settings it also broadens the disciplinary scope of language research in international business by introducing theories from communication studies and cognitive research in practical terms it highlights the benefits of redundant communication the need for an adequate media infrastructure in multinational corporations and the importance of motivating team members to use new media

aid fragmentation or aid pluralism the effect of multiple donors on child survival in developing countries 1990 2010 while most policy makers and researchers stress the negative impact of aid fragmentation on development outcomes in recipient countries we argue that the greater diversity of perspectives entailed by higher multiplicity of donors can help select better policies we hypothesize a u shaped relationship countries with a moderate number of donors fare better than countries with either few or many donors the hypothesis is supported by a generalized method of moments gmm analysis of the relationship between health aid donors and child survival in 110 low and middle income countries during 1990 2010

the impact of language barriers on trust formation in multinational teams this study systematically investigates how language barriers influence trust formation in multinational teams mnts on the basis of 90 interviews with team members team leaders and senior managers in 15 mnts in 3 german automotive corporations the authors show how mnt members cognitive and emotional reactions to language barriers influence their perceived trustworthiness and intention to trust which in turn affect trust formation the authors contribute to diversity research by distinguishing the exclusively negative language effects from the more ambivalent effects of other diversity dimensions their findings also illustrate how surface level language diversity may create perceptions of deep level diversity furthermore their study advances mnt research by revealing the specific influences of language barriers on team trust an important mediator between team inputs and performance outcomes it thereby encourages the examination of other team processes through a language lens finally their study suggests that multilingual settings necessitate a reexamination and modification of the seminal trust theories by mayer davis and schoorman and by mcallister in terms of practical implications the authors outline how mnt leaders can manage their subordinates problematic reactions to language barriers and how mnt members can enhance their perceived trustworthiness in multilingual settings

explaining the negative correlation between values and practices a note on the hofstede globe debate this note provides an explanation for the presumably counterintuitive negative correlations between values and practices reported by the global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness project we argue that such results are compatible with basic microeconomic insights concerning diminishing marginal utility this explanation implies that values surveys as they are generally elicit marginal preferences rather than underlying values therefore they are a problematic instrument for the measurement of cultures and need to be improved so as to discriminate between the importance attached to an objective in general and that attached to it given current levels of satiation

leading cultural research in the future a matter of paradigms and taste the styles and approaches used in cross cultural organizational research are nearly as varied as the cultures under study we see two variations of one dominant style in the work of hofstede and the globe research consortium in this commentary i shall place these approaches in context and discuss alternatives that seem to be highly promising but largely overlooked based on this analysis i conclude that it may well be time that this form of large scale multi country survey be set aside for the development of alternative mid range theories having a more direct application and explanation for organizational phenomena in a cultural and national context

a general theory of springboard mnes the springboard view has become one theoretic lens to analyze emerging market multinationals emnes in the past decade a decade after its first introduction in 2007 new developments offer keen insights on these firms and mnes in general that aggressively engage in critical asset seeking we compare this view with other ib theories highlighting their differences as well as complementarity we articulate unique strengths and weaknesses of emnes including their vulnerability and complexity caused in part by home country institutions we discuss amalgamation ambidexterity and adaptation advantages that differentiate springboard mnes from more established advanced country mnes and explain why and how springboard acts should be analyzed along with global competitiveness augmentation we introduce an upward spiral concept to advance our understanding of linkages between springboard and post springboard activities and explain some critical cross cultural and human resource management issues in the process to help continued research on springboard mnes we highlight macro and micro management issues that are particularly worth exploring

the effects of education and family planning programs on fertility in indonesia abstract numerous studies indicate that female education is a major determinant of fertility and that the estimated effects are large relative to other variables including family planning program variables there are however two serious deficiencies in the research relating educational attainment to fertility that could give rise to invalid inferences first many public programs including health and family planning programs may influence a woman s decisions about education and these indirect programmatic effects might be large second nearly all existing studies of the impacts of education on fertility assume that a woman s educational attainment is exogenous education could be serving as a proxy for such unobservable determinants as ability motivation and parental background as these factors most likely are important determinants of a woman s educational attainment we use the 1993 indonesian family life survey to compare the estimated impacts of education on fertility from a simple model tha

career and marriage in the age of the pill genuine change in the economic and social status of u s women did not emanate simply from their increased labor force participation but rather from their increase in professions and as career women those changes first began in the late 1960 s and early 1970 s we examine here one factor of momentous importance in this break with the past the economist 31 december 1999 recently named it the greatest science and technology advance in the twentieth century it is the oral contraceptive known worldwide by its moniker the pill in 1960 18 4 percent of professionals were women as were 4 7 percent of high powered professionals by 1998 36 4 percent of professionals and 25 1 percent of the high powered subset were women we explore in this article a series of connections that link the birth control pill to the increase of women in professional occupations our evidence for the impact of the pill relies largely on the timing of various changes changes in laws giving minors certain adult rights and lowering the age of majority enabled young and unmarried women to obtain the pill young women s control over their fertility directly reduced the costs to them of engaging in long term career investments the pill also served to increase the age at first marriage and thus indirectly reduced a potential penalty of delaying marriage to pursue professional education and training all of these changes began in the late 1960 s and early 1970 s the late 1960 s and early 1970 s were years of tumultuous social and political change how can we separate the impacts of affirmative action the resurgence of feminism changes in social norms and abortion reform from the impact of the pill the simple answer is that the timing of several of these changes is far less convincing than is that of the pill in affecting career investment but that is not the complete answer the economic impact of the pill did not occur in isolation legal change made it possible for young women to obtain contraceptives these changes paradoxically did not stem primarily from concerns regarding access to contraception they were instead part of the larger political movement of the 1960 s the pill moreover unleashed social change by enabling an increase in the age at first marriage there is also no doubt that the rebirth of feminism long in the making served to complement and reinforce the pill s impact our argument for the importance of the pill in affecting women s career decisions relies on the correspondence among breaks in various time series and in the logic of the relationships among the pill career and marriage we will begin with the time series on career and marriage which can be viewed as the dependent variables the evidence on the diffusion of the pill the independent variable is taken up next the logic of our argument relating pill use career and marriage follows and finally we present our defense for why we believe the pill packed considerable power in altering the social and economic status of american women

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

think glocally act glocally a culture centric comment on leung bhagat buchan erez and gibson 2005 culture is a critical variable in international business ib and leung bhagat buchan erez and gibson 2005 enrich our understanding of its role however that said their framing of this variable conflates the role of national culture nc a particular form of culture with culture itself a more pivotal holistic and central construct this paper by commenting on and critiquing their approach seeks to shift the theoretical center of gravity from a nc centric paradigm to a culture centric constructivist one and from a top down bottom up view to a flatter glocalized one implications are provided which suggest that research should address cultural processes of patterning and production as well as cultural forms such as global communities and global culture gc which share with or even capture the spotlight from nc as a focus for studying and developing ib cultural theory journal of international business studies 2009 40 237 254 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400410

a culture theory commentary on meyer and peng s theoretical probe into central and eastern europe meyer and peng s decade award article and retrospective integrate economic and sociological theories of transaction costs firm resources and institutions and apply them to firms in central and eastern europe in ways that can inform and be informed by culture theory culture theorizing in ib typically uses dimensions of values and norms to analyze the ib implications of the underlying logics that characterize patterns of thought action and interaction of countries and other large societies transaction cost theorizing helps explain the social forces that link cultural group boundaries with country boundaries firm resource theory can be informed by the toolbox metaphor to understand cultural patterns in the resources that firms in a particular locale have most readily available neo institutional theory particularly its political science thread cautions ib scholars to represent governmental arrangements and policies as arising from cultural norms and values rather than as independent variables that spring de nova from government leaders integrative analyses like the decade award article and retrospective point out links and complementarities among diverse theories but need to take care lest superficial similarities in how terms like institution and culture are used in different theories mask fundamental conceptual differences