National culture and international business: A path forward

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Shenkar, Oded; Tallman, Stephen B.; Wang, Hao; Wu, Jie
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; University of Richmond; University of Amsterdam; University of Macau
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2506
• DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00365-3
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 516-533
• 关键词: Cultural distance; cultural friction; paradigm shift; contact-based framework; NATIONAL CULTURE

摘要

The anniversary of Kogut and Singh's construct of cultural distance is a good time to reflect on this immensely popular but flawed construct, assess the efficacy of the remedies offered for its reform and refinement, and chart an alternative approach that represents a departure from distance as the dominant paradigm with which to view and analyze the impact of national culture on cross-border business. The proposed alternative, a contact-based framework shifts attention from what sets cultures apart towards the actual cultural interface that firms and their executives experience when participating in an international transaction. With this lens, the cultural exchange is regarded as an evolving interactional process of engagement, which commences prior to a transaction and proceeds through the life of the inter-party arrangement and beyond, and whose potential to yield negative - or positive - outcome is subject to specific contingencies. Implications for theory, methodology, and practice are delineated.