Journal Article

The tortuous evolution of the role of culture in IB research

Tung, Rosalie L, Stahl, Günter K

2018

Overview

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.

• Publisher: Springer Science + Business Media,Palgrave Macmillan UK,Palgrave Macmillan
• Subject: Academic disciplines / Attention / Business and Management / Business Strategy/Leadership / Concept formation / Cultural change / Culture / Emic and etic / International Business / Management / Neurosciences / Organization / POINT / Qualitative research / Reproducibility / Research design / Schemas