Cross cultural management

The construct of cultural intelligence, recently introduced to the management literature, has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross cultural interactions. However, at present, no generally accepted definition or operationalization of this nascent construct exists. In this article, we develop a conceptualization of cultural intelligence that addresses a number of important limitations of previous definitions. We present a concise definition of cultural intelligence as a system of interacting abilities, ...

International strategic alliances have grown increasingly popular in recent decades, yet their failure rate is extremely high. Poor management of adverse situations contributes significantly to such high failure rates. Moreover, the international environments in which international strategic alliances operate exacerbate the adverse situations and make their management more critical. However, extant research does not specify how managers from different national cultures respond to these adverse situations to reduce the likelihood of alliance failure. This study investigates cross-country differences in preferences for specific response strategies in international strategic alliances. Using a scenario-based experiment with 1,379 respondents in five countries—Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—the authors assess whether preferences for seven response strategies—exit, opportunism, aggressive voice, creative voice, considerate voice, patience, and neglect—vary across countries. The results indicate that national culture, both directly and interactively through exchange variables that characterize the adversity of the situation, influences response strategy preference. This study advances literature on strategic international alliances by explaining that when faced with the same adverse situation, respondents from different countries likely prefer different response strategies, depending on which response strategies they believe are most adequate in their cultural environment.