Cross-national differences in stakeholder management: Applying institutional theory and comparative capitalism framework

Drawing upon the research in institutional theory and comparative capitalism, the present study investigates how cross-national differences in the political, business, and economic institutional contexts of the United States, Italy, and Japan are associated with the ways in which companies in each of these countries prioritize and engage in their stakeholder engagement activities (SEAs). Using Porter and Kramer's framework, which classifies corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as falling into four categories (good citizenship, mitigating harm from value chain, transforming value chain activities, and strategic philanthropy), we investigate how companies in the United States, Japan, and Italy prioritize and engage in these four SEAs. An analysis of data collected from 340 companies across these countries reveals that while companies in each of these three countries undertake the four types of SEAs, the prioritization and prevalence of the four types of SEAs vary from one country to the other, in ways that align with the prevailing institutional contexts of each country. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of why and how companies' approaches to CSR differ across countries. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings highlight the cultural specificity of CSR, implying that despite the global nature of CSR, the implementation of CSR needs to be tailored to a country's context.     

Job satisfaction in aging workforces: an analysis of the USA,Japan and Germany

In light of the dramatically aging workforces in many industrialized countries, age diversity management will become a major challenge in human resource management. To successfully handle an age-diverse workforce, it is crucial to understand how employees of different ages can be motivated. This paper analyzes age's moderating role in the relationship between situational job characteristics and job satisfaction. To control for the potential influence of the cultural and institutional context, we use data from the USA, Japan and Germany. Findings show that older employees' job satisfaction is driven by different factors than younger employees: older employees put more emphasis on good relationships with colleagues, while income, advancement opportunities, job security and having an interesting job are less important. However, these effects are mostly nation-dependent, which underlines the importance of conducting cross-cultural or cross-national aging research.     

Work-home interface in a cross-cultural context: a framework for future research and practice

Abstract

With dual-income families on the increase, combining work and family obligations is a daily reality for many individuals. Unsatisfactory combinations of work and home duties can result in various unfavourable individual and organisational outcomes. Therefore, its proper understanding is essential in order to create adequate recommendations for interventions and prevention. There is a need for the development of theoretical frameworks that take cultural context into account in relation to work-home interface (WHI). In this paper a new framework is proposed; ‘the pyramid of intersecting domains of WHI’ that incorporates cultural context and other important work-life interface aspects. It builds on empirical findings of the intersectionality and work/family border theories. The pyramid consists of the following domains: the domain of work and home characteristics, the roles domain and the cultural domain, which intersect to determine the fourth side of the pyramid, that is, the observed WHI. Based on the pyramid several research propositions can be formulated. Implications for researchers and HR professionals are provided.     

Effectiveness of Absurdity in Advertising Across Cultures

This paper examines the effect of absurd advertising on memory and persuasion across cultures. Drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, it is hypothesized that the effect of absurdity on recall is culturally invariant, whereas the effect on attitude toward the ad is contingent on the recipients’ cultural orientation. The assumptions are tested using a between-subjects experimental design, in which we manipulated type of absurdity and used the cultural dimensions as blocking variables. Data was collected from 274 students in the United States, Germany, Russia, and China. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of these findings as well as guidelines for further research.     

高职高专旅游英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养

语言是文化的裁体,文化支配着语言。不同文化背景的人们在交际的过程中,由于文化差异,交流双方很容易产生文化障碍。要获得跨文化交际的最佳效果,我们不仅要掌握语言本身的规律,更要了解语言所承载的深刻文化内涵,通过一些手段来培养学生的跨文化交际能力。     

大学生跨文化交际能力的自我培养模式研究

针对我国外语教学缺乏真实的跨文化交际环境的实际,教师积极引导大学生进行跨文化交际能力自我培养符合我国国情和普通高校校情。英语教学实践表明：大学生对英语文化知识点的多维扩展式自主学习,可促进和加深他们对目的语语言文化的理解,有助于培养学生的跨文化交际能力,促使他们根据实际主动寻求跨文化交际机会,逐步提高跨文化交际能力。     

中外合作办学中学生跨文化交际能力的培养

经济全球化趋势下,学校间的国际合作越来越普及。本文以无锡工艺职业技术学院中加合作项目为例,针对教学活动中外教与本院师生在互动过程中所产生的矛盾和问题进行探讨分析,旨在说明跨文化交际在外教教学中的重要性,并就如何正确面对文化冲突以及提高跨文化交际能力提出思路和方向。     

跨国公司的跨文化管理再探

迄今为止,西方很多学者对跨国经营企业面临的文化问题进行了深入的研究,提出了很多有用的结论。本文从前人的研究出发,阐明不同的文化背景下,企业怎么样搞好跨国文化管理的问题。     

Sustainable travel writing? Exploring the ethical dilemmas of twenty-first-century travel writers

There is a paucity of academic literature on travel writing that examines travel writers and their perceived influence on sustainability. This article addresses this lacuna by exploring how travel writers understand their responsibilities and reflects on ethics in their profession, particularly in how foreign destinations and cultures are portrayed. This is significant because some travel writers have been accused of contributing to what interviewees called the “Lonely Planet Syndrome”, the notion that writing about a place will introduce and encourage mass tourism, changing the original state of the place for the worse. In this qualitative, phenomenological study, data were collected from 23 in-depth interviews with twenty-first-century travel writers and analysed using an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Findings suggest that while some interviewees expressed anxiety about their perceived accountability to mediate foreign cultures responsibly, others embraced their role as a cultural mediator. They cared about local cultures and wanted to write in responsible ways by supporting more sustainable outcomes, reflected in the themes of cross-cultural understanding, socio-cultural and environmental advocacy and promoting benefits of tourism to communities. Future studies could include exploring the role of travel editors, travel writers’ professional knowledge and the growing role of travel blogs.     

Consumer responses to different degrees of advertising adaptation: the moderating role of national openness to foreign markets

We investigate the moderating role of national openness to foreign markets on consumer responses (attitude to ad, brand and purchase intention) to different degrees of advertising adaptation in Belgium, Iran and India. We operationalize three levels of advertising adaptation (standardization, glocalization and adaptation) by manipulating the model (international versus local celebrity) and advertising copy (international versus local advertising copy). The results show that societies with a low openness to foreign markets respond more positively to fully adapted ads than to glocalized and standardized ads. The differences in responses decrease with national openness.