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Cultural Cognition in International Business Research Author(s): Daniel P. Sullivan and Gary R. Weaver Source: MIR: Management International Review, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2000 3rd Quarter), pp. 269- 297 Published by: Springer Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40835891 Accessed: 25-04-2019 06:51 UTC
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Daniel P. Sullivan/Gary R. Weaver
Cultural Cognition in International Business Research
Abstract
■ Various literatures hold that treating culture as a cognitive construct can explain managers' interpretive frameworks. We extend this thesis to the academic mi- lieu by applying principles of cognitive science to study IB scholars' schematic representation of interpretive frameworks reported in MIR and JIBS from 1970 through 1997. We assess the influence of culture on scholars' frameworks in terms of national, regional, interactional, and disciplinary proxies.
Key Results
■ Analysis found that IB scholars' interpretative frameworks varied in terms of types and properties for all levels of culture. Student t-tests and ANO VA found intriguing patterns of cross-cultural cognitive convergence and divergence. These results inform debates on culture as a latent variable versus culture as a
cognitive construct, cultural influences on the outlooks of IB researchers, and calls for transcultural communication.
Authors
Daniel P. Sullivan, Associate Professor of International Business, Department of Business Admin- istration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. Gary R. Weaver, Assistant Professor of Management, Department of Business Administration, Uni- versity of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.
Manuscript received December 1997, revised November 1998.
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Daniel P. Sullivan/Gary R. Weaver
An intriguing thesis of comparative management proposes that cultures incorpo- rate different frameworks that guide both abstract ideas of rationality and intelli- gibility and, hence, the interpretation of empirical reality. More precisely, the emerging theory of cultural cognitivism proposes that understanding culture in cognitive terms reveals culturally-unique interpretive frameworks that explain why managers associate and discriminate ideas and phenomena in particular ways. Moreover, cultural cognitivism suggests that culturally-rooted interpretive frame- works explain managers' associations and discriminations better than do conven- tional appeals to latent cultural values (Abramson/Keating/Lane 1996, Adler/Dok- tor/Redding 1986, Romney/Boyd/Batchelder/Brazill 1996, Redding 1994). Ap- plied study of culture as a cognitive phenomenon in managerial settings with, for example, British and French (Calori/Johnson/Sarnin 1994), French and American (Calori 1994), German, French, Indian, and American (Welge 1994), American, Canadian, and Japanese (Abramson et al. 1996), Korean and American (Hitt/ Dacin/Tyler/Park 1996), and American, Canadian, Hong Kong, and Singapore (Sharp/Salter 1997) samples, strongly supports this thesis. Collectively, these re- ports show that an individual's cognitive schema "is the primary locus of culture" (Talmy 1995) and that cultures vary ontologically in terms of categorization, dif- ferentiation, and abstraction (Levinson 1996, DiMaggio 1997). The interaction of these attributes, in turn, systematically shapes how a manager of a particular cul- ture "perceives, relates, and interprets information that affects individual and group behavior" (Abramson et al. 1996, p. 126) such that managers of different cultures "may approach the same strategic opportunities and global markets in different ways" (Hitt et al. 1996, p. 165).
There are suggestions that cultural cognition occurs in academia - e.g., schol- ars from different nations interpret the same thesis differently. At the national level, Vernon (1994, p. 227) notes the influence of "US history, values, and insti- tutions" on IB studies, while Macharzina and Oesterle (1994) assess the transcul- tural dynamic in the scholarship of German and US researchers. Others (e.g., Red- ding 1994, Adler et al. 1986) suggest regional effects; for instance, Teagarden et al. (1995, p. 1262) report that the "North American positivist approach, with its emphasis on rigorous quantitative methods, measurement, precision, and internal and external validity" fundamentally shapes the cross-cultural transferability of management theories. Finally, at the institutional or discipline level, some argue that a positivist paradigm fundamentally shapes the theoretical and methodolog- ical precepts of research in general (Chia 1995) and IB studies in particular (Red- ding 1994). More significantly, reviews of the epistemological evolution of IB re- search highlight distinctive design (Schollhammer 1994, Sullivan 1994 A), sam- pling (Sullivan 1994B, Thomas/Shenkar/Clarke 1994), and interpretative (Dan- iels 1991, Sullivan 1996, 1998A, 1998B) norms.
In spite of these suggestions, Macharzina and Oesterle (1994, p. 255) noted that "(t)here are almost no international comparative studies regarding the output
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Cultural Cognition in International Business Research
of research work in the field of business administration." Consequently, cultural influences on IB research are largely unknown. As of 1998, this state of affairs still prevails. Pioneering works, notably Macharzina and Oesterle (1994) and Schollhammer (1994), have begun the task of analyzing cultural effects on IB re- search. Our understanding, though, remains largely conjectural. This is proble- matic for the future of IB research given reports that cross-cultural sensitivity en- genders greater creativity, innovation, and responsiveness (Chikudate 1991, Sten- ing/Hammer 1992, Teagarden et al. 1995, Sharp/Salter 1997) while insensitivity jeopardizes relations (Macharzina/Oesterle 1994, Newman/Nollen 1996, Abram- son et al. 1996). The desirability of creativity, innovation and responsiveness in IB research spurs us to identify cultural preferences for cognitive schémas so that we can better address how cross-cultural "synergy works and thus how to deter- mine the components of the mixture" (Redding 1994, p. 336). Therefore, clarify- ing the cognitive practices of cultural groups promises to (1) explicate the cultu- ral attributes of the interpretive frameworks embedded in the theoretical outlooks and explanatory models of IB researchers and (2) allow scholars to consider the extent to which and means by which these interpretative frameworks can be ex- ported across cultures. Sharper sensitivity to the melange of culture and cogni- tion should enhance communication among culturally disparate persons - both within and across national and international organizations (Macharzina/Oesterle 1994, Redding 1994).
This paper primarily addresses the first issue. Specifically, we estimate cross- sectional effects and longitudinal trends of cultural cognition in IB research. Es- sentially, we ask how IB scholars from different cultural settings cognitively frame theoretical explanations. Addressing this issue requires more contestable psycho- logical claims than the conventional view of culture as a configuration of latent variable (DiMaggio 1997, Abramson et al. 1996). Fundamentally at issue, we be- lieve, is the matter of how IB scholars from different cultures cognitively handle research questions (D' Andrade 1992).
Theoretical Foundations
The Cultural Context of Theory and Ontology
Interpreting culture as a cognitive phenomenon shifts emphasis in assessing cul- ture from latent values (Hof stede 1980) to that of a socially constructed ontology of rationalized ideologies, interests, and ideas (Chia 1995, Abramson et al. 1996). This shift recasts a cultural group, such as managers or scholars, in terms of a par- ticular ontology that outlines the assumptions that harmonize thought processes (Weick 1979, Daniels 1991), moderates the use of intuitive versus analytical al-
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Daniel P. Sullivan/Gary R. Weaver
gorithms (Talmy 1995), shapes the mental structures used to perceive, process, and retrieve information (Abramson et al. 1996, DiMaggio 1997), explains the world through cause and effect relations (Maruyama 1984), and develops the heur- istics that mediate internal consistency versus external validity (Redding 1994, Chia 1995). The recurring use of this ontology sanctions its own rules, beliefs, propositions, and theories in ways that enact what has been variously called an "overall interpretive system schema," (D'Andrade 1992), "mindset" (Maruyama 1984), or "dominant logic" (Prahalad/Bettis 1986). Thus, our study assumes that a culture incorporates distinct ontological traits that systematically shape the at- tributes of its "overall interpretive system schema." Hence, we agree with DiMag- gio (1997, pp. 269-273) that "it may be useful to treat the schema as a basic unit of analysis for the study of culture . . . Individuals experience culture as disparate bits of information and as schematic structures that organize that information . . . In schematic cognition we find the mechanisms by which culture shapes and bi- ases thought."
Importantly, we take as given that scholars, despite their cultural affiliation, conceive theoretical models or representations that try to explain phenomena and answer questions. Underlying the elements of a scholar's theoretical understand- ing of phenomena is a conceptualization of the explanatory task that guides the development, analysis, and communication of theory - what scholars have termed a "logic of action" (DiMaggio 1997) or "frame of reference" (Calori et al. 1994). Again, the cultural cognition thesis suggests that a scholar, in synthesizing and expressing a theoretical model, brings to bear a culturally-rooted interpretation of both the research issue and the scholar's explanatory task.
Identifying Frameworks in Research
How might we identify interpretive frameworks in research? Scholars typically use textual narratives to elaborate their positions. Individual terms alone, however, do not reveal the overall framework brought to a research task. Ethnosemantic, semi- otic, and linguistics literatures suggest that individual textual elements have syntac- tical and semantic traits but that pragmatic, connotative differences of interpretation reflect the overall context of an individual textual element (Levinson 1996, Mithen/
Boyer 1996, Romney et al. 1996). Thus, gauging the conceptual attributes of narra- tive requires one to assess the context that surrounds the targeted terms, rather than the incidence of the terms (Barley/Meyer/Gash 1988). Following Sullivan's theoret- ical (1998B) and empirical (1998A) reports, however, we propose that a researcher's interpretive framework can be revealed by his or her choice of schematic represen- tations of ideas. In effect, we assume that just as textual narratives of social science
theory can reveal interpretive frameworks, so too do graphical or spatial representa- tions of theories and phenomena reveal cognitive foundations.
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Cultural Cognition in International Business Research
Research supports this stance. The cognitive sciences report that people ex- press their logic of interpretation in the form of visual imagery (Shepard/Metzler 1971) or other non- verbal/non-textual mental representations (Abramson et al. 1996, Fiol 1994) that we can construe as an "orienting schema" (Weick 1979, Bou- gon 1992) or "cognitive maps" (Eden et al. 1992, Fiol 1994). Romney et al. (1996) and D' Andrade (1995) note that the structure of an orienting schema, as much as it is abstract, spatial, and infused with meaning, reveals a person's ontological and epistemological precepts. Furthermore, people use orienting schémas to make sense of events and information (Eden et al. 1992, D' Andrade 1995), frame the reason- ing of decision-making (Abramson et al. 1996), and highlight objects, events, and priorities (Fiol/Huff 1992). Others report that people externalize, construe, or „re- represent" the elements and relationships that comprise their orienting schema through graphical expression, figure construction, map drawing, orientation judg- ments, and similar modes that represent knowledge in schematic, spatial forms (Fiol 1994, Markoczy/Goldberg 1995). Related research notes more precise links between culture and orienting schema, Levinson (1996, p. 363) for instance, re- port that spatial language and cognition vary across culture.
In sum, evidence suggests a scholar's schematic representations (i.e., explana- tory diagrams and figures) embody his or her interpretive frameworks just as tex- tual narratives do. A schematic representation, therefore, is an informative marker of the ontological assumptions of a researcher's interpretive framework. Impor- tantly, it imbues a cognitive framework with ontological significance and serves as a proxy for more fundamental cognitive tendencies that are less easily accessible to researchers. Consequently, we hold that one can study the influence of culture on cognition by evaluating cultural variations in the schematic representations of ideas.
Categories and Qualities of Schematic Representations
Cognition research suggests three categories of schematic representation: Ana- log, composite, or propositional (cf. McNamara 1986, Fiol/Huff 1992, Eden et al. 1992). These categories have been used in prior research that specifically evalu- ated the ontology of interpretative frameworks reported in scholarly articles (Sul- livan 1998 A). An analog schema represents phenomena in a hierarchical order those lacks feedback loops or other means for "returning" to previously traversed levels of the hierarchy (Fiol/Huff 1992, Bougon 1992). An analog schema dis- plays unidirectional, step-by-step, and determinate progress through a hierarchy of states or processes as exemplified by the typical "box and arrows" schematic representation often found in management journals (see Exhibit 1).
A propositional schema requires neither hierarchical structuring nor unidirec- tional transitions. Transitions or causal relationships may be effected in multiple ways that are non-recursive (i.e., no fixed step-by-step process is involved). End-
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Daniel P. Sullivan/Gary R. Weaver
Exhibit 1. Generic Forms of Schematic Representation of Interpretative Frameworks
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Cultural Cognition in International Business Research
states may be reached by multiple paths; states that on one occasion function as "ends" in the schema may, on another occasion, function as the starting point (Weick/Bougon 1986, Sullivan 1998A). Exhibit 1 profiles the general form of the propositional representations often found in management journals. Finally, a com- posite schema (Fiol/Huff 1992, Sullivan 1998 A) represents an intermediary cat- egory that lacks the equifinality and multidirectionality of propositional catego- ries, but nevertheless allows idiosyncratic departures from analog standards. The composite form can appear as an analog form with added feedback linkages yet without the reciprocity across states that is manifest in a propositional schema (see Exhibit 1).
Cognition research also specifies the schematic properties that apply to the forms of schematic representation (Eden et al. 1992, Markoczy/Goldberg 1995, Sullivan 1998 A). We can describe a schema in terms of its (1) comprehensive- ness, i.e., number of different entities or ideas they incorporate that in a typical diagram is represented by the number of nodes, (2) connectedness, i.e., the num- ber of distinct linkages in a schema that denotes the density of relationships among the entities or ideas in the schema, and (3) complexity, the ratio of connectedness to comprehensiveness within a schema that denotes the overall intricacy of the interaction represented between ideas and relationships (Bougon 1992, Fiol/Huff 1992, Sullivan 1998A). Variations in the characteristics of comprehensiveness, connectedness, and complexity fundamentally distinguish schematic representa- tions. Eden et al. (1992, p. 313) note, for example, that "a higher ratio (of links to nodes) indicates a densely connected map and supposedly a higher level of cog- nitive complexity."
Methodology
We analyzed the influence of culture on cognition in IB research by examining variation in the spatial forms and structural features of schematic representations in premier IB journals regarding four proxies for culture. The applied stages of the study involved (1) identifying and coding the schematic representations in IB research publications, (2) synthesizing meaningful measures of culture, and (3) analyzing the relationship of these representations to the authors' cultural con- texts.
Domain
The universe for this study is every "Figure" associated with any Article, Note, Comment, or Reply published in MIR and JIBS from January 1970 through De-
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cember 1997. We focus on MIR and JIBS given their stature as the preeminent outlets for IB research (Ebrahimi/Ganesh-Copala/Chandy 1991, Lohrke/B niton 1997). The start of publication overlap between MIR and JIBS sets the period of study. We do not include data tables in that they are distinct from Figures and, per convention, presented in a standard form.
From 1970 through 1997, MIR published 811 articles that contained 813 fig- ures while the corresponding counts for JIBS are 734 articles and 45 1 figures. Re- view of the population found that some figures were charts or graphs generated by secondary data or statistical findings. Their descriptive intent fundamentally differs from those figures that schematically represent an interpretive framework. Thus, we exclude any representation of secondary or statistical data in the form of a scatter plot, ordinal interaction effect, histogram, pie chart, step function, bar graph, time-series, probability distribution, regression line etc. Too, some figures presented information in tabular or classification form - i.e., a literature review or a summary of hypotheses. Eliminating these figures reduced the universe of 1,264 figures to a population of 371 figures.
We used the authors' formal declaration of the purpose of the figure, as ex- pressed in keywords in the title of the figure, to identify those figures that for- mally and explicitly designate a schematic representation of the authors' interpre- tation of the phenomena in question. The cognitive (D' Andrade 1995), sensemak- ing (Chia 1995), and linguistics (Barley et al. 1988) literatures suggested three keywords: Model, Framework, or Conceptualization. The 149 figures whose ti- tle includes at least one of these keywords make-up our sample.
Research Participants
We used two sets of participants that we labeled "Academic" and "External." The Academic set includes two researchers with terminal degrees. They inde- pendently rated the spatial form of the 149 Figures as either analog, composite, or propositional. We were averse to sampling additional fellow academics to val- idate their ratings. Research notes that organizational interest groups develop mutually shared orienting schémas (Kuhn 1962, Daniels 1991) as their members identify with a common interpretive framework that normalizes cognitive pro- cesses. Controlling for this effect among similarly trained individuals is often in- effectual, Finney and Mitroff (1986) add, because such "consensual cognitive schémas and scripts" often are embedded in an institution's culture and used un- consciously by its members. Therefore, three business executives evaluated the spatial form of the 149 Figures. Two executives had global operating responsibil- ities (one in finance, one in marketing) in a Fortune 20 industrial MNC while the other had global staff (treasury) responsibilities in a Fortune 100 service MNC.
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Rating Schematic Representations
We photocopied each figure onto a separate, letter-sized sheet of paper. We removed each title to preclude potential systematic bias - e.g., grouping of schémas by titles. We organized the figures chronologically, numbered them se- quentially, and then used a random number generator to set the sequence. The interaction between the administrator and a participant began with a twenty-min- ute talk about orienting schema and interpretative frameworks. The administra- tor noted the potential for different graphical forms and general attributes of an- alog, propositional, and composite forms but shared no schematic exemplars. Each participant then sorted the figures into one of three piles based on schematic sim- ilarity.
Measures of Culture
We considered culture from four viewpoints: Nation, Region, Cross-Cultural, and Disciplinary Perspective. We operationalized national culture with the author's self-reported home-country institutional affiliation. This proxy, although simplis- tic, fits with theory and practice. Cultural cognition theory suggests that an individual's effort to reduce cognitive dissonance motivates an affiliation marked by fit with the consensual schémas at play in the institutional environment and, by extension, the nation (DiMaggio 1997, Talmy 1995, Newman/Nollen 1996). As to practice, scholars routinely categorize an individual's culture by the nation- ality of organizational affiliation (e.g., Hitt et al. 1997, Calori et al. 1994, Sharp/ Salter 1997).
The second proxy of culture is Region - namely, North America, Europe, and Asia. We consider geographic regions given Hitt et al. 's (1997, p. 121) emphasis of the "importance of understanding strategic orientations in multiple regions of the world." Procedurally, nations were aggregated into regional blocs based on geographical proximity. The third proxy of culture follows from the fact that many articles were jointly or multi-authored. If all authors listed affiliations with insti- tutions domiciled in the same nation or region, then we placed it in its correspond- ing category. Several articles listed authors of different national (e.g., Britain and Germany) and/or regional (e.g., North America and Europe) affiliations. We treat these articles as a proxy of Cross-national or Cross-Regional effects.
Our fourth proxy of culture is the disciplinary perspective within IB, opera- tionalized in terms of whether the Figure appeared in MIR or JIBS. Although a loosely-coupled paradigm, IB manifests ontological and epistemological norms that allude to active "consensual cognitive schémas and scripts" (e.g., Schollham- mer 1994, Daniels 1991, Vernon 1994). The premier research outlets within the discipline, however, are formally located in different national and regional cul-
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tures and also have different editorial histories: JIBS is North American, with pre- dominately US editorship over its history, while MIR 's editorial history is largely German. Conceivably, these different cultural settings influence editorial review or authorial self-selection of the more appropriate outlet for particular types of interpretations. Hence, each journal may represent a different disciplinary per- spective that functions as a cultural moderator of cognition (e.g., the "North Amer- ican" effect, Teagarden et al. 1995). Also, estimating effects of disciplinary per- spective by controlling for the journal source should clarify the cultural cogniti- vism of IB studies as an intellectual construction plus help benchmark national and regional effects.
Measuring Properties of Figures
Two people independently counted the structural characteristics of each Model. We estimated comprehensiveness by counting the total number of nodes within a figure (Fiol/Huff 1992). We followed Stubbart's (1989) statement that the textual designation of an object within a map signifies a node. We estimated connected- ness by counting the number of links between nodes within a figure. We followed reports that the "head" of a connection (the terminus of a line originating in one node that links to another) signifies a link between nodes (Eden et al. 1992, p. 313, Calori et al. 1994). If the arc or vector is reciprocal, then we counted it as two links (Bougon 1992). Finally, we followed precedent (e.g., Eden 1992, Eden et al. 1992, Fiol 1994, Laukkanen 1994) and estimated complexity as the ratio of connectedness (number of links) to comprehensiveness (number of nodes) within a figure.
Temporal Issues
Our first inclination for setting periodicity was to follow convention (e.g., Ink- pen/Beamish 1994) and segment the 1970-97 sample period by fixed-year peri- ods. An absolute specification of time, though, seemed prone to systematic error. Studies of the diffusion and use of knowledge suggest that research thought and output is marked by a continuous interweaving of cognition and action in a so- called process of "reflection in action" (Schon 1983). Practically, the rate of pub- lication of articles by MIR and JIBS changed over the sample period. Therefore, we control for possible interaction among cognition, diffusion, and time by set- ting periodicity in terms of "Publication Clusters." Procedurally, we segment the 1 ,545 MIR and JIBS articles published from 1970 through the third quarter of 1997 into five Publication Clusters of 309 articles. Publication Cluster membership is a function of the article's date of publication - e.g., the chronologically first 309
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articles from the combined MIR and JIBS pool comprise Publication Cluster One, the next 309 articles comprise Publication Cluster Two, and so forth.
Reliability
Axelrod (1976) advises interpreting reliability as a high degree of response con- sistency. We used Tinsley and Weiss's (1975) measure of rater reliability - calcu- lated as the number of figures that each participant classified in the same way as a percentage of the total number of figures with both sums adjusted for the prob- ability that the participants agree simply by chance. Rater agreement was 82% among the five participants. Test-retest scores averaged 85% per participant. The intraclass correlations among the two independent counts of nodes and links - calculated with Formula ICC (2,k) per the recommendation of Shrout and Fleiss (1979) - was 0.90 for nodes and 0.86 for links. The raters resolved contrasting classifications and counts before analyzing the data.
Analyzes
We recorded the frequency of schematic representations classified as analog, prop- ositional, or composite. We also measured the structural features - connectedness, comprehensiveness, and complexity - of each representation. We then considered these measures in relation to our proxies of culture over time. We look at longi- tudinal effects as to the frequency of analog, propositional, and composite sché- mas by Publication Clusters. We analyze the nominal data with Student t-tests and ANO VA procedures. Post-hoc comparisons use Scheffe's test.
Results
Authorship of the article, by national affiliation, from which we extracted a sche- matic representation included 15 British, 11 Canadian, 6 French, 12 German, 71 US, and 23 Cross-National observations. Small counts for several nations: e.g., 3 Swedish, 2 Norwegian, and 1 Austrian, Israeli, Korean, Chinese, and USSR, ex- cluded them from national-level analyses. Article authorship by region included 43 European, 77 North American, and 27 Cross-Regional observations. Article authorship by journal included 84 and 65 observations, respectively, from MIR and JIBS. We found few articles of exclusively Asian origin, whether by nation or region that included a schematic representation of an interpretative framework. Thomas et al. (1994) and Inkpen and Beamish (1994) note similar trends for sam- pling and authorship.
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Cross-Sectional Analysis
Table 1 reports the average number and relative share of Figures classified by the Academic and External participants as an analog, composite, or propositional form per nation, region, journal, and disciplinary perspective. Overall, the participants classified the analog form without much indecision. Post-sort discussions found they noted properties (e.g., "easy-to-follow," "linear flow," and "single, straightfor- ward path") that fit general reports (cf., Fiol 1994, Eden 1992, Bougon 1992). The participants noted that the absence of these features made classification less clear. In particular, the presence of non-recursive causality (i.e., without a strict, sequen- tial causal order) in a schematic representation suggested to some a different inter- pretive framework than in Figures that included unidirectional paths. Classification, though, seemed to tap common heuristics. The participants noted that if a Figure showed a formal start- and end-point and conveyed an orientation of general to spe- cific, they classified it as an analog form. Conversely, if the Figure did not pinpoint a start- or end-point but still suggested an orientation of general to specific or vice versa, then they classified it as a composite form. Finally, those Figures that out- lined multiple connections among multiple points - what Weick (1979) terms equiv- ocality - led the participants to classify it as a propositional form.
The data indicate national and regional effects (Table 1). Canadian scholars typically encoded their interpretative frameworks in a composite form while their
Table 1. The Form of Orienting Schema by Culture, Region, Journal, and Discipline
N Analog Composite Propositional
Absolute Relative Absolute Relative Absolute Relative
Nation
Canada 11 4 36% 7 64% 0 0 France 6 3 50% 0 0 3 50%
Germany 12 6 50% 5 42% 1 8% UK 15 8 53% 3 20% 4 27% USA 71 36 51% 20 28% 15 21% Cross-National 23 17 74% 5 22% 1 4%
Region Europe 43 23 53% 11 26% 9 21% US 77 39 51% 25 32% 13 17%
Cross-Regional 27 19 70% 7 26% 1 0.04%
Journal
MIR 84 35 42% 29 35% 20 24% JIBS 65 40 62% 19 29% 6 9%
Discipline 149 75 51% 48 32% 26 17%
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French counterparts relied on analog and propositional schémas. In contrast, Ger- man, British, and US researchers balanced the use of the three forms. Cross-Na- tional collaborations converged on one form; nearly 70% of this set used an ana- log representation to portray their model. The regional analyzes elaborate these effects. European and North America scholars showed equivalent inclination to use an analog, composite, or propositional form. Cross-Regional collaborations treated the analog form as the default and the propositional form as the exception. The data show divergence by disciplinary perspective. The distribution of orient- ing schémas in MIR shows a rough balance among analog, composite, and a prop- ositional schema whereas those in JIBS strongly favored the analog form to the particular deemphasis of the propositional form.
Table 2 reports the comprehensiveness, connectedness, and complexity meas- ures partitioned per nation, region, and discipline. Scholars from different nations conceived structurally different schémas to represent their models. For instance, US scholars specified Figures with the most nodes (u = 8. 1 ; sd. = 5.98) while their British counterparts stipulated the most links (u = 13.4; sd. = 10.64). The data show that French and British scholars synthesized the most structurally complex interpretative frameworks while German, American, and Canadians converged at lower degrees of complexity.
The Cross-National set had notably lower counts on comprehensiveness (u = 7.13, sd. = 3.38), connectedness (u = 7.62, sd. = 7.62) and complexity (u = 1.09;
Table 2. The Structural Elements of Orienting Schema by Culture, Region, Journal, and Discipline
N Comprehensiveness Connectedness Complexity
'i sd fi sd fi sd
Nation
Canada 11 8.1 5.98 11 8.64 1.31 0.40 France 6 6.0 1.09 10.6 7.65 1.73 1.25
Germany 12 8.66 4.59 10.75 5.72 1.34 0.72 UK 15 9.66 5.06 13.4 6.41 1.51 0.71 USA 71 10.04 7.09 12.37 10.64 1.22 0.78 Cross-National 23 7.13 3.38 8.56 7.62 1.01 0.53
Region Europe 43 9 4.94 . 13.23 8.48 1.53 0.80 US 77 9.71 6.85 12.06 10.22 1.23 0.72 Cross-Regional 27 7.31 3.73 7.7 5.3 1.008 0.42
Journal
MIR 84 9.49 5.98 8.1 6.1 1.31 0.85 JIBS 65 8.21 4.53 9.34 7.25 1.08 0.44
Discipline 149 9.02 5.76 11.61 8.93 1.29 0.72
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sd. = 0.53). The marked differences between Cross-National and other nations prompted testing whether the collaboration process confounded these outcomes. Unlike observations in the exclusively national or regional sets, Cross-National and Cross-Regional observations always included at least two authors. Therefore, we assessed the mean scores on comprehensiveness, connectedness, and complex- ity between Figures drawn from single-authored versus multi-authored articles within each national and regional class. Student t-tests found no significant dif- ferences in terms of national or regional classes.
Regional analyses elaborate these effects. Table 2 shows that European schol- ars specified models of higher complexity, North American researchers outlined more comprehensive models but with fewer connections, and Cross-Regional col- laborations specified models with the fewest concepts and fewest connections. Fi- nally, analysis by disciplinary perspective found that interpretative frameworks reported in MIR specified higher degrees of comprehensiveness and particularly higher degrees of connectedness and complexity than those reported in JIBS.
We clarified these findings through Student t-tests and an ANO VA. Small cell counts for several nations precluded an ANO VA at the national level. Student t-tests by nation, though, found significant effects. Regarding connectedness, for example, England and Cross-National (p = 0.06) and US and Cross-National (p = 0.04) significantly differed; regarding complexity, France and US (p = 0.03), England and US(p = 0.08), and France and Cross-National (p = 0.02) significantly differed.
The cell counts, normality of the distributed observations, and homogeneity of the variance for the dependent variables for "Regional" satisfied the model re- quirements of ANOVA. Therefore, we set Region as the independent variable and comprehensiveness, connectedness, and complexity as the dependent variables. This ANOVA model found no significant difference among European, North American, and Cross-Regional for comprehensiveness (F2, 145 = 1.85, p = 0.24) but significant differences for connectedness (F2f 145 = 2.95, p = 0.05) and com- plexity (F2, 145 = 4.41, p = 0.01). Post-hoc comparisons found significant differ- ences in mean scores between North American and Cross-Regional (p = 0.04) for comprehensiveness, between European and Cross-Regional (p = 0.02) for con- nectedness, and between European and North American (p = 0.02) and European and Cross-Regional (p = 0.006) for complexity. Finally, Student t-tests found sig- nificant differences between the interpretative frameworks reported in MIR and JIBS in terms of connectedness (p = 0.01) and complexity (p = 0.001) but none for comprehensiveness (p = 0.19).
Longitudinal Analysis
The small cell counts at the national level led to considering longitudinal trends for discipline and regional levels. Figures 1 and 2 show the absolute and relative
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Figure 1. Absolute Breakdown of International Business Models by Figure Form and Publication Cluster, 1970 through 1997
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Figure 2. Relative Breakdown of International Business Models by Figure Form and Publication Cluster, 1970 through 1997
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distribution of models by form of schematic representation for the IB discipline between 1970 and 1997. The trend lines for both data sets show that scholars used
analog, composite, and propositional forms in equivalent degrees in the early stages of IB research - a finding that fits Schollhammer 's (1994, p. 9) report that
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broad, "conceptualizing studies" shaped the early direction of IB research. The data show, though, that the analog form initially typified few but eventually most schematic representation of a scholar's interpretive framework in IB. From mid- Publication Cluster 3 onward - effectively, from about 1987 - IB scholars have used an analog form to represent schematically their model, framework, or con- ceptualization nearly 70% of the time.
We recast this data by regions. Figure 3 shows the relative share of schematic representations per Publication Cluster that authors from either European, North America, or Cross-Regional expressed in the same form by the total number of schematic representations in the Publication Cluster that are ofthat form. In other words, 42%, 28%, and 18%, respectively, of the analog forms published during Publication Cluster 5 originated in works written by North American, Cross-Re- gional, or European scholars. These trends show convergence in the early stages of IB research across the three regions in the relative use of the forms of sche- matic representation. Recent trends, though, show some convergence between Eu- ropean and Cross-Regional scholars but show widening divergence between Eu- ropean and North American scholars.
Table 3. Comprehensiveness, Connectedness, and Complexity by Region, Journal, and Discipline Per Publication Cluster
PC 1 PC 2 PC 3 PC 4 PC 5
Comprehensiveness Europe 9.23 8.0 9.87 10.37 8.70 North America 13.87 9.1 10.27 8.26 7.68
Cross Regional 9.54 6.2 6.78 7.13 6.37 MIR 10.92 9.12 11.25 9.46 7.91 JIBS 10.42 10.8 8.43 7.96 7.63
Discipline 10.657 10.68 10 9.09 6.72
Connectedness
Europe 13.38 12.9 19.5 16.37 10.25 North America 14.68 16 14.63 8.66 8.21
Cross Regional 12.13 10.1 7.47 6.85 5.9 MIR 12.70 14.81 17.87 12.46 10.36 JIBS 13.57 15.14 12.11 10 7.13
Discipline 12.97 14.95 14.68 11.33 7.40
Complexity Europe 1.45 1.61 1.98 1.57 1.18 North America 1.06 1.76 1.42 1.05 1.07
Cross Regional 1.27 1.63 1.10 0.96 0.93 MIR 1.22 1.42 2.12 1.37 1.31 JIBS 1.30 1.40 1.27 1.16 0.92
Discipline 1.24 1.41 1.47 1.25 1.10
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Figure 3. Regional Use of Forms of Schema in International Business Research by Publication Clu- sters, 1970 through 1997
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Table 3 profiles regional, journal-of-origin, and discipline scores for the com- prehensiveness, connectedness, and complexity measures per Publication Clus- ter. This array shows that the complexity of IB researchers' schematic represen- tations increased in the early stages of IB research. This trend reversed in the mid-
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1980s. From this point on, IB scholars have increasingly represented their inter- pretative frameworks with fewer nodes and fewer links - again, a finding that em- pirically affirms Schollhammer's (1994) two-pronged conclusion that in recent years "Conceptualizing studies in international business and comparative man- agement are few in numbers" (p. 10) and "an increasing percentage of the empir- ical studies in international business and comparative management are essentially descriptive studies with a rather narrow scope" (p. 13).
Discussion
In a fascinating departure from the convergence thesis, Hofstede (1996, p. 531) declared "Give me a new theory and I will tell you the nationality of its author" (Hofstede 1996, p. 531). Our results suggest a corollary: "Give me a schematic representation of a theory and I will tell you the cultural context of its author(s)." The longitudinal trends and cross-sectional comparisons shown in this study show relationships between authors' cultural context and the diagrammatic tendencies and structural qualities of his or her schematic representation. The cumulative findings, we believe, inform larger debates concerning (a) culture as a cognitive construct, (b) cultural influences on the ontology of inquiry, and (c) the basis of transcultural communication among IB researchers (Macharzina/Oesterle 1994). We address each in turn.
Culture as a Cognitive Construct
Had we followed precedent and defined culture as a gestalt of latent values under- lying social practices and mores, we would have anticipated results confirming a tight network of a few themes prevailing across the different proxies of culture - thereby corroborating the so-called „seamless web" of culture as a latent construct (Swidler 1986). Also, had culture functioned as a gestalt of latent values, we would have anticipated analogous cross-cultural convergence in the rarefied world of ac- ademic discourse. This discourse, besides inhabiting its own "cultural" milieu of universities, journals, policymakers, and consultancies, reputedly treats ideas and ideals as if they are philosophic universais. As to our study, these theses arguably predict more rather than less convergence in the preferred form and structural properties of the schematic representation of theories, even if the specific con- tents of individual theories differed, across cultures. Simply put, we found the op-
posite. The data show significant divergence in the spatial forms and structural
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features of the schematic representations of interpretative frameworks across na- tional, regional, cross-regional, and disciplinary contexts. Significantly, these di- vergences support DiMaggio's (1997, p. 267) characterization of cultural cogni- tion as involving "less clustering of cultural elements within social groups, less strong linkages among the elements, and weaker pressures for the exclusion of inconsistent elements."
Cultural Cognition, Explanation and Ontology in IB Research
The cross-sectional and longitudinal results suggest that, compared with the present, the interpretative frameworks in the early stages of IB study were con- vergent across nations, regions, and discipline. That is, unlike the past decade, the proportion of analog, composite, and propositional representations tended toward equivalence. Furthermore, early schematic representation exhibited higher de- grees of connectedness, comprehensiveness, and complexity than their modern- day counterparts. Beside raising questions about early versus recent research prac- tices (Schollhammer 1994), the disordinal interactions between European with North American and Cross-Regional clusters from about mid-1980s spotlight wor- risome trends (See Figure 3). Furthermore, the data question the conjecture that there is an intrinsic synergy in cultural variety and, for that matter, that such col-
laborations inspire greater creativity (Stening/Hammer 1992, Sharp/Salter 1997) - the data suggest that scholars in Cross-National and Cross-Regional collabora- tions managed the cultural distance among themselves by conceiving less com- plex, typically analog, interpretative frameworks. This finding, we believe, clar- ifies conjectures that cross-cultural international management research is "fre- quently non-rigorous" (Teagarden et al., 1995, p. 1261).
Perhaps most interesting is the longitudinal trend toward divergence in the us- age of spatial forms of schematic representations within each cultural set. We sub- mit that this divergence reflects the general change in the ontology and episte- mology of the North American social sciences and specific change in Interna- tional Management from about 1980. Recounting this transition, Schollhammer (1994, p. 12) observed that the then moot usefulness of propositional formula- tions in IB studies spurred efforts to redefine epistemic norms. Redefinition was framed within an approximation of positivism and its thesis that explanatory suc- cess was equivalent to predictive success. Gradually, this philosophic change championed research that privileged "quantitative methods, measurement, preci- sion, and internal and external validity" (Teagarden et al. 1995, p. 1262). Conse- quently, these changes encouraged theoretical explanations and interpretative frameworks that represented ideas in a hierarchical, recursive, and linear model
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of discreet ends, instrumental means, and rational, predictable, measurable and testable relationships. In short, given the dominance of the positivist approach in North American management research, it is not surprising that since the early 1980s schematic representations trended toward analog forms that manifested rel- atively less relational connectedness and conceptual complexity.
Critics of the positivist outlook note that the quest for measurement, testabil- ity, and predictability often inspire „overrationalized" representations whose dis- regard for nonlinear processes and difficult-to-measure phenomena leads to tech- nically significant but intellectually sterile findings (Morgan 1986, p. 229, Dan- iels 1991, Redding 1994, Chia 1995). The theory of cultural cognition clarifies this criticism. Maruyama (1984), for example, contends that emphasis on analog models and predictability is intrinsically ethnocentric while others (e.g., Chiku- date 1991, Hof stede 1996, Redding 1994, Thomas et al. 1994) suggest the North American positivist approach eventually "trapped" the international management discipline within geographical, cultural, temporal and conceptual parochialism. Indeed, our findings that North American interpretative frameworks strongly trended toward an analog schema of significantly lower degrees of connectedness and complexity supports related arguments that the premature transition of IB into a „normal science" within the cultural realm of North America and the US repre- sents a significant instance of cultural cognition.
In contrast, European scholars followed a different cognitive path. Our find- ings on the spatial form and structure features of interpretative frameworks sug- gest that European scholars endorsed the thesis that the "North American positi- vist approach sharply contrasts with the need to accommodate context found in international studies, which are often best conducted using a more interpretive ap- proach" (Teagarden 1995, p. 1265). The interpretative approach, by encouraging the synthesis of complex processes of change among multiple, loosely-coupled relationships among many-faceted phenomena spurs the synthesis of propositional schémas marked by equivocating causality (Chia 1995, Redding 1994, Weick 1979). On this theme, our data suggest the modal cognitive styles of European scholars, at the national, regional, and disciplinary level, were geared toward sche- matic representations that dismissed sequential causality of Newtonian axioms in favor of the relativity of the equivocating causality of Einsteinian principles. This is precisely the outcome we expect from interpretatively-oriented research. These tendencies, furthermore, show up in our finding that European scholars, at the na-
tional and regional levels, applied a balance of analog, composite, and proposi- tional forms to propose interpretative frameworks of significantly higher connect- edness and comprehensiveness.
Although "North American" positivism is based in a particular conception of theoretical progress, the "European" situation manifests an arguably richer con- ception of inquiry - as exemplified by the ongoing dialectic among the forms of schematic representations. Philosophers sometimes reason that ideas emerge from
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a dialectical process in which tension among different positions or theories en- courages development of more creative and insightful alternatives (Whitehead 1985, Chia 1995). Although the North American perspective certainly incorpo- rates creative dialectics among different theories (e.g., sociological vs. economic theories of organization), the data suggest that it displays a weaker dialectic among approaches to theorizing than characterizes European scholarship. Within the Eu- ropean milieu, the data testify to a robust dialectic between analog and proposi- tional interpretative frameworks over the past three decades. The first-order out- comes of this contest - emergence of composite schematic representations along with models of higher complexity (DiMaggio 1997) - are similarly evident within the European data. In contrast, the North American, Cross-Regional, US, and Cross-National sets show a preponderance of less complex analog forms to the exclusion of propositional and composite interpretative frameworks. The sociol- ogy of science (e.g., Kuhn 1962) suggests that such epistemological consensus, if it translates into the absence of an "opposite" interpretive framework, can be confining; put simply, a monolithic interpretative frame preempts incremental pro- cesses of "creative destruction" at the peril of eventual revolution in paradigms. Incidentally, we see indications of this limitation in the emergent crisis of research confidence in North American circles (Sullivan 1994, 1996, 1994A, 1994B). Spe- cifically, leading scholars, reviewing the JIBS corpus, lament the "narrowing of its research vision" (Vernon 1994, p. 227) and a preponderance of iterative imi- tation through "deja vu empiricism" (Daniels 1991, p. 180). Others, reviewing the same literature, question the "relevance of narrow, functional studies" (Ink- pen/Beamish 1994, p. 7 12) and the "narrow mental map" of the geographical scope of sample selection (Thomas et al. 1994, p. 675).
Cultural Boundaries of Cultural Cognition Research
The importance of culturally-influenced cognition for IB research suggests that as authors we should consider the influence of the interpretive frameworks that guide our reasoning. Doing so, of course, creates a paradoxical situation. Consis- tent with our North American cultural framework, we framed our research in a loosely positivist fashion that sought clarity by "measuring and counting," even though our design itself may be more a function of that cultural framework than a reflection of the "one best way" to design IB research. Although we do not sche- matically represent our interpretative framework, we grant that were we to do so, it likely would be analog in orientation. Therefore, we ought to consider whether our effort to measure discrete categories and unitary characteristics of schematic representations is by itself not a culturally-influenced practice.
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One might, of course, frame the study of cultural cognition differently. Nar- rative or historical accounts of cultural patterns of cognition, for example, might champion keener reference to subtle social conditions and ideologies. On this theme, Willmott's (1993, p. 706) discussion of the "politics of theory" suggests that extra-academic social influences encourage the dominance of particular forms of thought (e.g., demands for "customer" oriented research or "practitioner" ac- ceptability and their role in determining academic funding). These influences can, of course, work subtly; e.g., students with intentions of scholarly careers may self- select particular fields or schools of thought (Stern/Barley 1996) or the dominance of market-oriented thinking in North America (Hof stede 1996, Toy ne 1997) might increase the prima facie plausibility of analog reasoning.
Thus, rather than pursuing the "native" North American approach to this is- sue, one might have asked a cultural anthropologist or historian to explain longi- tudinal patterns in IB scholars' synthesis of ideas. Such an approach, moreover, might allow for more complicated, though probably less pragmatically applicable, findings. For example, little in our design suggests the possibility of reciprocal causality between cultural frameworks and theoretical explanations. We assume that culture influences a scholar's schematic representation of an idea. Yet an anthropological or historical narrative might assume a two-way relationship em- bodied in a propositional interpretative framework. In this view, although culture influences the ontology of theoretical explanations, the impact of those theoreti- cal explanations in turn can be seen to influence culture as theory shapes the or- thodox framework relied upon by managers and scholars within a culture. To par- aphrase Giddens (1984), cultures both constitute, and are constituted by, schol- arly practices. The idea of cultural cognition, then, may look different from a dif- ferent cultural perspective. Therefore, our report is a temporally fixed, non-his- torical assessment of relationships between culture and interpretive frameworks in which we strictly define those relationships in quantitatively measurable form. Hence, in isolation, our report profiles a segment of a holistic view of IB studies while, in general, it elaborates the process by which both cultures and scholarly practices are constituted (Giddens 1984, Weaver/Gioia 1994).
Communication Across Cultural Divides
Theoretically, studies of abstraction and classification report that the intent to par- tition a continuous world appears to be a human universal - e.g., the anthromor- phic notion of "intuitive ontology" (Mithen/Boyer 1996). DiMaggio (1997) notes, though, that the nature of the categories constructed may vary significantly among cultures. Our findings support this thesis regarding the cultural contexts of IB re-
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search. This report, though, begs the question of whether the existence of cultu- rally-rooted interpretive frameworks pose or explain barriers to transcultural com- munication among scholars. Macharzina and Oesterle (1994, p. 264) speak to this matter. Their analysis of the enigmatic "research gap" between German and US scholars suggested that "German researchers would hold out in the transatlantic research competition if they could improve in communicating their research re- sults internationally" (emphasis added). Corollary trends in IB scholarship (Ink- pen/Beamish 1994) suggest that Macharzina and Oesterle's judgment applies to several other national and regional dyads. Given the existence of cultural influ- ences on cognition within IB research, one wonders whether current conditions encourage transcultural exchange of ideas within the IB community. Ultimately, this line of reasoning compels us to ask whether our own attempt to study cultu- ral cognition is imprisoned within a particular cultural framework, given the prem- ise that there is a degree of mutual opacity vis-à-vis a researcher addressing the issue from a different interpretive framework.
Framing the question thusly signifies how our specific focus on culturally-in- fluenced cognition in research is itself an instance of a broader debate in organ- izational inquiry regarding the alleged "incommensurability" of theories based on their rootedness in conflicting metatheoretical frameworks or "paradigms" (Gioia/Pitrè 1990, Hassard 1991, Holland 1990, Jackson/Carter 1991, Weaver/ Gioia 1994, Willmott 1993). Defenders of incommensurability argue that the res- idents of different metatheoretical frameworks (cultures in this study) "live in dif- ferent worlds" (Burrell/Morgan 1979) segmented by different ontologies and epis- tomologies. The result is held to be a situation of non-communication and non- understanding, given that the incommensurability thesis is indebted to particular views of meaning and reference in the philosophy of language (Weaver/Gioia 1994). The incommensurability debate has implications for the politics of re- search; if communication across frameworks is impossible, then so too is criti- cism. In other words, research philosophies in entrenched positions of privilege (e.g., North American managerial "positivism") cannot presume to dismiss other perspectives (e.g., critical, qualitative) precisely because it is conceptually im- possible for one view to address, let alone validate, the others (Jackson/Carter 1991). There is held to be "no common measure" among frameworks and, hence, incommensurability. If the incommensurability thesis is valid, then the diver- gences in national, regional, and disciplinary cultures that we found assume an important status because they would confirm that the communication failure noted by Macharzina and Oesterle is unavoidable. In the extreme case, the incommen- surability thesis would suggest that even we must hedge our findings precisely because they reflect an idiosyncratic cultural framework. As a result, our effort to represent and measure cognitive frameworks that differ from ours arguable miss the mark. As for the incommensurability thesis, we are guilty of applying "posi- tivist" methods to explain "interpretativist" practices.
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This charge begs a vital question: Is IB research condemned to forsake Ma- charzina and Oesterle's call for better communication? Will researchers inevita-
bly retreat into their respective cultural enclaves, occasionally punctuated by cross-regional efforts characterized by interpretative frameworks of the lowest- common-denominator cognitive simplicity? Although we agree with Macharzina and Oesterle that resolution is more difficult than typically imagined, we think not.
First, extreme versions of the incommensurability thesis suffer a serious in- felicity of expression. As Weaver and Gioia observe (1994), if understanding across metatheoretical frameworks really is impossible, how do theorists of in- commensurability (e.g., Burrell/Morgan 1979) nevertheless proceed to explain how different frameworks differ? Thus it is necessary to articulate how we inter- pret "incommensurability." Because claims of incommensurability are rooted in a particular conception of how language works, it is important to distinguish a narrowly linguistic version of incommensurability from the general version of in- commensurability that denies cross-paradigmatic understanding in any form (Kuhn 1990, Weaver/Gioia 1994). Hence, even if the debatable view of meaning and reference underlying linguistic incommensurability is accepted, it does not follow that researchers in different frameworks simply cannot understand each other (Kuhn 1990). Essentially, all that follows is that the simple reduction of one perspective to the other is impossible.
This outcome, we believe, is as it should be. After all, even defenders of in- commensurability (e.g., Jackson/Carter 1991) detail how allegedly incommensur- able metatheoretical frameworks differ. Moreover, in their historical development,
new paradigms (or, we would add, cultures) "do not parachute in from the skies" (Willmott 1993, p. 688). Rather, they emerge over time from their predecessors and, at any given time, share ontological and epistemic traits with their predeces- sors; as Giddens (1976, p. 144) notes, "all paradigms are mediated by others." Al- though some traits may be lost over time, one ought to be able to retrace the stages of evolution, thereby creating a quasi-anthropological understanding of the dif- ferences, similarities, and animating concerns of different cultural perspective. Moreover, doing so enables one to understand the virtues and vices of one's own metatheoretical view. Therefore, though our approach to studying cultural cogni- tion has been loosely positivist, we can be 'aware' of the implications of this phil- osophic choice - e.g., understanding the self-imposed limitations of analog frame- works in comparison to others or how positivist inquiry develops a philosophic agenda. Therefore, our results elaborate Macharzina and Oesterle's call that the effective transcultural communication of research essentially asks scholars to clar-
ify the cognitive foundations of their theories in anticipating and understanding the interpretive frameworks at play within the exchange.
On this theme, Talmy (1995, p. 80) notes that because "cultures are functions of an innate cognitive system . . . cultural acquisition and transmission involve
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processes accommodating incompatible patterns." Certainly, anticipating alterna- tive frameworks may lead to adjusting research designs and theoretical explana- tions in ways that ease transcultural exchange among researchers. Anticipation, though, does not necessarily inspire understanding and, hence, adoption, if the re- search design poorly fits a culture's interpretive framework and association forms and qualities of schematic representation (Levinson 1996, DiMaggio 1997). We suspect as well that his kind of anticipation and understanding is more feasible in some venues of IB research than in others. Therefore, intellectual, semiotic, and linguistic engagement, rather than simplistic presentation or translation of re- search results, may be necessary for genuine transcultural communication in IB research. Even if direct and simplistic translation of one framework into another is not tenable, it remains possible that a researcher may more actively engage a different interpretive framework to become genuinely "bilingual." As for Machar- zina and Oesterle's example, German and US researchers may better "communi- cate their research results internationally" the more each immerses themselves in the research questions and practices of the other. Our results, though, suggest that researchers cannot improve transcultural communication merely by perfecting foreign-language translations of papers and enunciation of presentations. Rather, scholars must understand the ontological characteristics of others' interpretive frameworks precisely because they fundamentally frame the articulation of and receptivity to research endeavors and theoretical explanations.
We believe such efforts will inspire innovative "cultures" of research that gen- uinely integrates alternative cultural frameworks rather than merely reducing them to their simplest common elements (as exemplified in historic cross-cultural col- laboration). The field of IB, we believe, is better positioned than others to heed this call. IB enjoys a relatively robust „system of durable transposable disposi- tions" (Bourdieu 1990) across cultural and cognitive frameworks that can encour- age communication and understanding. Cultural change entails the transfer of ideas and images from one group to another based on similarity judgments (Di- Maggio 1997) and IB scholars have often shown the capacity to draw parallels and comparison across cultures. This article's goal has been to further that task, thereby helping IB researchers transcend the cultural limits on their work by bet- ter recognizing those limits.
Conclusion
We believe our results support the thesis that defining culture in terms of cogni- tion clarifies the important role of culture in influencing the interpretive frame- works of researchers. Our findings on cultural cognition in IB scholarship also
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supplement reports on the attributes and interactions among managers in ways that inform the thesis of cultural cognition and also the process of synthesis within and across nations, regions, and discipline. Also, we believe our findings elab- orate the issues facing the task of furthering transcultural communication in IB research. Notably, the data advise against assuming that IB theories and practices conceived by members of a particular culture are necessarily transparent to other cultures or that problems of research dissemination are merely problems of clar- ity of translation or presentation. The assumption that research findings are suf- ficiently abstract to reject cultural cognition is unduly optimistic. Greater trans- cultural communication in IB research requires scholars engage and immerse themselves in the ontological order and epistemic frames of other research cul- tures.
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- Contents
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- Issue Table of Contents
- MIR: Management International Review, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2000 3rd Quarter) pp. 197-299
- Front Matter
- Editorial: Entrepreneurship on a Global Rise? [pp. 199-202]
- How FDI Characteristics Influence Subsidiary Trade Patterns: The Case of Ireland [pp. 203-230]
- The Influence of Organizational Structure on the Information Received by Corporate Strategists of Multinational Enterprises [pp. 231-252]
- The Global Dispersion of Chinese Values: A Three-Country Study of Confucian Dynamism [pp. 253-268]
- Cultural Cognition in International Business Research [pp. 269-297]
- Obituary on Professor Dr. Brij Nino Kumar [pp. 299-299]
- Back Matter
