How congruent are managers' perceptions of cultural distance with objective reality?. Issue 4 (30th September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Azar, Goudarz
• Is Part Of: Cross cultural management. Volume 21:Issue 4(2014)
• Page Start: 400
• Page End: 421
• Publication Date: 2014-09-30
• Subjects: Management -- Cross-cultural studies -- Periodicals; Management -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; International business enterprises -- Management -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Diversity in the workplace -- Periodicals; 658
• DOI: 10.1108/CCM-03-2013-0041
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1352-7606

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</title> <p> – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which managers' perceptions of cultural distance – one of the most important explanatory factors in the field of international business – are congruent with objective reality. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</title> <p> – By subjecting a sample of 242 export ventures to correlation and confirmatory factor analyses, managers' perceptions of the cultural distance (i.e. perceived cultural distance) between 29 international markets and Sweden (the home market) were compared, with "objective" cultural distance gauged using Hofstede's (1980) scores for dimensions of national culture. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</title> <p> – A statistically significant correlation was found between managers' perceptions of cultural distance and "objective" cultural distance. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</title> <p> – Despite the importance of perceptual data in many theoretical and practical domains, few studies analyze the validity of such data. The present findings validate the congruence of perceptual data regarding cultural distance with "objective" cultural distance.</p> </sec> </abstract>