Challenges in cross-cultural research: managerial perspectives on political marketing, negotiations, ethnic discrimination, economic development and values in multi-cultural contexts

Citation

Tsoukatos, E. and Rodriguez Santos, C. (2011), "Challenges in cross-cultural research: managerial perspectives on political marketing, negotiations, ethnic discrimination, economic development and values in multi-cultural contexts", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccm.2011.13618caa.001

Challenges in cross-cultural research: managerial perspectives on political marketing, negotiations, ethnic discrimination, economic development and values in multi-cultural contexts

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Cross Cultural Management, Volume 18, Issue 3

About the Guest Editors

Dr Evangelos TsoukatosLecturer in the Department of Finance and Insurance, at the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece. His PhD in Management Science was from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), UK while his Masters and undergraduate degrees were from LUMS and Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Greece, respectively. Before joining academia, he practiced a number of years as an insurance consultant and in senior management positions. His research interests include: services marketing, service quality, customer behaviour, culture’s effects on service quality perceptions and customers’ behaviour, risk management and insurance, applications of quantitative methods in business. He was awarded the “2007 Brian Kingsman prize for best doctoral researcher” and shares with Evmorfia Mastrojianni the best paper award in the EuroMed Journal of Business for 2010. He is also a member of the EuroMed Business Research Institute (EMRBI) and chairs the “Cross-Cultural Management” Research Committee of the Institute.

Dr Carmen Rodriguez SantosSenior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing at the University of León, Spain. Her main research areas are cross-cultural management, consumer behaviour and brand images. She has papers in many journals on cross-cultural studies in consumer behaviour (Revista Portuguesa Marketing, 2009; Micro&Macro Marketing, 2008, Revista Europea Dirección y Ec. Empresa, 2007, Progress in Tourism Marketing, 2006, Journal of Brand Management, 2005). She leads important international research projects, as well as educational projects. She has received five Academic Awards. She is coordinator of the academic network COBEREN. Dr Santos has extensive experience in Academic Quality Assessment.

Globalization has gone a long way towards allowing for the free movement of people, goods, services and capital across borders. Institutions, organizations, businesses and individuals, can potentially operate, compete and coexist within a supranational society of citizens from divergent cultural backgrounds. This reality is reflected in the complexity of global business, governance and administrative environment demanding a high level of cultural competency from organizations and their management. A cross-cultural know-how needs to be developed that can potentially become an organizational resource and expand managers’ effectiveness in a wide spectrum of international and home settings.

Yet, research improving current understanding of the cross-cultural challenges that management needs to address, throughout the globe, is rather limited. The present special issue of the Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal presents a number of studies, each indicative of one challenge out of many that cross-cultural management research needs to address. Out of 42 high-quality papers that were submitted, six, hopefully the best, were accepted for publication. All submitted manuscripts have been blindly reviewed by at least two academics, experts in their respective fields. Some very topical areas are examined in the current issue, namely:

1. 1.

   Alkis Thrassou, Demetris Vrontis and Masaaki Kotabe adopt a multi-perspective approach to bridge political and business marketing and distil the critical factors of small political parties’ (SPP) strategic marketing communications in developed countries. They present findings indicating increasing association between business and political marketing, a context motivating symbiotic relationship between SPPs and their voters, an enhanced role of “perception management”, and divergence of SPP reality from classical theory.

2. 2.

   Ilan Bijaoui, Suhail Sultan and Shlomo Yedidia Tarba propose an economic development model able to generate cross-border sustainable economic development in conflict regions, especially focusing on the Arab-Israeli conflict region. Economic actors from either side of the conflict offer support to the industrial district model. However, short-sighted political considerations of regional authorities in both sides prevent economic reconciliation from being established.

3. 3.

   Michael Vieregge and Simon Quick explore changes in national culture of generation X and Y members from selected Asian cultures with special focus on cross-cultural negotiations. They put forward substantial differences between generation X and Y members and their elders as regards their negotiation behaviour. Young Asians show less interest in relationship building and compromising activities. Most important for them are technical discussions in the process.

4. 4.

   Robert G. DelCampo, Kathryn J.L. Jacobson, Harry J. Van Buren III and Donna Maria Blancero report no significant differences in discrimination perceptions of immigrant and US-born Hispanics, focusing on Hispanic business professionals. However, immigrants are significantly more likely to seek out mentors while US-born Hispanics to join affinity groups at work.

5. 5.

   Christopher Robertson and Scott Geiger assess the impact of cultural differences on managerial moral philosophies and ethics across a sample of US and Peruvian managers. They present evidence indicating significant differences between these two nations as regards the impact of utilitarianism and egoism on the perceived benefits of ethics codes as deterrent mechanisms.

6. 6.

   Kirsi Kommonen examines the impact of colour culture in contemporary China’s globalized market place. She proposes the existence of a set of meanings that are invested in colours, which is values’ based. Visual manifestations of cultural values appear to be dynamic and context dependent.

Special thanks go to all authors who submitted their manuscripts for publication in this special issue. Furthermore, as the special editors, we would like to express our gratitude to all reviewers, whose anonymity needs to be preserved.

Evangelos Tsoukatos, Carmen Rodriguez SantosGuest Editors