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This article examines the existing body of knowledge on acculturation, identifies the gaps, discusses its potential consequences for theory and proposes a possible way forward for educational policy and practice in the globalised world.

The body of knowledge on acculturation has developed tremendously during the last century. However, some scholars are critical of its impact on acculturating people, particularly in the societies of settlement. This paper adopted an integrative literature review approach to critique and synthesise the published text on acculturation and education in the era of globalisation.

Despite phenomenal growth in acculturation research and theory, the dominant perspectives and research methodologies hardly help to respond to the emerging trends in intercultural contact and its associated issues in education. A culture learning approach to the study of acculturation can help address the existing gaps, extend the theory, draw contextualised conclusions and take appropriate steps in education to prepare younger generations for an interconnected and interdependent world.

Researchers and practitioners in education may need to be sensitive to the sociopolitical realities in a given context and contextualise their educational endeavours in preparing younger generations for an ever-changing social world.

This narrative review suggests that an intercultural learning approach to education in contemporary times may better facilitate acculturation processes amongst immigrants and non-immigrants alike. Educational systems in multicultural societies may need to undertake context-specific interventions for immigrant children and adolescents in helping them acculturate to the societies of their settlement.

An intercultural approach to education in general and social studies education, in particular, can help younger generations better respond to the emerging trends of acculturation in the multicultural societies of their residence.

Given that young people follow diverse trajectories of acculturation, irrespective of their status of immigration, researchers in cross-cultural studies may need to reflect on existing theories, approaches, frameworks and methodologies with greater sensitiveness to the ecological context, cultural distance hypothesis and the nature of intercultural contact for a deeper understanding of immigrants' acculturation in plural societies.

Cross‐cultural training is fast becoming a recognizably important component in the world of international business. This paper discusses the effectiveness of cross‐cultural training in facilitating the process of acculturation, and in developing the culture‐specific and culture‐general skills needed to increase the sociocultural and psychological adjustments of sojourners and expatriates when they encounter a foreign culture. A new cross‐cultural training model is created by integrating acculturation and training effectiveness models. This new model suggests that providing two different types of training program prior to cultural contact will help recipients to effectively modify existing culture‐general and culture‐specific skills. As a consequence, they will achieve a higher degree of sociocultural and psychological adjustment. Experiential training should trigger affective and behavioral responses, which are the basis of intercultural effectiveness skills, and thus enhance psychological adjustment. By contrast, cognitive training should trigger cognitive responses, especially cultural awareness and interpersonal skills, and enhance sociocultural adjustment.

This paper proposes an anthropology‐based theoretical model describing the impact of top management culture clash on the commitment of the acquired team to the new organization and on its cooperation with the acquiring team. It suggests that three factors are influential, namely the degree of cultural differences, the nature of the contact between the teams, and the intended level of integration between the companies. The paper generates numerous propositions for predicting the impact of the culture clash. It also offers suggestions for further theoretical and empirical study, and presents some of the model's practical implications.

Despite the growing popularity of online secondhand platforms globally, there is a lack of studies exploring how consumers worldwide perceive contamination and the use of secondhand goods differently according to the culture. Based on the consumer contamination theory, this study aims to investigate the cultural differences of South Koreans and Americans by examining three variables (e.g. transaction type, ownership duration and physical attractiveness) related to consumers' perception of contamination and purchase intentions for a secondhand apparel item.

Data were collected from 422 US and South Korean female consumers who were assigned to an experimental scenario, and their secondhand purchase intentions and perceived contamination were compared through independent t-tests and moderated regression analyses.

Consumers' purchase intentions increased, and perceived contamination decreased when the transaction type was business-to-consumer (vs consumer-to-consumer), when the item had been owned for a shorter period of time and when the item was sold by an attractive seller. Such effect was more pronounced for South Korean consumers than the US consumers in the negative contamination contexts (i.e. transaction type, ownership duration), but not in the positive contamination context (i.e. attractiveness).

The findings of the study add to the literature on consumer contamination theory through an examination of several negative and positive contamination factors in retail contexts and highlight the role of culture as a critical moderator.

The purpose of this paper is to bring to light the double edges faced by individuals who have international and multicultural experiences. The implication is that these individuals encounter acculturation challenges, and also gain from their multiculturality. The authors adopt Berry’s (2011) integration and multiculturalism framework to analyze the experiences and challenges that multi-culturals face. This paper suggests ways to glean the silver lining within organizations to help manage and master multicultural experiences in the workplace to benefit both individuals and organizations.

The authors used empirical materials from expatriates who have worked across multiple cultural contexts. Based on these the authors present three examples to illustrate how expatriates and multicultural individuals place themselves in situations where they experience contact and challenges associated with adopting multiple cultures. The authors then analyze these examples to show how the experiences involve psychological-level integration challenges for Multi- and n-culturals.

The three multicultural expatriate examples suggest that individuals with international and multicultural experiences who are successful at managing their experiences develop cognitive and behavioral complexity. However, these individuals also face continuous acculturation including cognitive and ethno-cultural identity conflicts such as, rejection from multiple cultural perspectives because they continually cross-multiple cultural microcosms. Suggestions are presented to help maintain one’s sense of self-worth and minimizing ethno-cultural conflicts.

Notwithstanding the value of analyzing the examples of expatriate acculturation experiences, the limitation to the examples is that it is limited to the experience of three individuals. However, the examples were effective in raising points to discuss relevant challenges and/or the double-edged reality faced by boundary spanners, multi-, and n-culturals.

The paper presents possible ways multi- and n-culturals navigate through their multiculturalism, including suggestions to help individuals who struggle with their multiculturalism through mentoring.

The paper highlights the challenges of acculturation and suggests ways that individuals can overcome these challenges. It further suggests how organizations can take advantage of such individuals by utilizing existing personnel within the organization.

The paper is one of the few that acknowledge multiculturalism is highly challenging even for successful multi-culturals and n-culturals. Currently the literature is scant concerning how individuals can manage and master multicultural experiences in the workplace. The paper suggests a number of useful strategies for individuals and organizations to manage the challenges.

As the twentieth century draws to a close, trade in services has begun to dominate the economies of many nations. International trade in services has also grown significantly, yet little research has been undertaken to understand international services. Theory lags practice by a considerable degree. This paper examines the international trade and services marketing literature, develops a definition and classification scheme of four types of international services, discusses recent trends in international services data and presents some perspectives on the future of international services.

This article intends to explore the Sub-Saharan African students' perceptions on their cross-cultural adaptation to the Moroccan society by probing into their adaptive strategies adopted in order to overcome day-to-day challenges as well as factors impeding their adaptation processes. To this end, three central research questions are advanced: (1) what are the factors that influence Sub-Saharan students' cross-cultural adaptation to the Moroccan society? (2) How do Sub-Saharan students perceive the role of host communication competence, host interpersonal relationship, ethnic proximity, host receptivity and personality type in facilitating or hindering their adaptation? And (3) how do they undergo their cross-cultural adaptation to the Moroccan society?

The main aim of this article is to explore African Sub-Saharan students' perceptions on their adaptation to Moroccan society as well as factors affecting their adaptive experiences. Due to the complex nature of this research, opting for mixed-methods research, the combination of both qualitative and quantitative, would best serve the objective of this study. For this purpose, qualitative methods (interviews) are used to collect non-numerical data about factors that facilitate or hinder the cross-cultural adaptation of Sub-Saharan students in Morocco in the first phase, and then quantitative methods (questionnaires) are used to collect numerical data about their perceptions of their adaptation in the Moroccan society in the second phase.

The results of the present study revealed that a large number of Sub-Saran African students are well adapted to the Moroccan culture, but with discrepant degrees. Their adaptation is mainly influenced by an array of intersected factors. Firstly, the participants showed that the more they were aware of the Moroccan culture and language, the more likely they would be able to function properly and effectively in different social settings. Secondly, it was found that establishing social ties with the host members was perceived as significant for easing their adaptation due to the cultural, emotional and academic support these ties provided. Thirdly, host receptivity was perceived as an important factor that facilitated the students' cross-cultural adaptation. With the case of some participants, host receptivity, however, hindered their adaptation because they were subject to different types of discriminatory and racist behaviours by some Moroccans. Lastly, intercultural personality traits displayed in flexibility, prior cross-cultural move and intercultural empathy were found to contribute to the students' overall functional fitness in the

This is the first research to tackle the issue of Sub-Saharan African students' cultural adaptation in Morocco.

When organizations with disparate cultures are merged, the culture of the acquired organization often represents a counterculture for the acquiring firm. Scholars and consultants frequently recommend avoiding integration of an acquired company if it has a sharply different culture. This paper presents a case study of a recent hostile takeover that disproves the conventional wisdom and shows that careful implementation processes enable the company, not only to overcome post‐merger integration barriers due to culture clash, but also to maximize strategic benefits from those cultural differences. It shows that integration can be achieved through a process in which only some specific cultural dimensions are integrated while others are preserved.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze actual developments within PPP-projects, and the influences of business-cultures in the management-processes of such international PPP-projects. The paper focusses especially on the procurement, during which potential project-partners are being selected.

The researcher adopted a recent model from literature for analyzing business-cultures within construction processes; especially the so called “3C-Model” was used, earlier developed and published within construction-management literature. Based on analysis of literature and comparable situations, conclusions and recommendations have been made for managing international PPP-projects, especially in the project-partners selection phase.

Actual approaches within international PPP-projects do need a more structured approach during the selection of the project-partners. It is suggested to use more past-performance information, not only based on financials and/or organizational data/experiences, but also on behavioral (business-culture) data/experiences. This information needs to be structured in a proper way. Suggestions are given focussing on discussion and future-outlook.

It would be useful to test the findings on further actual cases, testing the further implications of the outcome.

A better understanding of business-cultures’ influences increases the awareness of project-participants for the advantage of the suggested extra selection-criteria. This might reduce the risk for conflicts during the project-execution in the total project life-cycle.

When improving the actual practices of selection suitable parties for actual and future PPP-projects, it is of great value to be as effective as possible within this selection process. Especially, because this approach can prevent for several unpleasant situations afterwards during the operation-time (life-cycle) of the PPP-project. In this way, a proper handling of business-culture’s influence can save clients and other stakeholders involved (society) a large amount of possible conflicts (claims, etc.) afterwards.

The proposed approach contributes to a better understanding of project-processes and its stakeholders (i.e. especially the – foreseen – project-participants). Current selection-processes still do not adopt a structured approach for incorporating past-performance behavioral data/experiences; so structuring and using them properly can result in more successful PPP-projects within a fast growing international PPP-market.

The term “globalisation”, although ubiquitous, has lost precision due to the fact that it can be applied in diverse ways. Here, multiple implications of globalisation are discussed in order to clarify its impact upon modern business and vice versa. In specific, the concepts of homogenisation, polarisation, and hybridisation are examined. By comparing these models to earlier paradigms (such as those provided by the Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement), more precise discussions of globalisation result. The concept of dialectics, furthermore, provides a valuable tool to use when analysing the process of hybridisation.