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The purpose of this study is to capture the variation in entrepreneurs' understandings and experiences through which they contextualise cultural factors within a national setting to articulate how they use their knowledge and social capabilities to advance their activity.

This study adopts an interpretivist approach through which culture is investigated at the individual level. Phenomenography is used as a methodology to capture the variation in the entrepreneurs own understanding and experiences of the cultural factors.

The findings introduce four different understandings and eight experiences to explore how entrepreneurs contextualise culture in their environment. The findings present a change in the role of culture in influencing entrepreneurial social capabilities and confidence; and a change in the local culture from collectivism to individualism. Furthermore, the findings show how entrepreneurs use their knowledge, experience and understanding to achieve socially driven acts to pursue economic value, integration and acceptance.

We encourage further research in the Middle-East region to examine the model and identify other factors that affect entrepreneurial behaviour, including the important developments with regard to women entrepreneurs. While Jordan has embarked on introducing policy level changes to support entrepreneurship, the findings report that the culture of collectivism is changing. This requires a longitudinal research to capture the change and its implication on entrepreneurial activity in Jordan and its impact on unemployment and economic value.

In terms of practical contribution, the study introduces a policy level contribution by answering the question presented by the GEM report (2014) pointing out the high entrepreneurial opportunity identification in Jordan, yet the country has the lowest entrepreneurial activity in the region. Although the report pointed out issues in policy and institutional support the role of culture was not addressed. The study recommendation is to celebrate and entrepreneurial activity and introduce entrepreneurial studies at schools to influence a positive change.

We addressed some of the several calls to further investigate and understand the role of culture, how entrepreneurs contextualise it (Foss and Klein, 2012; Garud et al., 2016; Zahra et al., 2014; Welter et al., 2019). Our research provides a fertile ground for further enquiries that pose questions such as “What other factors do entrepreneurs contextualise in their environment?” and “how these factors are contextualised?” The use of phenomenography as an interpretive methodology might therefore assist in revealing further shared understandings of the variation in entrepreneurs' behaviours. Further research on capturing “understanding” presents the complex forms of interactions and mechanism in the cognitive world of the entrepreneurs (Barandiaran et al., 2009; Brannback and Carsrud, 2016).

In this study, phenomenography has enabled new insights into the multiplicity and idiosyncratic role of culture within a national setting and introduces a model of social capability and integration which capture the contextualisation of cultural factors. The study contributes to entrepreneurship literature as follows: first, the implicit assumption in this research is that culture is an active construct that entrepreneurs understand, experience and also influence; second, the variation in entrepreneurs' outcomes is based on their subjective and personal understandings which form the ways of contextualisation. Third, the variation in understanding and experiences captures the different ways entrepreneurs use their social capabilities to achieve integration and economic value.

The purpose of this paper is to critically study the implementation and contextualization of the human resource transformation (HRT) management model within the human resources (HR) function of a global industrial company group.

A qualitative case study that includes two data collections.

Implementation of the HRT model led to tensions and conflicting interpretations of the mission of the HR function, and a “tug of war” about the distribution of work both within HR and between HR and line management. Splitting the HR function into three legs made the HR function's learning cycles more difficult. The corporate group had a decentralized and diverse business culture, and contextualization of the HRT model to this setting highlighted the model's embeddedness in the American business culture of centralization and standardization. Implementation of the model also entailed a transition from an employee to an employer perspective within HR.

For an assessment of HR's total work other parts of the HRT model (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005) need to be involved since HR professionals in the insourced or outsourced shared service center (SSC) and Center of Expertise (CoE) and the e-HR tools are equally important for executing the total HR's mission. Further studies of the problematic human resource business partner (HRBP) role are needed and also what the development of e-HR solutions means for the HR profession.

The authors argue for a continuous development of HR work, along with closer professional contact both with line managers (LMs) and within the HR function, for improved learning cycles and a need for contextualization when implementing management models.

The paper discusses the HRT model's impact on HR practitioners’ and LMs’ work practice.

This article shows the need for contextualization when implementing management models. The lack of such contextualization led to severe tensions, and the intentions of an efficient and respected HR function were not achieved. The study contributes an evaluation of the tensions between HRT as a normative and standardized model in business settings accustomed to variety and decentralized decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how accountability practices are affected and potentially transformed when mediated by translation. Adopting a postcolonial lens, the authors consider the ways in which translation functions and how intermediaries act as cultural translators in the context of microfinance.

The authors take a qualitative approach to a case study of a microfinance organization based in South Africa. Fieldwork allowed for the collection of data by means of direct observations, interviews, documents and a fieldwork diary.

The study demonstrates the presence of spaces of hybridity that co-exist within the same organizational context (Bhabha, 1994). Two spaces of hybridity are highlighted, in which translation processes were possible because of the proximity between borrowers and fieldworkers. The first space of hybridity was found locally and here translation shaped an accountability that aimed at leveraging local cultures and favoring cultural framing. The second space of hybridity was characterized by the interaction between oral and written cultures and the translation of responsibilities and expectations was predominantly unidirectional, prioritizing accountability practices consistent with organizational requirements.

This research offers in-depth insights into the links between intermediation, translation and accountability practices. It differs from prior research in considering intermediaries as active translators of accountability practices who act in-between cultures. The authors contend that the translation process reinscribes culture allowing dominant accountability practices to prevail and local cultural traditions to merely contextualize accountability practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions are reflected on the official corporate Facebook pages from 259 organizations on Fortune magazine’s Global 500 list. This is the first attempt to create a conceptualization of Hofstede’s dimensions for organizational social media use.

To determine how Facebook is used by the Global 500 corporations, a content analysis was carried out based on the 2013 listing of the highest revenue corporations throughout the world. As a research method, content analysis allows researchers to examine the actual practices of communication by focusing on the information provided through textual and visual messages.

The results paint a mixed picture indicating that the global nature of these corporations is echoed in a somewhat similar overall presence on Facebook; but when the individual elements (About Us, updates, and media) are examined, statistical differences emerge in relation to the reflection of the cultural dimensions.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work to match Facebook behaviors with Hofstede’s dimensions. This work needs to be replicated with other organizations to determine its staying power. In addition, future research might tap into agency and any consciousness on the part of social media managers in a specific direction. Depending on those findings, they might make important statements on the emergence of a global social media culture.

The article aims to report on an examination of South African Police Service (SAPS) recruits for indicators evincing the presence of the police culture theme of isolation. The research also seeks to determine if the presence of isolation as characteristic of SAPS recruits is gender neutral as well as whether indicators of social isolation change over the period of basic recruit training as well as during the first period of encounter, field training.

Using a survey format, the research employs a quasi‐experimental pre‐test/post‐test repeated measures research (longitudinal) design: a pre‐test at the beginning of SAPS recruit basic training; post‐test at the end of the SAPS basic training; and a second post‐test upon completion field training.

Although there is significant variance among the police recruits, overall there are indicators of police isolation already present among the recruits upon arrival at the police training colleges. These indicators became stronger during the period of basic training but appeared to weaken during field training. However, upon closer observation this change was true only for female recruits. Indicators of isolation were also stronger among female recruits at all three times despite the decrease following field training.

The findings suggest that the basic training be evaluated for its differential, and somewhat negative, impact on female recruits. That attitudes evincing isolation from the public are present among police recruits also raises a serious question regarding community policing as the preferred mode of police service delivery.

This paper reports on a preliminary investigation of the police culture theme of isolation among South African Police Service recruits entering basic police training in January of 2005 and changes that may have occurred in these attitudes over the period of the six‐month basic training and the subsequent six‐month field training experience.

The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to social and cultural leadership in the area of family matters as they relate to black and disadvantaged communities. It seeks to reject and qualify the prevailing notions of victim status attributed to such groups in debates around the family and crime, while highlighting and challenging the various rationalities of the key actors involved. The paper calls for greater responsibility from those who view themselves as disadvantaged, and others who seek to advocate on their behalf.

This paper is based on data gained from interviews carried out with black men, community activists, and participatory observation.

Black leaders for their own political motives continue to uncritically promote notions of female victimhood in the context of discussions around the family, youth delinquency, and crime. However, black lone‐parents are not passive victims and are often rational actors in the pursuit of personal goals, albeit often short‐sighted in terms of their social consequences.

More research is required especially reflecting black male perspectives about parenthood and lone‐parent families. Research is also called for on the issue of policing, crime prevention, and related strategies utilised by community activists in addressing the complex range of problems experienced by their communities. The paper calls for a stop to the practice of demonising black men in the context of debates around family matters, and the adoption of a more balanced approach to the issues in question.

The paper contributes to a more informed debate on the topic, especially within affected communities, and discussions about parenting support/education, and the cultural specificity of some of the issues in question.

The paper highlights the role of black women's decision making in the context of family formation, and the role of sexism in black cultural practices in privileging female behaviour.

The purpose of this study is to develop an empirically informed framework to analyze women empowerment and entrepreneurship, contextualized within a collective society.

The authors conducted 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs located in the United Arab Emirates to understand their entrepreneurial experiences and how they were empowered.

Findings suggest that the three aspects of power characterized as “positive” from within Rowlands’ distinctions (“power to”, “power with” and “power within”) dominate, as opposed to those emphasized in the literature (“power to” and “power over”). Findings include empowerment of the “me” (individual) also synergistically contributes to empowerment of the “we” (society), when considering empowerment within a collective society.

A psychology model was used as a basis to develop a Collective Empowerment Process Framework. This framework provides a fresh look at empowerment, allowing for explanations of how women in specific contexts experience empowerment and social change.

Entrepreneurship, which traditionally has been a male occupation, still attracts fewer women than men. Challenging gender stereotypes within entrepreneurship is one avenue to increase women's entrepreneurial intention and promote women entrepreneurship. This study adapts the “think manager – think male” leadership perspective to the entrepreneurship context and explores gender stereotype's implications for both entrepreneurial intention and motivation to become an entrepreneur.

A total of 902 Spanish non-entrepreneurs, both male and female, were randomly asked about the representation of successful entrepreneurs (no-gender-mention), successful men entrepreneurs or successful women entrepreneurs (reduced stereotype threat condition vs no-gender-mention or men entrepreneurs' conditions). Then, female participants' entrepreneurial intention, its antecedents (i.e. attitudes toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms and entrepreneurial self-efficacy) and necessity vs opportunity motivation were measured and compared to their male counterparts' scores in those three conditions.

Female participants reported higher entrepreneurial intention, self-efficacy and opportunity motivation when assigned to the successful women entrepreneurs' condition. Younger participants – compared to older ones – also exhibited higher entrepreneurial intention and opportunity motivation, more positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship and higher scores in subjective norms. Furthermore, findings suggest a woman entrepreneur seems to be less accessible (or more counter-stereotypical) to male participants than to female participants and, thus, the “think entrepreneur – think male” bias is more noticeable in male participants. Therefore, reducing negative stereotype threat for women in entrepreneurship may increase women's entrepreneurial career aspirations. This is of utmost importance to optimize training courses and mentoring programs to strengthen women's self-efficacy in their entrepreneurial skills and capabilities.

This study contributes to the literature about gender, entrepreneurial intention and motivation by adapting a leadership paradigm (“think manager – think male”) to entrepreneurship (“think entrepreneur – think male”). These findings shed new light on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and motivation and have implications for policy measures. Acknowledging that exposure to successful women entrepreneurs as role models potentially facilitates entrepreneurship among women, governments should provide tailor-made incentives and support for women entrepreneurs in the form of awareness raising, networking and in the mass media.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the context of ad pictures differs between Chinese ads and US ads and whether it can influence consumers' ad attitudes.

An ad content analysis and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the hypotheses.

Findings suggest that contextualized ads appear more frequently in Chinese magazines because East Asians have a context‐dependent mode of thinking while westerners have a context‐independent mode of thinking. However, the effect of culture on advertising is moderated by product class (goods vs service), product category, and magazine category. Moreover, East Asians prefer contextualized ads to non‐contextualized ones, while westerners prefer non‐contextualized ads to contextualized ads. However, the effect of culture on ad attitudes may be moderated by ad involvement.

The limitations of this study stem from its being based on ad samples from China and its use of students to test ad attitudes.

The findings allow managers to better determine whether and under what conditions to use contextualized or non‐contextualized advertisements.

The study's examination of the effect of culture on the context of ad format and effect of context on persuasion in this context constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to the literature. The paper also contributes much to the literature by checking cultural differences across 17 magazine categories, compared to the vast majority of studies analyzing ad content between eastern and western cultures, which have been based on ads from only a few sources.

This study aims to provide insights into the conceptualization of social entrepreneurship and the extent to which culture affects it.

First, social entrepreneurship is conceptualized and then the research integrates Hofstede’s framework, with some consideration for Inglehart’s and Schwartz’s framework in exploring the effects of cultural values.

Seminal studies on social entrepreneurship delineated acting entrepreneurially and having a social mission but failed to consider cultural contextualization. After illustrating Hofstede’s, Inglehart’s and Schwartz’s frameworks for cultural dimensions, the research shows that different cultural dimensions can provide a better understanding of social entrepreneurship.

This study has a limited scope as it relies on narrow conceptualizations of social entrepreneurship and culture.

Future national agendas should embrace varying notions of shared obligation across support institutions and enterprises as they attempt to address social problems across differing cultures.

This research contributes to the literature by providing an insightful understanding of the influence of culture on social entrepreneurship through integrating widely used cultural dimensions.