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To further explore the nature of non-monetary motivation for working, this study aims to present correlates of non-financial employment commitment (NFEC) and a cross-national comparison.

Data gathered from representative national samples of the adult population (i.e. employed and unemployed individuals) in 31 countries (n=43,440), among them Nordic (e.g. Sweden and Norway), Western-European (e.g. Spain and France), Anglo-Saxon (e.g. the USA and Britain), former Communist (e.g. Russia and Hungary), Asian (e.g. Japan and South Korea), Latin-American (Mexico and the Dominican Republic), and African (South Africa). The source of the data is the 2005 International Social Survey Programme module on work orientation.

NFEC proves positively correlated with intrinsic job characteristics, education level, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Administrators, managers, and professionals have higher NFEC than blue-collar workers, clerks, service workers, and sales workers. Respondents currently working for pay have higher NFEC than those currently not working for pay. Respondents trying to improve job skills during the previous 12 months have higher NFEC than those not trying to do so. NFEC is higher in member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development than in non-member countries. NFEC is also higher in countries where self-expression values are important than in countries where survival values are important.

By assessing NFEC decision makers may be assisted in their selection and advancement decisions.

This study conducts the most comprehensive cross-national comparison of NFEC to date, and its findings have high external validity. It is unlikely that the findings are biased by social desirability.

This study aims to examine the formal and metric properties of Gil et al.’s (2000) scale of attitudes toward organic products, which is the most popular scale to measure these attitudes.

The sample consisted of 4,992 household shoppers living in Hong Kong, Germany, Norway, Spain and the UK. The questionnaire was distributed using a third-party consumer panel, and the fieldwork was conducted using computer-assisted Web interviewing. The approach was based on confirmatory factor analysis and measurement of invariance, as well as format analysis using a wording-syntactic and semantic descriptive method.

The scale reflects an attitude-toward-object model approach. Its use has been heavily varied (in terms of wording, item semantics and the attributes to be measured). A two-factor structure that meets the metric conditions (reliability and validity) is found. However, the analysis of invariance shows that the scale behaves differently in different countries.

This scale offers a good starting point for measuring attitudes toward organic products. However, it requires refinement to adapt to consumer evolution and improve its metric validity. Verification of its applicability in cross-national studies is recommended.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that assesses the format and quantitative characteristics of this scale on a cross-national level. For scholars and companies with international interests, preventing the use of scales with poor properties at the transnational level can improve the design of future studies and save money through a more informed choice of attitudinal scale.

Este estudio examina las propiedades formales y métricas de la escala de actitudes hacia los productos orgánicos de Gil et al. (2000), que es la escala más popular para medir estas actitudes.

La muestra incluye 4.992 compradores principales en hogares de Hong Kong, Alemania, Noruega, España y el Reino Unido. El cuestionario se distribuyó utilizando un panel de consumidores, y el trabajo de campo se llevó a cabo mediante entrevistas online asistidas por ordenador. El enfoque se basó en un análisis factorial confirmatorio y en la invariancia de las medidas, así como en un análisis del formato utilizando un método descriptivo de redacción-sintáctico-semántico.

La escala refleja un enfoque de actitud basada en el objeto. Su uso ha sido muy variado (en redacción, semántica de sus redacciones y los atributos que mide). Se encuentra una estructura de dos factores que cumple con las condiciones métricas (fiabilidad y validez). Sin embargo, el análisis de invariancia muestra que la escala se comporta de manera diferente en distintos países.

Esta escala ofrece un buen punto de partida para medir las actitudes hacia los productos orgánicos, pero requiere un refinamiento para adaptarse a la evolución del consumidor y para mejorar su validez métrica. Se recomienda verificar su aplicabilidad en los estudios internacionales comparados.

Este es el primer estudio que evalúa el formato y las características cuantitativas de esta escala a nivel internacional. Para los académicos y las empresas con intereses internacionales, evitar el uso de escalas con propiedades deficientes a nivel transnacional puede mejorar el diseño de futuros estudios y ahorrar dinero a través de una elección más informada de la escala actitudinal.

Actitudes, Productos orgánicos, Estudio transnacional, Análisis factorial confirmatorio, Validación de la escala

Artículo de investigación.

The trend towards internationalisation in many service industries has increased the need for both managers and academics to collect cross‐cultural/national consumer‐perceived service quality data. Failure to establish cross‐cultural equivalence and to detect differences in cross‐national response bias will, however, affect data comparability, may invalidate the research results and could therefore lead to incorrect inferences about attitudes and behaviours across national groups. By initially focussing on developments in the mono‐cultural service quality literature, a framework is presented whereby academics and managers can assess the potential impact of these international measurement issues. Existing cross‐cultural service quality literature is reviewed and the extent to which these issues are addressed is highlighted. Methods for detecting and correcting cross‐national response biases are discussed.

Non‐standard forms of work figure prominently in debates about the flexibility of the labour force. Non‐standard employment, in the form of part‐time jobs, own‐account self‐employment, temporary working and multiple job holding has been increasing in many industrialized countries. Contrasts its prevalence in 1989 in Canada and the UK, through a systematic secondary analysis of the Canadian General Social Survey and the UK Labour Force Survey. While the overall frequency of non‐standard work is the same in the two countries, notable cross‐national differences are observed when age, gender and industry are introduced, and when the different forms of non‐standard work are examined separately. Among the more noteworthy differences is the higher proportion of employed British women in non‐standard jobs.

The quality of an education system or a comparative international assessment refers more and more to quantitative parameters, i.e. “educational indicators”. The paper aims to analyse the structure of several educational indicators and indicator systems and answer the question “What can educational indicators achieve?”

Starting with a general consideration of the term “indicator” the findings are applied to the educational area and the development of educational indicators is analysed critically.

Indicators allow for the illustration of outcomes and of system processes. Beginning in the 1950s, following the empirical turn in research methods, and the growing significance of approaches from economics of education, indicators are now applied in national and international settings. The findings show that the combination of the quantitative and qualitative approach is more successful as the isolated research.

The research is based on secondary analysis. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodology should be undertaken in following the progress of educational systems.

The findings of quantitative research based on educational indicators determine the general public and political discussion and often the discourse in the scientific community. The analysis shows that a critical distance especially when preparing political decisions is a necessary attitude.

Academic dishonesty in post‐secondary education is a widespread, insidious and global problem. Business educators hosting foreign students locally and teaching abroad more than ever need to understand the nuances and attitudes of different student populations and how these differences may manifest themselves in a course. This research contributes to the growing albeit still scanty body of literature demonstrating that significant cross‐national differences exist regarding students' attitudes, beliefs and propensities toward cheating. This study compares US and Hong Kong university business students on three areas: cheating behaviors and perceptions, relationships between academic dishonesty and gender, and prediction of academic dishonesty. A total of 443 usable surveys were collected in the USA and 622 in Hong Kong. Statistically significant differences are presented followed by discussion and implications.

The paper presents a framework for establishing equivalence of international marketing data. The framework is meant to reduce confusion about equivalence issues, and guide the design of international studies and data analysis.

A short overview is given of the two main approaches to equivalence in the literature. These are integrated and used to distinguish sources of cultural bias in the various stages of the research process.

The highest levels of equivalence most often established are construct equivalence and partial measurement equivalence, implying that distributions of scores obtained in various countries cannot be interpreted at face value. To understand cross‐cultural differences better, researchers should investigate why higher levels of equivalence could not be established; this can be done best by including elements from both the conceptual and the measurement approach to equivalence.

This study can help marketing managers to establish the extent to which consumer perceptions can be considered equal across countries. Moreover, it helps researchers to determine causes of unequivalence and relate these to concrete stages in the research process.

Integration of the two main approaches to equivalence will lead to a better understanding of the validity of cross‐cultural differences and similarities. This should lead to improved decision making in international marketing.

Health care systems are evaluated by the triad of access, quality, and cost. This article presents evidence-based outcomes of multiple measures of concern with the United States (U.S.) health care system and proposes a universal health care system as the solution of choice. One third of the U.S. population is either non-insured or underinsured. Lack of quality care is shown by several indicators. Cost concerns are noted in cross-national studies which emphasize that the U.S. spends twice as much for health care but with less access for its citizens to health care. The presidential election of Fall 2004 provides a “window of opportunity” for this policy to be enacted.

This paper aims to provide a more nuanced image of cooperation in France, first, insisting on the idiosyncratic conditions under which French will be likely to cooperate, and, second, pointing the importance of the local context, finally criticizing the average stereotyped image given by the intercultural management quantitative literature.

The studies behind the article are based on qualitative data and on an interpretative analysis of culture, considered as a frame of meanings through which people read the organizational situation they are in.

Advanced form of cooperation may be obtained when some balance can be established through subtle arrangement between organizational and cultural needs, i.e. allowing staff to escape from their founding fear of servility.

Such analysis of the conditions that can facilitate or hinder cooperation should not be limited to France. It may be applied to any other cultural area.

Intercultural management training sessions for expatriates could benefit from this qualitative approach.

This approach challenges the quantitative main Stream approach in cross-national studies on management.