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As there are many Arab students seek to earn an international degree, this research article aims to explore the factors that influence Arab students' adaptation to the foreign cross-culture of the USA and how it is related to their academic achievement. Exploring these factors will introduce different insights into the effectiveness of adaptation and studying in a foreign country and earning an international degree. Besides, this study contributes to the body of knowledge of international higher education by including Arab students as a less-researched group. Arab students' adaptation process is explained in terms of the Cross-cultural Adaptation Theory (Kim, 2001).

This qualitative research study was conducted using a focus group discussion (FGD). Multiple face-to-face interviews were conducted to obtain data from the participants. Participants were divided into four groups, each female group contained nine participants and each male group contained seven participants. The researcher explained to each group independently about their perception, beliefs and attitude toward earning international degrees, the adaptation to the host culture and their academic achievement. The researcher carried out five FGDs for each group. Each interview continued for 60 minutes in length. All participants received a consent form. The discussions were audio-recorded and then transcribed.

Arab students are a group of enthusiastic learners; however, their feelings of homesickness enable them to develop overwhelming sorrowful emotions, howbeit their communication with their ethnic group facilitates the adaption and acceptance of the host cultures, which requires quite some time to adjust to new surroundings. Arab students are recognized with high academic achievements; nevertheless, they require prolonged periods to complete course assignments. American society gives international students a warm welcome; this may encourage other Arab students to consider earning an American degree and prepare themselves for this intercultural transition.

This is subjective qualitative data; some limitations need to be addressed when interpreting the findings. Participants are English as a Second Language (ESL)learners, which may influence their word choice during the discussion. Interesting future research could be related to designing an assessment model to evaluate the academic achievement of ESL in different methods that focus on their achievement motivations and communication skills.

Based on the findings, professors can integrate the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to help multi-cultural students to learn and earn an international higher education degree.

Higher education institutions can offer more social multi-cultural opportunities to include multi-cultural students and develop their social skills to facilitate the adaptation process to the new host culture.

This qualitative research study represents an original work of the researcher, and it has not submitted elsewhere. All research ethical codes were followed by the researcher and participants. There is no fund for this research project.

Studies on cross-culture marketing often focus on either localization or globalization strategies. Based on data from pre-communist China (1912–1949), product hybridization – defined as a process or strategy that generates symbols, designs, behaviors and cultural identities that blend local and global elements – emerges as a popular intermediate strategy worthy of further inquiry. After examining the mechanisms and processes underlying this strategy, a schema for classifying product hybridization strategies is developed and illustrated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Critical historical research method is applied to historical data and historical “traces” from pre-communist China’s corporate documents, memoirs, posters, advertisements, newspapers and secondhand sources.

Strategic interactions between domestic and foreign companies in pre-communist China fostered products and a city (Shanghai) containing Chinese and non-Chinese elements. Informed by historical traces and data from pre-communist China (1912-1949), a 2 × 2 classification schema relating company type (i.e. foreign or domestic) to values spectrum endpoint (i.e. domestic vs foreign) was formulated. This schema reflects the value of communication, negotiation and cultural (inter)penetration that accompanies cross-culture product flows.

Cross-culture marketing strategies meant to help companies satisfy diverse marketplace interests can induce a mélange of product design elements. Because product hybridization reflects reciprocity between domestic and foreign companies that embodies multiple interests and contrasting interpretations of product meanings, researchers should examine globalization and localization synergistically.

Strategies adopted by domestic and foreign companies in pre-communist China (1912–1949) can help contemporary companies design effective cross-culture marketing strategies in a global marketplace infused with competing meanings and interests.

Examining historical strategies adopted in pre-communist China (1912–1949) can inform contemporary marketers’ intuitions. Understanding product hybridization in global marketplaces can improve marketing efficiency.

The relationship between cultural novelty and cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates is often assumed to be negative and linear, while the empirical results for the relationship has been demonstrated by researchers as either negative, positive or absent.

The current research challenges the negative and linear assumption conceptually and empirically and tests a curvilinear relation between cultural novelty and general adjustment. The authors specifically propose and test a theoretical model whereby emotional stability moderates the curvilinear cultural novelty–general adjustment relationship such that the negative effect of cultural novelty on general adjustment is mitigated by emotional stability. Survey data are collected from expatriates recruited from two different host countries, India (N = 151) and China (N = 157).

The findings provide support for the curvilinear relationship between cultural novelty and general adjustment and the moderating effect of expatriates' emotional stability on this relationship.

This present study makes unique contributions to the expatriate management literature in at least two major ways: first, this study consolidates the otherwise contradictory findings and furthers the understanding on the nature of the effect of cultural novelty on expatriate adjustment. In addition, this research tests a cultural novelty–expatriate adjustment model using expatriate samples drawn from China and India, the two largest emerging markets that capture the demographic-profile changes pertaining to the newly emerging expatriation trends.

This article, which is exploratory in nature, considers the experiences of migrant students enrolled in the transnational degree program of an accredited American college located in the Czech Republic. Migrant students have considerable experience in negotiating the different national cultures of their college and of the new country in which they live. Students, participating in a Cross-culture Management course, were asked to maintain reflective journals in which they recorded their experiences of national culture difference. The purpose was to encourage consideration, reflection, and the growing internalization of cross-cultural appreciation and negotiation.

Participants were asked to maintain reflective journals during the semester, in which they identified and considered critical incidents and defining issues in their cross-cultural experiences. Journals were analyzed from an inductive phenomenological perspective with no preconceived imposition of structure, although participants had been informed that the root-metaphor of the journal should be that of “journeys”. Ten emergent themes were identified and a number of these, which seemed to impact national culture adaptation, are discussed. In an attempt to retain the authentic voice of participants, verbatim quotations are reproduced in some detail.

The emergent themes identified give insight into the range of national cultural complexities that these migrant students confronted. Sharing these issues with those who have less national culture experience might increase their understanding of the adaption process. More importantly, the journal increased reflection, prompted deeper sensemaking, and allowed participants to articulate their experiences. Making explicit their own cultural adaption problems may also be beneficial for these participants.

Cross-culture education has often taken a didactic approach that emphasized teaching and learning. The reflective journal focuses on an experiential approach to making sense of cultural experience. From a learner perspective, the use of a reflective journal stimulates reflection and contributes to resolution. From an instructor perspective, journals provide valuable insight into issues significant in a developing awareness of a national culture. Journals also provide an unrecognized insight into the personal experiences of international and transnational students that may have implications in their general learning and broader education.

A first post-WALS attempt at a thematic analysis of the conference presentations since its first annual meeting in 2007, this paper aims to achieve two major purposes: first, to capture the trends of spread and diffusion of lesson and learning studies globally and second, to draw useful implications for future conferences.

A thematic analysis using NVIVO12.0 coding on all forms of conference presentations found in the WALS 2019 Conference Programme was conducted. Representative cases were selected from paper and symposiums sessions to support the claims generated from the analysis.

The study provides an evidence-based confirmation of the global spread and diffusion of lesson and learning studies. It uncovers findings key to the initial spread and continued diffusion; examines funding as a mechanism enabling university–school research relationships, models of adaptations and issues of sustainability; surfaces the theoretical models and methods adopted in paper and symposia presentations. The current situation, lessons learned and possible implications for future WALS conferences are discussed.

Inform research on practical cases.

Lessons learned are discussed.

These are possible implications for future WALS conferences.

The originality lies in its being the first WALS post-conference analysis aiming at identifying substantive themes with potential to draw important implications for future research and subsequent years' conferences.

This seminal research investigates the adaptation experiences of elderly dependent Chinese immigrants who have come to New Zealand under the Family Reunion Category between 1994 and 1998. The study involved a group‐administered questionnaire to measure the various aspects of the adaptation experiences of 105 elderly dependent Chinese from China aged 50 years and over. The data set was subjected to ANOVA, Kruskal‐Wallis and Factor Analysis to analyse and establish relationships between variables. The results confirmed that there were five main factors that influence the living conditions of the elderly dependent Chinese immigrants in New Zealand. These were, in order of severity, communication in the English language, medical care, transportation, cost of living and interestingly relationships with other family members. The study also confirmed that age, length of time in New Zealand, and the need to stay in New Zealand permanently influenced the adaptability of the elderly Chinese immigrants in New Zealand.

This paper aims to examine the effect of push and pull factors motivating international students to study abroad as two pre-departure factors to their mobility decision; and the effect of two post-departure factors – cultural distance and academic/university environment – on international students’ adjustment.

Data were collected from 339 international students studying in Egypt. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the effect of the independent variables on two facets of adjustment, the cultural adjustment and the academic adjustment.

The descriptive studies showed differences in level of adjustments, where the academic adjustment was higher than the cultural adjustment. Moreover, the SEM results have confirmed the significant role of all studied variables on general cultural adjustment; and all variables except for the push factors, on interaction cultural adjustment; and the effect of only push and academic environment on academic adjustment.

This paper is an attempt to extend the work on international students’ mobility via identifying the main pre-departure and the post-departure factors affecting their decision to study in Egypt and the interplay of those factors in shaping their level of adjustment. This study is among a relatively limited attempts in the field that would link push and pull motivational factors to level of adjustment and via detecting the effects on two different adjustments dimensions: the cultural and the academic dimensions; and within an under researched context as Egypt.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect and mechanism of platform incentives on users’ knowledge collaboration performance (KCP) and the configuration leading to high KCP in online knowledge communities (OKCs) in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era from a cross-culture perspective.

A survey method and a standard questionnaire were applied. The data was analyzed using multiple regression and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.

The results indicate that, for both kinds of users, self-enhancement and communication positively affect the KCP. User engagement significantly mediates the relationship between communication and KCP and knowledge absorptive capacity moderates the relationship between user engagement and KCP. In contrast, material incentive positively affects the KCP of Chinese users, while hurting the cross-cultural sample. And the promotion of KCP for cross-cultural samples does not require a higher engagement and knowledge absorptive capacity, while paying more attention to short-term interests, such as communication and self-enhancement.

The study only divides users into Chinese and cross-cultural foreign users, without a distinction between foreign users in different countries. In addition, the research is based on cross-sectional data and failed to try to explore the long-term effects of these incentives from the time dimension.

This study explores the incentive mechanism and configuration of OKC platforms to achieve high KCP for different users from a cross-cultural perspective. It provides new ideas and solutions for precise incentives for users of OKC platforms.