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To introduce the presumed cultural similarity paradox as a possible explanation for the findings that adjusting to a culturally similar country is just as difficult as adjusting to a culturally dissimilar country. We provide a conceptual framework, enabling further understanding and research into this phenomenon.

Expatriates moving to a country that shares common characteristics may presume more cultural similarity and easier adjustment than is actually the case. During their stay abroad, expatriates may find that these expectations are not met. While the smaller cultural distance may facilitate adjustment, the undermet expectations inhibit adjustment and performance.

A first preliminary test compared Dutch expatriates in Belgium (culturally similar) and in China (culturally dissimilar). The expectations of cultural similarity and adjustment difficulty of the expatriates in Belgium were significantly more undermet than those of the expatriates in China and this had a negative influence on affective adjustment. The larger cultural distance of China was negatively related to intercultural adjustment. Better adjustment, both affective and intercultural, led to better job performance.

Future research should try to replicate and extend our findings to other cultural contexts.

Expatriates and their employers must consider and prepare for the increased chance of undermet expectations and the negative consequences this can have on adjustment and job performance, when moving to a culturally similar country.

Expatriates and their employers must consider and prepare for the increased chance of undermet expectations and the negative consequences this can have on adjustment and job performance, when moving to a culturally similar country.

This paper conceptualizes and provide a theoretical framework that should allow future research to empirically test the psychological process that occurs in this paradox, accommodate the contrasting effects of cultural distance and met expectations of cultural similarity and investigate which characteristics of countries lead expatriates to presume more cultural similarity than is the case.

This paper aims to examine whether brands derive their personalities from their culture of origin, the stereotypes about their cultures of their origin or the cultures of their buyers. It also examines which of a culture’s personality traits are more transmittable to brand personalities (BPs), as well as the consequences of the BP resemblance to the personalities of the brand’s culture of origin and consumers’ culture on BP’s clarity and consumer attachment to the brand.

Hypotheses were developed and tested on survey data from a sample figure of 1,116 US consumers of luxury brands on 23 luxury brands originating from France, the USA, Britain, Italy and Germany. Trait by trait and personality profile analyses were performed using hierarchical model analysis (linear mixed effects models) and Cattell’s (1969) pattern similarity coefficient.

The culture of a brand’s origin accounts for differences of different brands personalities. The personality profiles of a country’s brands are distinct from the BP profiles of brands from other countries. The conscientiousness trait of a culture is the most transmittable to BPs. BPs derive their characteristics from stereotypes of a culture’s personality than the actual personality of the culture. The assimilation of a brand’s personality to consumer’s culture is not supported. The similarity of a BP to both real and stereotypical personality of the culture of the brand’s origin enhance perceived clarity of the BP.

The study’s focus is limited to established luxury brands coming from countries that are the traditional producers of luxuries. Empirical evidence also comes only from American consumers of luxury brands. New luxury brands from countries that have recently emerged as luxury producers need to be included.

Brands retain a significant space to differentiate their personalities beyond the influence of their culture of origin on BPs. With the exception of conscientiousness, personality traits of culture are not automatically inherited or transmitted to the brands. Cultural stereotypes find their way into BPs easier than real personality traits and managers should focus on them. BP matching with the personality of a culture is a good way for managers to increase the perceived clarity of their brands’ personality.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the culture’s influence on BP using a compatible to the BP construct cultural framework, McCrae and Terracciano’s (2005a) personality of a culture framework. Three cultural meaning transfer processes are examined (cultural inheritance, cultural stereotyping and acculturation to the consumer’s culture) within the same study from a trait-by-trait and a configurational (i.e. personality profile) perspective. The consequences of BP similarity to the brand’s culture of origin as well as consumer’s culture on the BP’s appeal are also assessed.

This paper aims to examine the moderating role of cultural similarity between leaders and followers on leadership training effectiveness in terms of followers' fairness perception and organizational citizenship behavior.

A quasi‐experiment was conducted with 40 managers from international corporations as the subjects. The 40 subjects were equally assigned to a treatment group and a control group. In each group, half share similar backgrounds with the followers while the other half do not. Leadership training was offered to managers in the treatment group, but not to those in the control group.

Results show that leadership training has positive effects on followers' fairness perception and organizational citizenship behavior, and the effects are stronger for those leaders who are similar to their followers in cultural background.

The study further supports that followers' fairness perception and organizational citizenship behavior will be enhanced if their leaders receive proper leadership training, and it is the first to demonstrate that cultural similarity between leaders and followers plays an important role in influencing leadership training effectiveness.

The training program described in this study is straightforward, inexpensive, easy to implement, and can be used by organizations with a diverse workforce to improve their training effectiveness and facilitate their leaders' managerial efforts.

This is the first paper to examine how cultural similarity between leaders and followers influences leadership training effectiveness.

This theoretical research endeavors to find common ground in the ostensibly inconsistent results of studies on the impact of cultural similarities and differences on strategic partnerships. Some findings suggested that partners have to possess similar cultural characteristics in order to achieve success, while others showed that cultural distance had a positive effect on efficiency and the competitiveness of partnerships. I systematically analyze the equivocal evidence of influence of both commonalities and differences on partnerships' outcomes, highlighting conditions under which they can be either beneficial or dysfunctional. Several propositions are formulated in regard to the role of qualitative and quantitative differences in both organizational and national cultures. Further, the theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

In a contribution to the emerging research examining Chinese cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), the authors observe experiential learning applications for enhancing M&A completions. By emphasizing knowledge transfer, the authors reveal how target-to-target industry similarity and bidder-to-target cultural distance affect learning outcomes.

Using a binary logistic regression model, the authors examine a sample of CBA attempts announced by Chinese companies from January 2002 to December 2012 to identify the variables that affect the completion of CBAs.

The authors find that foreign acquisition experience but not domestic acquisition experience enhances subsequent acquisition attempts, especially when prior and focal target companies share the dominant industrial logic. Learning transfer is negatively affected when target countries are more culturally distant from China, but learning benefits appear to increase under strong bidder-to-target cultural distance.

By investigating learning in the precompletion stage in Chinese outward CBAs, the authors complement research that uses postacquisition performance to assess learning. The authors’ more fine-grained characterization reveals that acquisition experience increases knowledge transfer through experiential learning. Furthermore, the authors show that dominant industrial logic and cultural distance are underexplored contextual conditions, although they interact with foreign and domestic experience to affect the completion of CBAs.

This study seeks to identify antecedents of trust among top managers representing partners in international joint ventures (IJVs) and to show how this trust influences IJV performance.

The paper proposes that the national cultural distance of the foreign partner, the business similarity of partners' organizations and behavioural integration are antecedents to trust, and that trust is a key mediator through which these antecedents affect IJV performance. Data are collected through a field survey from IJVs in Beijing and Shenzhen, PRC, and employ regression analysis to test these propositions.

It is found that: trust across IJV factional subgroups is influenced by partners' business similarity and by the behavioural integration of top managers representing the partners from both sides; and this trust mediates the relationship between the behavioural integration of top managers in Sino‐foreign IJVs and overall venture performance. The effects of business similarity and partner national cultural distance on overall performance were not mediated by trust.

The sample of the study used is limited to one country only – China. Besides, the paper's measures of cultural distance and categorization of national origin of foreign partners of IJVs may be subject to criticism.

First, the paper explicitly hypothesizes and tests the role of trust as a mediator of the relationships between trust antecedents and IJV performance. This is done in order to develop a more detailed understanding of how fixed partner characteristics and adjustable group processes affect IJV outcomes. Second, the study finds evidence that supports situational perspective and developmental perspective of trust development, but not the deterministic perspective. This is also consistent with some additional qualitative evidence which the authors collected through interviews. Third, the results indicate that some trust antecedents have direct effects on IJV performance, while others affect IJV performance through partner trust.

The study's exploratory results offer important new information for IJV researchers and for managers of IJVs.

To share research findings on the criteria female and male managers use to judge the trustworthiness of their co‐workers.

Quantitative study involving 321 female and 849 male managers attending leadership development programmes at business schools in Europe and Asia. Male and female respondents were compared on the importance they placed on four criteria of trustworthiness: ability, benevolence, integrity and cultural similarity. Male and female responses were also compared according to their region of origin.

There are no significant differences between women and men on the importance placed on a co‐worker's ability, but women as a group place significantly more importance on a co‐worker's benevolence, integrity and cultural similarity. However, when compared by region of origin (i.e. Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America), no significant differences are found between men and women within the same region, but important differences emerge between men and women across the three regions.

Owing to sample composition, the broader region of origin was used as an indicator of cultural differences, as opposed to national culture or ethnicity. In addition, the use of western‐developed concepts and instruments may have influenced the responses in Asia.

These findings have important implications for building and rebuilding trust between employees, particularly in organisations characterised by cultural and gender diversity.

This research fills an important knowledge gap in the fields of trust and diversity by providing much needed empirical data on the behaviours related to judgments of trustworthiness, and how these may differ by gender or by culture.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant impact of partner similarity on the success of horizontal alliances in logistics service providers (LSPs) from China.

Primary data were collected via questionnaire distribution to 380 Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors in 262 small and medium logistics enterprises in China. There are 316 valid questionnaires for further analysis with 83 percent accuracy in response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to test the impact of partner similarity on alliance management capability, stability and performance.

Partner similarity and logistics alliance management capability (LAMC) are positively correlated to alliance stability and performance in horizontal alliances among Chinese LSPs, especially competence similarity and cultural similarity. Moreover, alliance stability mediates the impact of partner similarity and LAMC on alliance performance.

The basic limitation of this research is to collect data just from small and medium logistics enterprises that operate in China with sample size (n=316). This research could further be extended to other regions in China or other countries.

This research verifies the positive relationship between partner fit and management capability. Besides, based on research findings, the research proposes guidelines for LSPs pursuing horizontal alliances

This research proposes an experimental model for Chinese LSPs to cooperate successfully and build horizontal alliances in order to increase their effective customer response capability.

International trade flows of cultural goods have grown noticeably in the past few decades and the development of cultural products trade has been an important issue in the international business field. Therefore, this study aims to explore how per capita gross domestic product, distance, culture, Internet penetration and other factors affect the trade of cultural products.

The paper focuses on the international trade in cultural goods of China, Japan and Korea with other countries. To analyze the essential reason, the study has applied the classical gravity model along with variables, which mainly represent global connectedness to investigate which variables have the most impact on trade in cultural products.

The result shows that in terms of China, cultural similarity boosts the volume of trade volume with other countries, however, for South Korea and Japan, cultural similarity does not have a significant impact. On top of cultural similarity, individual cultural value dimension differences between countries show mixed results for each country and their directions of trade. Global connectedness, on the other hand, is not congruent with the general expectations of previous studies.

Due to the limited time for data collection, the research was done with a relatively small country list with a limited number of cultural good items. Second, the Kogut and Singh index is one of the most popular measures based on cultural dimension deviation. It is based on the Euclidean calculation method used by most scholars but some scholars believe that the Euclidean method has some shortcomings. Third, the authors do not actively promote robust testing after regression analysis this work would be carried out in the future. Finally, using the four basic cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede in 1980 may be another limitation.

First, the authors should further promote the establishment of the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area. The three countries should formulate special policies to favor the trade of cultural products and support the development of the cultural industry. Additionally, the three sides should also set up a joint research center to explore the issue of improving the international competitiveness of cultural products trade and find common solutions. And the three countries should further open their doors within the reasonable range, relax the restrictions on tourism and trade visas.

The analysis provides some different results as the previous papers. Distance variables show positive effect on trade which defines that long distance between countries do no matter on trade in cultural goods. Moreover, the variables of tourism receipt shows that global connectedness positively effects on trade. The cultural variables of the KS composite index show opposite result with the conventional logic which advocates that cultural dissimilarity enhances trade in cultural goods.

This study aims to investigate whether and how strongly cultural (mis)matches influence immigrant customers’ satisfaction, as well as if this relationship is mediated by cultural or service employee performance attributions. In addition, the authors test whether attributions differ depending on the service delivery outcome (success vs failure).

The 2 (origin of service employee: Austria or Turkey) × 2 (service delivery outcome: success or failure) scenario-based experiment includes 120 Turkish immigrant customers in Austria.

Contrary to previous research, the results indicate that in an immigrant customer context, cultural (mis)match does not influence customer satisfaction. The service delivery outcome is a boundary condition. With a positive service delivery outcome, immigrant customers attribute the results to the cultural background of the employee if it is the same as their own, but they attribute success to employees’ performance if they belong to the immigration destination culture. For negative service delivery outcomes, neither cultural nor performance attributions arise.

This study is the first to focus specifically on immigrant customer behavior in a high-involvement service context. The results challenge the predictions of social identity theory and the similarity-attraction paradigm and highlight that the immigrant context is unique. In this context, attributions play a key role in determining customer satisfaction.