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The test procedure for characterizing the tribological behavior of lubricants and materials for the system “piston ring/cylinder liner” outside of engines is now operational and validated. The test parameters presented in this paper (F_N=50 N; v=0.3 m/s, s=24 km) may act only as an indicator and should be used to the tasks regarded. It allows the check prior expensive engine testing, if a tribomaterial, tribocouple or new lubricant will reach a satisfactory engine performance. The introduction of piston ring segments and cylinder liner as specimen into the test rig as well as the volumetric wear determined by means of stylus profilometry represented a big step forward in order to increase the transferability of “tribotests” to engine tests on an acceptable level.

The cultural dimensions of the Hofstede and Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies are often used to capture cultural differences and operationalize them in academic research, corporate business, and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if this context is appropriate for the Indian information technology (IT) offshore services industry; that is, if Indian culture can be measured with group-referenced items, averaged, and explained by discrete dimensions.

The authors devised items based on the GLOBE study, and conducted empirical research with 291 employees of two services sourcing providers in Pune and Bangalore, India. The authors then scrutinized the data set on item and dimension level using statistical methods, such as interrater agreement, t-test, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation.

An interpretation of the analysis posits that cultural assumptions based on dimensions and means are problematic in the context of the Indian IT offshore services industry. The two digit exact values of the GLOBE study (and similarly the ordinal scale by Hofstede) suggest a level of accuracy and absoluteness which could not be replicated in the empirical research. Therefore, one authors should be very careful referring to Indian national culture when conducting intercultural awareness programs and coaching international teams who are engaging with India.

The GLOBE study omits to report basic statistics of questionnaire development. Through this replication study in India, the authors provide empirical evidence that the construct validity of cultural dimensions and the concept of national/group averages may be flawed.