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The purpose of this paper is to argue that culture and context (policy and environment) are key factors affecting gender inequalities within and across countries.

This paper applies conceptual and descriptive statistics.

The authors found evidence of increasing gender equality in the workplace, but only for rich countries. Gender inequalities persist in the poorest countries, and the gap between rich and poor countries appears to be widening not narrowing.

This paper demonstrates the need for a comprehensive research program on gender and international business.

The authors provided useful statistics that could possibly be picked up by newspapers. The paper also highlights the need for a more sustained research program on gender and development.

This paper demonstrates that the public perception of increasing gender equality applies only in very high development (rich) countries. In fact, gender inequality rises as economic development levels decline across countries, and the gap between very high and low countries has widened over the past 15 years.

The empirical findings with respect to gender inequality across United Nations Development Program country categories over time are, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, novel and original. Relating the gender inequality gap to culture and context highlights the roles that social issues and the environment play in affecting gender inequality across countries and across time.

Molly Madziva, who was born in Zimbabwe, was sent by her family to the USA to attend college. When she graduated in 2000 there were no jobs for her in Zimbabwe, as the economy was among the weakest in the world. While working as a software engineer at Bell Labs in New Jersey she decided that she wanted to help the people in her village of Macheke, the majority of who were farmers. Her idea would be an ambitious one. Molly called this the Macheke Sustainability Project. Molly met with various stakeholders who had an interest in the project. Following a thorough situation analysis and the formulation of a list of strategic initiatives, the major decision that she was left with was how to most effectively go about handling the implementation of the project. Her options included: a project within the Institute for Global Understanding at Monmouth University where she was enrolled as a graduate student; a non-profit business located in the USA; a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Zimbabwe; and a private business in Zimbabwe. Each of these options had clear benefits. Molly was torn, however, as to which she should choose.

The purpose of this paper is to detail the measurement development of a set of indices that manifest culture in the context of business decision making.

Survey research was conducted eliciting opinion data from managers of firms in two countries, the USA and Hungary, for cross‐cultural comparison. Critical issues of measurement equivalency are assessed using item response theory (IRT) prior to the comparison of the US and Hungarian manager samples.

The following sub‐indices were identified as a result of the analysis: individualism in decision making; individualism and authority; logic/emotion; equality as people, equality of authority, tolerance for ambiguity in decision making; tolerance for ambiguity and flexibility, and time orientation.

While the framework provides a broad representation of the cultural value dimensions (CVD) in a business context, it cannot be said that it encompasses the entire dimension or where the true endpoints will lie for the each of the five continuums. As additional culture groups are tested, it will be possible to ascertain where the true midpoint and endpoints of the scale lie.

The framework was utilized to place the five CVDs in a business context, resulting in a very even representation of the manifestation of cultural values across decision‐making processes in a firm. As a result, a more complete picture of current CVD scores is provided by the data for the two populations sampled. The sub‐indices identified not only aid in the establishment of equivalence and allow for comparison of the two groups, but also provide deeper insight into the similarities and differences between the two groups that were masked in the original CVD structure.

The world economy is becoming increasingly cross‐cultural. During the next decades, as marketers enter new international markets, an understanding of how culture influences consumer behavior will be crucial for both managers and consumer researchers. This article presents a framework that integrates and reinterprets current research in cross‐cultural consumer behavior. The framework also serves to identify areas that need further research and can be used as a template for marketers seeking to understand their foreign consumers. The article also attempts to integrate from an applied perspective two distinct traditions in the study of culture and consumer behavior: the anthropological approach and the cross‐cultural psychology tradition.

Researchers within the business‐to‐business relationship literature have argued that the loyalty concept is only partially understood, and, consequently, call for an increased attention to identify the interaction needs of the customers as well as customers’ perception of the relationship. Further investigates this empirically, through in‐depth interviews, the mental models of tradesmen, a defined segment within the small business sector, and identifies the presence of a unique sub‐cultural ethos among them. The ethos is based on unique values, morals, and way of life, and contrasts the purely utilitarian approach to understanding key criteria in emerging business‐to‐business relationships. Based on these findings suggests that current business‐to‐business relationship models are inadequate and need to include more of a consumer behavior, value‐driven focus. Suggests that this segment is located between and betwixt the business‐to‐business and the consumer markets as both utilitarian‐driven (brand trust) and symbolic/value‐driven (brand affect) criteria are necessary for establishing long‐term relationships. Suggests that investigating the role of brand affect may shed further light upon the presence or absence of loyalty within the business‐to business markets.