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This paper will examine the importance of seeing, reading, evaluating and better appreciating the built environment. Creative observation of built environment is fundamental to our day‐to‐day lives as well as to cultural tourism development. As we want to break away from the routine and lack of stimuli of our home work and environment, we travel to foreign places. Our cities are tourist destinations for others. Being aware of one's environment, and being able to read it should be a skill mastered by all. As many become a tourist at some point in their life, cultural tourism is judged essential to society's enrichment and to the personal enhancement of the tourist. Through methods of awareness, this process allows everyone to appreciate the built environment. None of the tourist charters, educational or initiatives adequately training cover these areas of concern. In response, this paper will explore the matters of perception, place and landscape reading, as well as visual or contextual appreciation as the basis for promotion of heritage conservation, cultural identity and sensitization to place specificities and uniqueness of landscapes. How to see and better appreciate these elements is what will progressively promote a conservation ethic in search of promising relationships between visitors and the built environment.

An increasing number of Chinese enterprises are involved in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). However, few Chinese enterprises have achieved successful integration, which plays a critical role in enhancing performance. The important field of cultural integration is currently facing major challenges. To identify the reasons for these challenges, studies have analyzed why cultural integration succeeds or fails and have suggested that cultural differences between acquiring and acquired enterprises are the primary obstacles to cultural integration. However, it is unclear how success can be achieved. The paper aims to focus on cultural integration from the perspective of acculturation to describe the penetration of cultural elements in M&As.

In adopting acculturation as our theoretical lens, the authors use the case study method to answer the following research question: “how can the cultural integration of Chinese enterprises be successfully achieved?” Two typical cases are examined: Lenovo’s cultural integration with IBM’s personal computer (PC) division and Haier’s cultural integration with Sanyo home appliance. First, using the exploratory case study method, the Lenovo–IBM PC division case is analyzed. The characteristics and relationships between cultural environments, employee adoption methods and acculturation patterns are summarized to reveal a cultural integration path. Second, the Haier–Sanyo home appliance case is analyzed using the confirmative case study method to test the findings of the Lenovo–IBM PC division case.

The results indicate that it is critical to achieve a dynamic fit between cultural environments, employee adoption methods and acculturation patterns during each stage of cultural integration (exploration, experimentation, reinforcement and fixing). The three constructs of these stages reflect the following evolutionary paths: “isolate-introduce-learning-chance taking”, “detecting-icebreaking-interacting-remodeling” and “specialized sections-senior managers-managers-employees”.

These findings contribute to the development of cultural integration and acculturation theories and serve as a reference for Chinese enterprises wishing to implement cultural integration strategies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the adjustment model of expatriates in overseas projects by studying two overseas projects of a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Based on the grounded theory, qualitative analysis was performed based on data compiled from 116 pieces of project briefings, 105 questionnaires answered by expatriate workers and 21 interviews conducted to those workers based on briefings and questionnaires.

The study found that the simulated home is a standard cross-cultural adjustment model for expatriates in Chinese engineering projects, which are project-oriented and often inattentive to employees' individual rights. The simulated home creates a unique work-place and social environment similar to that of expatriates' home country in the cultural setting of the host country, but it also establishes a cultural barrier, limiting the communication between expatriates and the local people, which is not conducive to the cultural exchange between the two sides, causing cultural clashes and consequently hindering the progress of projects.

This research puts forward the model of “simulated home.” And this study bears significance to the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate workers in Chinese overseas projects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of development of cultural knowledge and cosmopolitan identities among international management students in multicultural learning environments and to investigate how international business students develop global mindset during their studies.

A comparative analysis was conducted within four undergraduate management and business administration programs in international higher educational institutions, based on constructivist grounded theory methodology. The empirical study is grounded in data that were collected from triangulated multiple sources: qualitative semi-structured interviews with students, faculty and student services professional (n = 95) from 23 countries, participant observation in four programs and document reviews, and were analyzed using the dimensional analysis.

The study presents a global mindset development process model, which takes into the account social capital of the learners, as well as the existing and emergent social ties.

The paper provides tentative recommendations for the steps that management educational programs and multinational companies can take to promote an environment conductive for cultural knowledge exchange.

The paper presents the development of global mindset as a social learning process; in particular, it addresses the role social capital plays in knowledge generation and sharing in multicultural learning environment. It contributes to the understanding of cultural knowledge development in social networks. Additionally, the paper examines the feasibility of development of global mindset in international higher educational.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on foreign laborers’ cross-cultural adjustment.

This paper uses structural equation modeling to analyze the data from a sample of 258 Vietnamese laborers in Taiwan.

The results show a significantly positive impact of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on cross-cultural adjustment.

The findings of this study provide important implications for academic researchers and organizations concerning management and development of successful foreign laborers. From a theoretical aspect, this study shows new evidence on the impacts of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on foreign laborer cross-cultural adjustment. In addition, this study enriches theories in the field of self-determination motivation, workplace learning, trust and self-efficacy literature. From a practical aspect, this study provides implications for business managers to make better policies in training and managing foreign laborers.

This study investigates the influence of cross-cultural stable and dynamic competencies on expatriate adaptation and outcomes.

This study surveys 10 expatriates in Taiwan and conducts qualitative analysis based on the newly collected original data.

The study's results confirm that cross-cultural stable and dynamic competencies improve expatriates' cross-cultural adaptation, enhancing expatriate outcomes in cross-cultural environments.

This study contributes to cross-cultural management research by clarifying the characteristics and action mechanisms of cross-cultural stable competencies (including cultural empathy, emotional stability, social initiative, open-mindedness and flexibility) and cross-cultural dynamic competencies (including relational skills, general self-efficacy and non-ethnocentrism) in the international business context. The study's findings suggest future research directions in the empirical investigation of the antecedents, characteristics and results of cross-cultural competencies, cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate outcomes.

This paper aims to investigate the adverse effects of addiction to social media usage on expatriates' cultural identity change in cross-cultural settings.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in two public universities in China. Among the questionnaires distributed, 333 useful responses were obtained from international students for data analysis.

Regression results show addiction to social media usage exerts adverse effects by negatively moderating the relationship between associations with locals and the three dimensions of cultural intelligence. Addiction to social media usage impairs expatriates from developing cultural intelligence from associations with locals, which in turn affects their cultural identity change.

Research findings suggest that expatriates, administrators and educators should be highly aware of the adverse effects of addiction to social media usage in complex cross-cultural settings wherein expatriates are more dependent on information technology. The important role of cultural intelligence should also be highlighted for its bridging role in managing cultural identity change for acculturation purpose. No causal relationships between variables can be established considering the cross-sectional design of the research. Longitudinal or experimental design could be a promising methodology for future efforts.

The current research contributes to the knowledge on information management applied to cross-cultural settings. The present study combines an IT contingent view with cross-cultural study to explore the adverse effects of addiction to social media usage on the development of expatriates' cultural intelligence from associations with locals, thereby influencing cultural identity change. The research provides new perspectives to expand the nomological framework of cross-cultural studies by combining the enabling roles of information technology.

Under the premise of resource-based view (RBV), this study aims to examine the influence of host-country characteristics (i.e. market environment, cultural factors, government policies and absorptive capacity) on improved knowledge acquired by means of intra-firm technology transfer and the latter’s subsequent effect on corporate sustainability among subsidiaries of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia.

The following study adopted a cross-sectional design. Quantitative data were collected through structured interview from the representatives of selected 252 subsidiaries of foreign-based MNCs located in Peninsular Malaysia.

The findings of this study revealed that market environment, government policies and absorptive capacity significantly affect the adoption of innovative knowledge, which also has a significant positive effect on corporate sustainability. The findings also revealed a partial mediation of improved knowledge between market environment, government policies and absorptive capacity on corporate sustainability.

This study recommends that the host country should formulate and adopt trade and FDI friendly policies, as well as stricter intellectual property laws, and, at the same time, provide higher education and training to its citizens to maximize foreign investment and knowledge transfer.

Apart from highlighting the under-researched issue of organizational sustainability, this study is unique in its approach of connecting the external environment of the host country with the internal knowledge of the firm and corporate sustainability in a single framework. The empirical findings of this study support the hypothesized relationships and thereby extend the scope of the contingency theory and RBV in addition to simultaneously enriching the existing intra-firm knowledge management literature, particularly in the Malaysian context.

The purpose of this study is to provide researchers with a better understanding of the cultural impact on information processing in virtual learning environment.

This study uses a causal loop diagram to depict the cultural impact on information processing in the virtual human resource development (VHRD) learning platform. This study takes a theoretical approach and examines current literature pertaining to VHRDs, virtual worlds (VWs), system dynamics, causal loop diagrams (CLDs) and cross-cultural studies.

This study provides a conceptual model to describe and discuss the cultural impact on information processing in VHRD.

Literature has begun to reflect the concerns with cultural impact in VHRD; however, research is still in the beginning stages. This study proposes a conceptual model of information processing that includes the cultural impact. Future work based on this study will continue to test and improve the conceptual model.

The conceptual model accounts for the complexities of the interaction between internal and external information processing systems. Instructional designers or educators can apply this conceptual model to understand the impact of culture on information process during training programs in the VHRD environment. With this model, they could provide an effective or efficient training programs for their trainees.

The conceptual model adopts a systemic viewpoint to describe the cultural impact on VHRD. For future studies, researchers could adopt this conceptual model to further illustrate the association between understanding information processing and recognizing the cultural impact on information processing.

This study provided a framework for HRD researchers and practitioners to detect challenges and opportunities to work with cultural impact on information processing in VHRD. Instructional designers or educators could utilize this model to understand the process, and further offer an effective or efficient training programs for their trainees.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the mindfulness construct in Thomas’ (2006) cultural intelligence (CQ) model and identify three mindfulness facets based on the mindfulness literature: empathy, open-mindedness and using all senses. Relationships among mindfulness, cross-cultural knowledge and cross-cultural behavioral ability are explored.

A case study of two French banking institutions operating in the USA is used incorporating multiple sources of data: participant observations, primary public and private documentation sources, archival records, secondary data and open-ended interviews with a key informant.

The two organizations showed similar emphasis on cross-cultural knowledge but differences in cross-cultural behavioral ability. These differences were traced to the posited mindfulness components of empathy, open-mindedness and using all senses.

The two-sample case only provides emerging evidence of the role of mindfulness in linking cross-cultural knowledge to behavioral ability and will require validation through empirical studies to test for significance of relationships among these CQ facets.

Thomas’ (2006) CQ model and the authors’ understanding of its underlying mindfulness components provide insight in predicting cross-cultural potential of employees and designing customized employee training to help organizations meet the needs of a globally diverse workplace.

The development of mindfulness qualities should improve interactions among individuals in any organizational setting, with added benefit of bridging cross-cultural differences.

This paper helps extend research on CQ facets using a qualitative method incorporating multiple sources of evidence to explore the mindfulness CQ construct.