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This article compares consumer decision‐making styles between Singaporeans and Australians. Utilising Hofstede’s framework, the paper argues that cultural dimensions influence consumer decision making styles. It is essential that managers understand cross‐cultural consumer decision‐making styles to make strategic decisions or effectively handle members of these nationalities. Marked differences were found between the two populations for: brand consciousness, innovativeness and overchoice confusion. The results suggest that some consumer decision‐making styles differ due to consumers’ cultural values. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

Theories frequently used by researchers’ only offer limited insight, they do not explain why some multinationals continue to invest in some countries despite being rated low on the reasons explained by economic and comparative advantage theories. The paper examines the attractiveness of Australia as an investment destination for US based multinational corporations. By using Porter’s national advantage theory and other variables of country attractiveness, it examines what makes Australia an attractive destination. Within the fast moving consumer goods industry, Australia was found to be attractive for three reasons: incentives offered by the government, low risk and cultural distance. There is evidence that culture has an effect on the choice of foreign investment venture structure well ahead of market size, tariffs, growth and location to cultural similarity. The aim was not only to generate ideas for future more rigorous research but also to investigate the impact critical to elements, such as culture, that make foreign investments attractive.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Examines the European Union (EU) countries’ uncertainty avoidance measures (based on Hofstede’s work) and proposes the degree of formalization (high, moderate or low) applied by organizations in the EU countries. Proposes that high formalization organizational structures are more prevalent in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain; that low formalization organizational structures are more prevalent in Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden; and that moderate formalization organizational structures are more prevalent in Finland and The Netherlands. Claims that these propositions can be tested at the organizational level using the Aston study instrument but warns that cultural factors are only an element among a number of other contextual variables such as the subsidiary’s local context (environmental complexity and the amount of local resources available to it), the size and age of the organization, type of organizational function, the way in which organizations confront a crisis, and management preferences for control. Indicates that it should not be assumed that this research can be applied to Confucian‐based Far East cultures. Mentions also that a country’s cultural values can change over time so should be periodically updated using Hofstede’s Value Survey Module.

Business is about building relationships and hence relationship building is becoming increasingly important for cross‐cultural management. Current research findings in this area have mainly focused on relationship marketing or on cultural dimensions of business relationships. This preliminary study attempts to break the boundary and aims to explore relationship building from a culture‐specific perspective while in corporating a social constructivist dimension. Specifically, it compares relationship building across four cultures including European, New Zealand, Chinese, Indian and South African cultures. The research method is interpretive, based on an analysis of interview results with business executives from the four target cultures.

Discusses the effectiveness of different training approaches in other cultures. Highlights differing learning preferences in different societies. Proposes that traineers in nations which contain a lack of individuality or confucianism prefer more teacher centred methods to those with an emphasis on individualism who require a more hands on approach.

We conducted a pilot study to compare the emotions experienced by Dutch and Chinese students during a face‐to‐face negotiation role play. Emotions play an important role in negotiations because they influence the behaviour and judgments of negotiators. The Data Printer case developed by Greenhalgh was used to examine the patterns of feelings that emerge during negotiations. One hundred and four participants (62 Chinese and 42 Dutch post graduate students) role‐played two different characters who were confronted with a payment dispute regarding the servicing of a defective printer. The results of the MANOVA and of the Factorial Analysis demonstrates that culture as a carrier of social values and norms did influence the emotional reactions of the people socialised in different cultural contexts. The paper concludes that in order to facilitate conflict resolution and interpersonal communication amongst protagonists in mono as well as in inter‐cultural negotiation context individuals should learn to manage their emotions constructively.

Describes cultural classifications of societies, based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, to form a basis of managerial styles which expatriate managers, in particular, can use as a reference tool. Goes into more detail about: power distance, collectivism/individualism, strong/weak uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, Confucian dynamism, master of destiny/fatalistic, improvement/maintenance of status quo, enterprise, personnel selection, attitudes towards wealth, sharing in decision making, objective/emotional analysis, and high/low context cultures. Relates this to cross‐cultural management styles, but points out some problems, not least multiple classifications of cultures. Suggests that this article should be used as a starting point, rather than an ultimate cultural guide to conducting business globally.

Conceptually examines the effect of individualism/collectivism on the tenets of equity theory. It is the view of the authors that the equality principle of reward allocation in collectivistic cultures is not a separate method of distribution, but a subset of the theoretically grounded equity principle appropriately integrating the cross‐cultural individualism/collectivism value. To support this position, the authors reduce equity theory to its fundamental elements and illustrate how in dividualism/collectivism separately affects each component. The derived model and subsequent discussion should provide researchers with a theoretical frame work for future empirical studies.

With increased recognition of the existence of emotions in everyday interpersonal interactions, the need for emotions in cross‐cultural interactions has become more obvious. Emotions play an important role in cross‐cultural expatriate interactions as these experiences are essentially social encounters. Yet, little research addresses the emotions felt and the emotional demands involved in the cross‐cultural interaction. Research on expatriate experiences centres solely on the cross‐cultural training, sensitivity, and adaptability of expatriates. What fails to be addressed, however, is the emotional aspect of this interaction. In this paper, we examine the cross‐cultural expatriate experience, integrating both the cultural and emotional aspects of the interaction. In doing so, we aim to advance understanding of the expatriate experience and the potential reasons underlying expatriate success and failure.