Anne-Wil Harzing

When Knowledge Wins: Transcending the Sense and Nonsense of Academic Rankings

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”—Albert Einstein Has university scholarship gone astray? Do our academic assessment systems reward scholarship that addresses the questions that matter most to society? Using international business as an example, we highlight the problematic nature of academic ranking systems and question if such assessments are drawing scholarship away from its fundamental purpose. We call for an immediate examination of existing ranking systems, not only as a legitimate scholarly question vis-a`-vis performance—a conceptual lens with deep roots in management research—but also because the very health and vibrancy of the field are at stake. Indeed, in light of the data presented here, which suggest that current systems are dysfunctional and potentially cause more harm than good, a temporary moratorium on rankings may be appropriate until more valid and reliable ways to assess scholarly contributions can be developed. The worldwide community of scholars, along with the global network of institutions interacting with and supporting management scholarship (such as the Academy of Management, AACSB, and Thomson Reuters Scientific) are invited to innovate and design more reliable and valid ways to assess scholarly contributions that truly promote the advancement of relevant 21st century knowledge, and likewise recognize those individuals and institutions that best fulfill the university’s fundamental purpose.

Response Styles in Cross-national Survey Research A 26-country Study

Studies of attitudes across countries generally rely on a comparison of aggregated mean scores to Likert-scale questions. This presupposes that when people complete a questionnaire, their answers are based on the substantive meaning of the items to which they respond. However, peoples responses are also influenced by their response style. Hence, the studies we conduct might simply reflect differences in the way people respond to surveys, rather than picking up real differences in management phenomena across countries. Our 26-country study shows that there are major differences in response styles between countries that both confirm and extend earlier research. Country-level characteristics such as power distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and extraversion all significantly influence response styles such as acquiescence and extreme response styles. Further, English-language questionnaires are shown to elicit a higher level of middle responses, while questionnaires in a respondents native language result in more extreme response styles. Finally, English-language competence is positively related to extreme response styles and negatively related to middle response styles. We close by discussing implications for cross-national research.

THE PERSISTENT MYTH OF HIGH EXPATRIATE FAILURE RATES

This paper provides a critical analysis of research and notably quotations in the field of expatriate failure rates. Over the last three decades it has become almost ‘traditional’ to open an article on expatriate management by stating that expatriate failure rates are (very) high. Virtually every publication on the topic defines and measures expatriate failure as the percentage of expatriates returning home before their assignment contract expires. Of course, premature re-entry might be a very inadequate way to measure expatriate failure. One can easily argue that those expatriates who stay on their assignment but who fail to perform adequately are (potentially) more damaging to the company than the ones who return prematurely. Furthermore, successful completion of a foreign assignment does not mean that the possibility of expatriate failure has been avoided. Sometimes, returning home poses even larger problems than the foreign assignment itself. The repatriate must face re-establishing himself within the...

The Relative Impact of Country of Origin and Universal Contingencies on Internationalization Strategies and Corporate Control in Multinational Enterprises: Worldwide and European Perspectives:

We examine the importance of country-of-origin effects and of universal contingencies such as industrial recipes in organizational practices at the international level of multinational enterprises. This is based on a study comparing European (Finnish, French, German, Dutch, Swiss, Swedish, British), American and Japanese multinational enterprises. Although multinationals are highly internationalized by definition, our study shows their organizational control practices at the international level to be more than anything else explained by their country of origin. Universal contingencies such as size and industry, on the other hand, are more related to internationalization strategy. Internationalization strategy and organizational control are associated with different sets of variables; to this extent they appear more de-coupled with regard to each other than the literature suggests. Multinationals appear to follow tracks of coordination and control in which they have become embedded in their country of origin. Nationally specific institutions and culture have to be interpreted as particularistic but universally practicable facilitators of internationally competing organizational practices.

Language management in multinational companies

The importance of language management in multinational companies has never been greater than today. Multinationals are becoming ever more conscious of the importance of global coordination as a source of competitive advantage, and language remains the ultimate barrier to aspirations of international harmonisation. The article reviews the solutions open to multinational companies in term of language management. Before that, however, it discusses the aforementioned trend to globalisation outlines the dimensions of the language barrier and illustrates its consequences.

The language barrier and its implications for HQ‐subsidiary relationships

Purpose – This paper intends to open up the debate on the influence of language on the way multinational companies manage their subsidiary operations.Design/methodology/approach – The authors explain the importance of the field and expose a dearth of prior research. Subsequently, they define the “language barrier” and elaborate on the causes underlying this barrier, drawing on social identity theory.Findings – The authors we propose an integrative model that consists of two coupled vicious cycles: the communications cycle – composed of the eight aspects of the language barrier – and the management cycle.Research limitations/implications – This contribution to an otherwise ignored field of business study should be considered only a first step in opening up a new research agenda. Specialists in each of the fields touched upon are invited to make a contribution to the debate.Practical implications – The management cycle suggests implications of the language barrier for various aspects of the HQ‐subsidiary re...

Cross-National Industrial Mail Surveys: Why Do Response Rates Differ between Countries?

Abstract This article describes the results of a cross-national industrial mail survey in 22 countries. Response rates are shown to vary considerably across countries, and several explanations for these differences in response rates are put forward and tested. Our results show that, when compared with nonrespondents, respondents are geographically and culturally closer to the Netherlands (the country from which the questionnaires were sent), are more internationally oriented, work in smaller subsidiaries and in companies not listed on the Global Fortune 500, and come from countries with a lower level of power distance. In addition, there is some indication that English language capacity might be a factor influencing response rates as well. Based on these results, various recommendations for improving response rates in cross-national mail surveys are put forward.

THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN ENTRY-MODE STUDIES: FROM NEGLECT TO MYOPIA?

In order to be able to advance scientific knowledge, researchers should consciously explore and critically evaluate alternative explanations of the phenomena under investigation. We feel that research in the area of entry-mode choice has neglected these recommendations where it concerns the impact of cultural distance (CD) on entry-mode choice. In this article, we argue that sample idiosyncrasies, coupled with an almost blind confidence in one specific measurement of CD, have led researchers in this field to systematically overestimate the role of CD in entry-mode decisions. We argue that specific home and/or host-country characteristics are equally plausible explanatory factors for entry-mode decisions as CD and plead for a more sophisticated treatment of culture in the entry-mode choice literature.

A knowledge transfer perspective of strategic assignment purposes and their path-dependent outcomes

Our research not only addresses the strategic purposes of expatriate assignments within multinational corporations but, unlike most earlier studies, extends the investigation to include their path-dependent outcomes. Adopting a knowledge transfer perspective we first re-define the principal assignment purpose categories of Edström and Galbraith (1977a) as business applications, organization applications and expatriate learning. These purpose categories are then conceptually related in terms of a four-part typological matrix based on individual-level knowledge-flow direction and role focus. Following a review of prior assignment purpose studies we posit that strategic expatriate assignment purposes should be considered not in isolation but relative to their potential outcomes. Adopting a single-case research design with multi-method data collection, we demonstrate the emergent nature of strategic assignment outcomes. It is shown for our transnational case organization that knowledge acquisition or learning by expatriates is an underestimated strategic assignment outcome, more so than either business or organization-related knowledge applications.

Expatriate failure: time to abandon the concept?

This article reviews the established understanding of the concept of expatriate failure, discusses its associated problems and presents a more sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of the concept. The article argues that it might well be time to abandon the concept of expatriate failure altogether and instead draw on the general human resource literature to analyse problems related to turnover and performance management in an expatriate context..