Cross-Cultural Analysis

I would rather give advice than teach a dogma.

Erasmus of Rotterdam

(1466–1536)

Copyright © 2013 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval

system, without permission in writing from the

publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Minkov, Michael.

Cross-cultural analysis: the science and art of

comparing the world’s modern societies and their

cultures / Michael Minkov.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-9228-2 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4129-9229-9 (pbk.)

1. Culture. 2. Cross-cultural studies—Research.

I. Title.

HM623.M556 2013

306—dc23

2012001895

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

12 13 14 15 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Foreword xii

Geert Hofstede

Introduction 1

PART I: UNDERSTANDING “CULTURE” 7

1. The Concept of Culture 9

1.1. The “Unpackaging” of Culture 10

1.2. Meaning of the Word Culture and

Definitions of the Concept 10

1.3. Culture As Is Versus Culture As It Would Be 12

1.4. Classifications of the Concepts of Culture 13

1.4.1. Subjective Culture: Mental Software 13

1.4.2. Objective Culture: Institutions and Artifacts 14

1.4.3. Culture as a System of Behaviors 14

1.4.4. Culture as a Set of Meanings 14

1.4.5. Culture as an Independently

Existing Phenomenon 15

1.4.6. Culture as a Subjective Human Construct 16

1.5. Conclusions About the Conceptualization of

Culture 16

2. Main Characteristics of Culture 19

2.1. Sharedness 20

CONTENTS

2.2. Normalcy 22

2.3. Integration, Functionality, Rationality, and Logic 22

2.4. Stability and Changeability 23

2.5. Transmittability 24

2.6. Complexity 24

2.6.1. National Culture 25

2.6.2. National Culture Versus Organizational

Culture 27

2.6.3. National Culture Versus Religious

Denomination Culture 28

2.7. Diffuseness 29

2.8. Uncontrollability 31

2.9. Predictability 32

3. The Elements of Culture 38

3.1. Particular Elements of Culture 39

3.2. Universal Elements of Culture 40

3.2.1. Self-Reports 40

3.2.1.1. Values 40

3.2.1.2. Norms and Ideologies 42

3.2.1.3. Values for Children 44

3.2.1.4. Beliefs 44

3.2.1.5. Behavioral Intentions 45

3.2.1.6. Self-Reported Behaviors 45

3.2.1.7. Attitudes 45

3.2.1.8. Self-Descriptions 45

3.2.2. Reports of Impressions of Others 46

3.2.2.1. Peer Reports 46

3.2.2.2. Idealistic Reports 46

3.2.2.3. Stereotypes 46

3.2.3. Mental Skills and Knowledge 51

3.2.3.1. General Intelligence and Related

Domains 51

3.2.3.2. Perception Characteristics 52

3.2.4. Cognitive Patterns 52

3.2.5. Observable Behaviors 52

3.2.5.1. Direct Observation of Behaviors 52

3.2.5.2. National Statistics 53

3.2.6. Statistical Products 53

3.2.7. What Else Can Be Studied by

Cross-Cultural Analysts? 54

PART II: STUDYING CULTURE 59

4. Types of Cross-Cultural Studies: Merits and Pitfalls 61

4.1. Studies of Culture Versus Studies of

Something Else 62

4.2. Qualitative Versus Quantitative Studies 62

4.3. Idiographic Versus Nomothetic Studies 62

4.4. Insiders’ Versus Outsiders’ Studies 63

4.5. Studies Comparing Variables Versus Studies

Comparing Cases 64

4.6. Structure-Oriented Versus Level-Oriented Studies 65

4.7. Synchronic Versus Diachronic (or Longitudinal)

Studies 65

4.8. Deductive Versus Inductive Studies 66

4.9. Paper-and-Pencil Versus Observational Studies 66

4.10. Studies Using Primary Data Versus Studies

Using Secondary Data 67

4.11. Studies Across Individuals First Versus

Studies Directly Across Societies 68

5. Theoretical Versus Empirical Perspectives 72

5.1. Theory Before Empiricism 73

5.2. Empiricism Before Theory 75

5.3. The Goal of Culturology and the

Other Social Sciences: Theory or Empiricism? 78

5.4. Defining Constructs Empirically 79

5.4.1. A Note on Operationalism as a Method of

Defining Constructs in Culturology or

Other Domains 79

5.5. A Search for Truth Versus a Search for What Works 80

6. Cross-Cultural Comparability 84

6.1. Etic Versus Emic Approaches 85

6.2. Incomparable Phenomena 87

6.3. Criteria for the Cross-Cultural Transferability

of Etic Individual-Level Constructs and the

Instruments for Their Measurement 87

6.4. Criteria for the Applicability of Etic

Approaches to Studies at the Societal Level 89

6.5. Are Etic Tests Preferable to Emic Ones? 90

7. Paper-and-Pencil Studies 93

7.1. Selecting Samples of Respondents: Nationally

Representative Samples Versus Matched Samples 94

7.2. Types of Items in Noncognitive

Paper-and-Pencil Studies 95

7.2.1. Likert Scales 96

7.2.2. Free-Choice Items 96

7.2.3. Forced-Choice Items 96

7.2.4. Issues Associated With Likert Scales 97

7.2.4.1. The Reference Group Effect 97

7.2.4.2. Potential Meanings of Some Positions

on a Likert Scale in Cross-Cultural Analysis 98

7.2.4.3. Extracting Societal Information

From Items on a Likert Scale 98

7.2.4.4. Response Style 99

7.2.4.4.1. Detection of Response Style 100

7.2.4.4.2. Treatment of Response Style:

Undesirable Bias or Normal Style? 101

7.2.4.4.3. Causes of Response Style:

The Number of Points on a

Likert Scale 102

7.2.4.4.4. Causes of Response Style:

The Language of the Questionnaire 103

7.2.4.4.5. Causes of Response Style:

The Role of Culture 103

7.2.4.4.6. Causes of Response Style:

The Nature of the Items 103

7.2.4.4.7. Causes of Response Style:

The Role of Intelligence and

Education 104

7.2.4.4.8. Conclusions About the Causes of

Response Style 104

7.2.4.4.9. Dealing With Response Style

Before the Study: Choice of

Items and Scales 104

7.2.4.4.10. Dealing With Response Style

After the Study: Standardization

of Scores 105

7.2.5. Issues Associated With Forced-Choice Items 108

7.2.6. Issues Associated With Free-Choice Items 108

7.3. Other Issues That Can Affect Data for

Cross-Cultural Research 109

7.3.1. Poverty 109

7.3.2. Distance From the Researcher 109

7.3.3. Social Desirability 109

7.3.4. Taboos 110

7.3.5. Intelligibility Problems 110

7.3.6. Semantic Differences 111

7.3.7. Political Factors 112

7.4. Test-Retest Reliability of Paper-and-Pencil

Studies at the National Level and Other Statistics 113

7.5. Face Validity 113

7.6. Common Method Variance and Validation 114

8. Data Analysis 123

8.1. Sample Issues 124

8.1.1. Selection of an Appropriate Sample of

Societies 124

8.1.2. Galton’s Problem 126

8.1.3. Missing Data Bias 127

8.2. Dimensions of Culture 127

8.2.1. The Utility of the Dimension Paradigm

in Cross-Cultural Research 128

8.2.2. The Nature of Cultural and Other Dimensions 129

8.2.3. Why Dimensions Are Subjective

Human Constructs 131

8.2.3.1. Subjective Selection of Samples for the

Construction of Dimensions 131

8.2.3.2. Subjective Selection of Items for the

Construction of Dimensions 131

8.2.3.3. Subjective Selection of the

Number of Dimensions 131

8.2.3.4. Subjective Selection of the

Nature of the Dimensions 132

8.2.4. Individual and Ecological Dimensions:

Different Levels and Units of Analysis 132

8.2.5. Polarity 134

8.2.6. Different Versions of the Same

Ecological Dimension? 135

8.2.7. Dimensions and Polythetic Classes 136

8.2.8. Data Reduction 136

8.2.8.1. Agreement and Aggregation 136

8.2.8.2. Correlations and Scales 137

8.2.8.3. Scale Reliability 139

8.2.8.4. Multidimensional Scaling 139

8.2.8.4.1. Plotting Variables on an MDS Map 140

8.2.8.4.2. Identifying Cultural Dimensions

on an MDS Map 140

8.2.8.4.3. Plotting Cases on an MDS Map and

Calculating Case Coordinates 144

8.2.8.4.4. Using MDS for Identifying Typologies 146

8.2.8.4.5. Issues Related to Multidimensional

Scaling as a Data Reduction

Technique 149

8.2.8.5. Factor Analysis 149

8.2.8.5.1. Calculation of Factor Scores 153

8.2.8.5.2. Issues Related to Factor Analysis

as a Data Reduction Method 154

8.2.8.5.3. Factor Analysis as a Scale

Reliability Test 156

8.2.9. How Do We Know That We Have

Constructed Appropriate Dimensions? 157

8.2.10. Constructing Individual and

Ecological Dimensions 164

8.3. Clustering 166

8.4. Looking for Cause-and-Effect Relationships 171

8.4.1. The Consilience Approach 172

8.4.2. Contextual Consilience 172

8.4.3. Methodological Consilience 172

8.4.4. Predictive Consilience 173

8.4.5. Exclusive Consilience 173

8.4.6. The Issue of Time Sequence 173

8.4.7. Looking for Noncultural Variables

That May Be Determinants of Culture 173

8.4.8. Multiple Regression Analysis 174

8.4.8.1. Divergent Results From Different

Types of MRA 175

8.4.8.2. The Excluded Variables 175

8.4.8.3. Issues Related to Samples 175

8.4.8.4. Issues Related to the Independent

Variables 176

8.4.8.5. An Example of an MRA 177

PART III: MAJOR CROSS-CULTURAL

STUDIES 197

9. Cultural Dimensions Across Modern Nations 199

9.1. Geert Hofstede (1980, 2001): A Study of Values,

Beliefs, and Norms Across the IBM Corporation 201

Geert Hofstede

9.2. Chinese Culture Connection (1987): A Study of

National Values Based on a Chinese Questionnaire 217

9.3. Shalom Schwartz (1994): A Study of the Values of

Schoolteachers and University Students 224

9.4. Peter Smith, Fons Trompenaars, and Shaun

Dugan (1995): A Study of Locus of Control 232

9.5. Peter Smith, Shaun Dugan, and Fons

Trompenaars (1996): A Study of the Values

and Beliefs of Organizational Employees 238

9.6. Robert Levine and Ara Norenzayan (1999):

A Study of the Pace of Life 246

9.7. Robert Levine, Ara Norenzayan, and Karen

Philbrick (2001): A Study of Helping Strangers 251

9.8. Ashleigh Merritt (2000): An Attempt to

Replicate Hofstede’s Four Dimensions 255

9.9. Ronald Inglehart and Wayne Baker (2000):

An Analysis of the World Values Survey 261

9.10. Ulrich Schimmack, Shigeiro Oishi, and

Ed Diener (2002): A Study of Personal Emotional

Dialecticism and Frequencies of Pleasant and

Unpleasant Emotions 268

9.11. Peter Smith, Mark Peterson, and Shalom

Schwartz (2002): A Study of Managers’

Sources of Guidance 272

9.12. Evert van de Vliert and Onne Janssen (2002):

A Study of Performance Motives 279

9.13. Robert McCrae (2002): A Comparison of

Mean National and Ethnic Personality

Traits (Self-Reports) 284

9.14. Robert McCrae and Antonio Terracciano (2005):

A Study of Mean National or Ethnic Personality

Traits (Peer Reports) 291

9.15. David Schmitt, Juri Allik, Robert McCrae, and

Veronica Benet-Martinez (2007): A Study of

the Geographic Distribution of the Big Five

Personality Traits (Self-Reports) 297

9.16. Michael Bond, Kwok Leung, and Associates (2004):

A Study of Social Axioms 305

9.17. Project GLOBE (2004): A Study of National

Stereotypes and Ideologies 310

9.18. Project GLOBE (2004): A Study of Culturally

Endorsed Leadership Profiles 330

9.19. Eva Green, Jean-Claude Deschamps, and

Dario Paez (2005): A Study of Beliefs and Values 337

9.20. David Schmitt (2005): A Study of Sociosexuality 341

9.21. Peter Kuppens, Eva Ceulemans, Marieke

Timmerman, Ed Diener, and Chu Kim-Prieto

(2006): A Study of Positive and Negative Emotions 345

9.22. Christian Welzel (2010): An Analysis of the

World Values Survey 350

9.23. Michael Minkov (2009a): A Study of Social

Polarization in Social Opinions and Life-Quality

Judgments 358

9.24. Michael Minkov (2011): A Study of Values

Related to National Economic Growth and

Educational Achievement 364

9.25. Michael Minkov (2011): A Study of National

Homicide Rates and Their Correlates 377

9.26. Michael Minkov and Geert Hofstede (2012a):

An Analysis of the World Values Survey

Replicating Two Dimensions of the Chinese

Values Survey 390

9.27. Geert Hofstede, Bram Neuijen, Denise Daval

Ohayv, and Geert Sanders (1990): A Study of

Organizational Cultures Across 20 Danish and

Dutch Organization Units 397

Geert Hofstede

PART IV: A SUMMARY OF THE OBSERVED

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES ACROSS

THE GLOBE 407

10. Cultural Differences Between Rich and

Developing Countries 409

11. Cultural Differences Across Rich Countries 417

12. Cultural Differences Between

Eastern Europe and Latin America 420

13. Cultural Differences Between East

Asia and the Arab World 425

14. Cultural Differences Between the

Arab World and Sub-Saharan Africa 430

Appendix 434

References 442

Index 470

About the Author 481

xii ◆

I

n my 1980 book Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in

Work-Related Values, I compared 40 of the world’s nations along four

culture dimensions, statistically derived from large-scale survey data.

Reactions in the academic world were slow at first, and when they came

at all they varied from enthusiasm to derision. But since the 1990s, other

comparative studies of societal cultures started following the dimensions

approach, which gradually became a paradigm for quantitative cross￾cultural research. The availability of more and more comparative data,

better search methods, user-friendly statistical packages, and an increas￾ing number of journals devoted to intercultural issues has since led to

an explosive increase in the number of publications comparing societal

cultures in terms of dimensions.

FOREWORD

◆ Geert Hofstede

Foreword ◆ xiii

One of these was a book, What Makes

Us Different and Similar, by a Bulgarian

scholar, Michael Minkov, based on a new

analysis of published data from the World

Values Survey and related sources. The

book appeared in 2007 from Klasika i Stil,

a Bulgarian publisher, and was not easily

available in other countries. I had been in

e-mail contact with the author since the

end of 1999. We met in Sofia in 2001, and

I was impressed with his scholarship and

his talent to find and interpret new sources

of comparative cross-cultural data. In his

book, he introduced three new dimen￾sions of national cultures mainly based on

World Values Survey results.

In 2001, a rewritten second edi￾tion of my original study, Culture’s

Consequences, appeared, presenting five

dimensions and bearing a new subtitle:

Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institu￾tions, and Organizations Across Nations.

This was followed in 2005 by a second

edition of my student textbook, origi￾nally published in 1991: Cultures and

Organizations: Software of the Mind.

For this new edition, Gert Jan Hofstede

had joined me as a coauthor. In view of

the fast developments in the globalizing

world economy and in the state of the

art of cross-cultural research, we were

considering a speedy third edition when

Minkov’s book landed on our desks.

From his three dimensions, two could

be integrated with chapters from our

previous book. The third—indulgence

versus restraint—covered issues we had

recognized before but had not been able

to explain; we added it as a new, sixth

dimension, and Michael Minkov became

the third member of our authors’ trium￾virate. Our joint third edition of Cultures

and Organizations: Software of the Mind

appeared in 2010.

Meanwhile, although Minkov’s 2007

book was hard to obtain, it drew the

attention of colleagues in Western Europe

and North America; a positive review by

Peter Smith appeared in the International

Journal of Cross-Cultural Management in

2008, and a British publisher, Emerald,

offered to publish a new edition of the

book. Minkov’s insights had progressed

in the meantime, so what Emerald pub￾lished in 2011 differs considerably from

the 2007 version; not only did the book

have a new title— Cultural Differences in a

Globalizing World—but it reshuffled and

extended its new dimensions into four. I

had the pleasure of writing a foreword for

that book.

While his new book was in press,

Michael Minkov had not been idling. His

broad-ranging familiarity with the cross￾cultural comparison literature inspired

him to a daring proposal: to collect in a

single volume more than 20 important

cross-cultural studies, describing them,

discussing their main contributions, and

outlining the issues they raise. This part of

the book was to be preceded by thorough

conceptual and methodological introduc￾tions. Together, this project represents a

state of the art of the field that he proposes

to rename culturology.

SAGE Publications, publisher of the

1980 and 2001 editions of Culture’s

Consequences, gladly accepted Minkov’s

proposal, and the result is in front of

you. At Minkov’s request, I contributed

the descriptions of two of my original

studies: the cross-national comparison on

which Culture’s Consequences (1980) was

based; and the cross-organizational com￾parison in Denmark and the Netherlands,

authored by myself and three colleagues

and published in Administrative Science

Quarterly in 1990. It was my main con￾tribution to the field in the 1980s and the

basis of my insights into the differences

between national and organizational cul￾tures, their origin, and their meaning for

management.

This is a handbook for doctoral stu￾dents and other researchers. For general

interest readers there is, as mentioned

above, Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov,

Cultures and Organizations: Software of

xiv ◆ Cross-Cultural Analysis

the Mind (2010), a revised and expanded

third edition by McGraw-Hill. For

trainers and teachers in cross-cultural

programs, there is a manual by Gert Jan

Hofstede, Paul B. Pedersen, and myself:

Exploring Cultures: Exercises, Stories and

Synthetic Cultures (2002), published by

Intercultural Press.

Geert Hofstede

Velp, the Netherlands