Expatriates’ adjustment to the host-country culture is a dynamic and gradual process. This process can be facilitated by cross-cultural training. The relationship between cross-cultural training and crosscultural adjustment has been explored to a great extent in the literature, however scholars have mainly put focus on how this relationship unfolds in the context of MNCs offering CCT in-house. Consequently, this leaves an interesting uninvestigated gap in terms of how fully integrated relocation service companies work with cross-cultural services and how their work can facilitate cross-cultural adjustment. This qualitative case-study therefore aims to examine the relationship between crosscultural training provided by a relocation service company and the expatriate adjustment process. An extensive review on existing theories concerning cross-cultural adjustment, cross-cultural training and cross-cultural learning are presented. After this, the case study examines how Nordic Relocation Group (NRG), a relocation service company in Sweden, operates in terms of providing cross-cultural services. The findings indicate that the relocation service company’s services are divided into different phases, whereby the timing and content of services offered varies as the expatriates’ international assignment develops over time. This form of tailoring the cross-cultural training and the content of their services supports the notion of sequential training, which within IHRM literature, is proposed as optimal in order to facilitate the expatriate’s adjustment process. Moreover, the results further indicate that the way in which NRG works with cross-cultural services, in terms of strategy, sequential order, and specific CCT activities offered, promotes effective cross-cultural learning. Consequently, the CCT strategies offered by the relocation service company can be viewed as being aligned with best practice.

by Chan Ping-Kong, Jeffrey and Cheung Kin-Chung. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-131). / Questionaire also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.v / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / China and Her History --- p.1 / The Open Door Policy and the Economic Cycles --- p.4 / The Joint Venture --- p.6 / Development of the Economic Values Matrix --- p.8 / The Study --- p.12 / Organization of the Paper --- p.13 / Chapter II. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.15 / Development of the Questionnaire --- p.15 / Sampling Approach --- p.18 / Methodology for the Analysis of the Findings --- p.20 / Chapter III. --- SUMMARY OF FINDINGS --- p.22 / Chapter IV. --- ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS --- p.62 / Chapter A : --- Form of Economy --- p.62 / Chapter B : --- Tax System --- p.67 / Chapter C : --- Social Welfare and Security --- p.73 / Chapter D : --- Inflation --- p.75 / Chapter E : --- Education --- p.77 / Chapter F : --- Family --- p.80 / Chapter G : --- Work --- p.83 / Chapter H : --- Spending and Saving --- p.88 / Chapter I : --- Investment --- p.91 / Chapter V. --- CONCLUSION --- p.98 / APPENDICES / APPENDIX 1. ENGLISH QUESTIONNAIRE --- p.100 / APPENDIX 2. CHINESE QUESTIONNAIRES --- p.114 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.129

Li, Man Wai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-43). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.1 / Chinese Abstract --- p.3 / Acknowledgements --- p.4 / Introduction --- p.7 / Values and Subjective well-being --- p.7 / Cultural Fit as a Predictor of Subjective Weil-Being --- p.8 / Current Research --- p.11 / Study 1 --- p.15 / Method --- p.15 / Results and Discussion --- p.18 / Study 2 --- p.22 / Method --- p.22 / Results and Discussion --- p.23 / Study 3 --- p.25 / Method --- p.25 / Results and Discussion --- p.27 / Study 4 --- p.29 / Method --- p.29 / Results and Discussion --- p.30 / General Discussion --- p.32 / The Absence of the Cultural Fit Effect in Individualistic Societies --- p.33 / Limitation --- p.35 / References --- p.37

Kwok, Yan Yuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-25). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

The emergence of digital technology, social media and ubiquitous computing in the 21stcentury changed customer behavior and created new possibilities, but also challenges, forcompanies offering their services. The new customer generation is more tech-savvy thanever before, and therefore places higher demands on companies to have well-designed experienceswith services that can be consumed through various channels. This study investigatesthese service environments to see if they are actively shaped to cross-channel ecosystemsby the companies or if the companies react to the demands of their customers. Furthermore,the goal of this thesis is to find out how the current theory of cross-channel userexperience can assist in formulating design strategies for service ecosystems. To determinethis, the authors conducted a theoretical analysis of the current IS literature and created,based on that, a cross-channel user experience design framework. Within a case study of aSwedish transportation company, company and user interviews, direct observations of theavailable service artifacts, analysis of documentation, and the design of the user journeyswere executed to assess the as-is ecosystem. On the basis of these results, it was proventhat cross-channel ecosystems are shaped based on user demands. The created frameworkwas applied to formulate a language of critique of the cross-channel user experience designof the underlying case study, and the framework was proven to be applicative to practiceafter adjusting it to its final version.

Tato diplomová práce podává ucelený přehled o česko-polské přeshraniční spolupráci na příkladu Euroregionu Glacensis. Součástí práce je nezbytné teoretické vymezení euroregionů a dalších přeshraničních struktur, vymezení jejich cílů a principů fungování, legislativní úprava a institucionální zabezpečení. Cílem práce je potvrdit význam a přínos přeshraniční spolupráce v procesu evropské integrace a zhodnotit do jaké míry tyto aktivity naplňují cíle vymezené ve strategii rozvoje ERG. Použitím metody komparace jsou zhodnoceny a srovnány programy, jejichž podpora je pro realizaci těchto rozvojových aktivit nezbytná. Pozornost je věnována předvstupním fondům Phare CREDO a Phare CBC, Iniciativě Společenství INTERREG IIIA a Novému operačnímu programu. Prostřednictvím dotazníkového šetření je zhodnocena informovanost studentů o existenci a aktivitách ERG. Výsledky šetření ukazují rovněž na vztah respondentů k obcím, ve kterých žijí a na jejich vztah k Polské republice.

This thesis is an exploration of the perceptions of a group of humans in interaction with a group of non-human primates in a professional animal research setting. The study is a novel investigation in the field of intercultural relations, exploring the values and beliefs of a group of research employees, and the intercultural competence and sensitivity these employees model in their interactions with the animals they work with. A focus group was conducted at the Oregon National Primate Research Center and 8 individuals working with non-human primates were interviewed. They were asked a series of 15 open-ended questions in order to explore their identification and appreciation of cultural differences, as well as their general strategies for adapting to cultural difference in the context of an animal research setting. The results of this meeting reflect a range of perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs relative to culture and the possibility of an intercultural relationship between species.

Institutions of higher education in the United States are becoming more and more diverse and nationwide efforts to provide educational access and equity to underrepresented groups of people will only help to increase that diversity. Increased diversity combined with the need for institutions to produce graduates who are capable of living and working in a global society, has created the need for students to possess a set of cognitive and behavioral skills to aide in successful intercultural interactions. Using the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity and the theory of Cultural Intelligence as frameworks, this research attempts to assess the effect of domestic experiences on intercultural competency and cultural intelligence of first year students at the University of the Pacific. Interview participants were chosen from a sample of eighty-seven students who took the Intercultural Development Inventory and were selected for displaying a great deal or lacked of intercultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence. From these interviews, key lines of thought and experiences were determined to have had positive or negative influences on competency. These results are presented in the form of biographical sketches and supplemented with a discussion of the skills essential to developing greater competency in intercultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence through the curriculum and co-curricular involvements.

The world of mobile application development faces many challenges today. Software companies want their applications available on both iOS and Android platforms to reach as many users as possible but developing for each native platform separately is time consuming and takes up unnecessary resources. This is the problem that cross-platform development frameworks aim to solve. Today the market is flooded with many cross-platform frameworks to choose from. This has led to a need for companies to identify which cross-platform framework to choose based on a framework’s strengths and weaknesses. Many methods of evaluating cross-platform frameworks have been created, but the challenge of choosing the right one still prevails. This research is aimed to investigate one of these evaluation methods, claiming to be the definitive evaluation framework. This thesis was chosen to be a case study, by cooperating with a company to get insight in the industry’s view on this evaluation framework and learn their opinion of what values are important when evaluating a development framework. The evaluation framework consists of a set of 33 criteria, each aimed at evaluating different parts of a development framework and the resulting applications. In this research, we investigate 8 of these criteria in depth and explore how these could be assigned points in an objective manner. We developed one prototype for each development framework subject to evaluation and gave these points using a system based on the evaluation framework with the added extension of defining our own sub-criteria system for assigning points as objectively as possible. From the collected data during the study we could see, not only, if the company could decide which of the development frameworks in our evaluation was more suitable for their needs. If the evaluation framework performed as intended by the creators and if this was something the company could use further on, for other projects. Results from using the proposed sub-criteria system in the evaluation are also presented and discussed.

Mistakes and betrayals can cause developing interpersonal trust between parties to be broken, and damaged trust can have serious negative impacts on relationships, such as withdrawal from group interaction or the enactment of revenge. Research has suggested that the use of apologies helps to repair damaged trust. However, this research is almost exclusively based in westernized populations and has not begun to explore any cross-cultural differences. Therefore, the primary goal of this comparative cross-national laboratory study was to examine if, and how, the effectiveness of trust repair efforts differs across cultures. The effectiveness of three manipulated trust repair strategies (no response, apology, and account) was tested using students from universities in the United States (U.S.) and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results of the study indicate that fatalism, or the belief that events in life are meant to occur, was negatively related to initial trust and positively related to initial distrust toward one’s collaborative partner. It was also found that higher levels of fatalism were associated with more severe trust damage after a trust violation. Regarding the trust repair strategies, accounts were more effective at repairing trust than no response for high fatalism participants whereas apologies were more effective than accounts at reducing distrust after a violation for low fatalism participants, providing partial support for the idea that trust repair strategies are more effective when matched to the cultural self-construal of the victim. Finally, initial distrust and trust directly after the violation were predictive of taking revenge on the other player. Implications are discussed along with the study limitations and suggestions for future research.