Nowadays, an increasing number of global retailers such as IKEA, Carrefour and Auchan, are expanding their business internationally: internationalization is seen as a way to face competitors as well as to enhance position on the market. In particular, emerging markets are becoming a fertile field for investing resources due to their fast economic development and growing disposable income of the local population. A number of market actors (or stakeholders) affect or are affected by the internationalization process, and therefore stakeholder management determines its success to a large extent. Thus, stakeholder management competences are becoming increasingly important in today’s business world. Our study addresses stakeholder management strategy applied by a Swedish global retailer (IKEA) when internationalizing to the Russian market. We also try to identify the main cultural differences between the focal organization and the Russian stakeholders, and the way in which the company faces and overcomes those diversities. Thus, we first give a brief overview of stakeholder management approach applied by IKEA on the corporate level, and then focus on particular practices adopted in Russia. Although the IKEA Group has internal and external stakeholder management framework, we find out that no explicit stakeholder management methodology is used in Russia. The strategy of managers is emergent and implicit, but within the company guidelines and code of conduct and in accordance with organizational culture and values. Although we outline IKEA Russia’s interaction with all main stakeholder groups on the Russian market, we examine more in detail the strategies applied towards the company’s three most critical stakeholders: government, suppliers and employees. Hence, IKEA Russia opts for long-term close collaboration with suppliers through knowledge and expertise exchange, close relationship-building, improvement of working standards, and even financial investments in some cases. Employees are granted good working conditions and respectful attitude, different compensation package, possibilities for personal and professional development. Government, identified by our respondents as the most challenging stakeholder, is approached through lobbying on different levels, development of personal relationships, exchange of experience and best practices. However, when interacting with authorities, IKEA also has to adapt, be “flexible within the limits”, and focus on the long-term. Having outlined real-life strategies applied by IKEA in Russia, we compare them with the results of theoretical modeling. In order to come up with theoretical propositions for stakeholder management of IKEA in Russia, we developed a stakeholder management model, which comprised all the most relevant theories. We, thus, discover that theoretical suggestions for stakeholder management are close to what is done by management in practice. However, the theoretical model overlooks “soft” aspects of dealing with stakeholders: local and organizational culture, turbulent business environment, fast pace of doing business. Moreover, it is difficult for a single stakeholder management framework to give a one-right stakeholder management approach: it is important to combine different theories and use them for complementing each other. This allows to get a more profound insight into managing stakeholders. We develop our research based on the information we could gather from IKEA’s representatives as well as secondary data sources, such as books, two doctoral theses, and a vast amount of journal articles. Our respondents were asked to answer questions throughout which their perceptions about the company’s stakeholders have been evaluated. This has helped the researchers to draw conclusions and answer the research questions.

This essay outlines the problems in the cross-cultural communication between SKB International and the Korean market. After interviews with the vice president of SKB International and their representative in Korea I compare their strategy to cross-cultural communication theories and Korean business culture facts to see how their communication to Korea could be improved. In the results I state that the problem with getting a continuous dialogue is created by the big cultural difference between Sweden and Korea. If these differences can be tackled SKB International will be able to sell their public acceptance package to Korea to enable the project of a final repository. The biggest problems seem to be the difference of time horizons, way of building relations, hierarchy vs. flat organization and the Korean group dynamics in clash with Swedish individualism. As conclusion I state that the isolation of Korea has created a unique culture that needs special attention for successful cross-cultural communication. This calls for SKB International to develop a strategy for understanding Korean culture within the whole organization. The image of Korean culture needs to be continuously discussed through meetings or an intranet forum to get a correct image of how to communicate with Koreans. Also I find that SKB International need more staff to take care of all the Korean delegations that come on spontaneous visits. The best gateway into the Korean hierarchies was found to be through inter-governmental communication.

As globalization is proceeding, it is more and more important to understand effective leadership also in terms of cultural dimensions. This new challenge in the business world has not been approached by scientists in a satisfactory way so far and was the main reason for the conduction of this study. The aim of this research is to investigate how effective leadership varies between cultures and to state the crucial differences of leadership effectiveness among Sweden, England, France and Germany. To be able to figure out these differences a research team out of four students and one professor designed a questionnaire which was sent out to employees in the four studied countries. In this questionnaire the subordinates had to assess different behaviours and skills of their direct leader. The different questions belong to a list of predetermined topic groups which were planned to be used afterwards to set the results into connection with existing theories. The results of this multinational survey offer a general picture about the differences among the average leaders in the four cultures. To be able to make statements about the different importance of leader attributes for effective performance, a statistical evaluation is made. After given the reader a general idea about the gathered data and its composition, the adequateness of the combinations inside the topic groups are revised and some additional topic groups are build up. The findings of the study are used to discuss and challenge McClelland’s Research on Managerial Motivation and to figure out the different relevance of Katz’ three skill dimensions for each national culture. The difference emphasis of task-, relations- and change oriented behaviour in relation to effective leadership as well as the importance of charismatic leadership for effectiveness is exposed and distinguished for every country. Hofstede’s theory of five cultural dimensions is used to provide the necessary explanation for the cultural differences regarding the different theoretical dimensions. As an additional theory the GLOBE Project is introduced. Unfortunately, the results of this project were not available on time, so that they could not be compared to the results of the study. The conclusion at the end of the paper summarizes the general outcome of the thesis and points out the found cultural differences of effective leadership in the four cultures. Charisma and Human skills were found to be important for effective leadership in all countries. However, for effective German leaders it is concluded to possess more technical skills as in the other cultures and to have a higher need of achievement. Controlling employees is much more important in Germany than anywhere else. In England the need of achievement is also higher than in France and Sweden. Effective French leaders have the strongest socialized power orientation. For Sweden no big difference to the others countries could be found. Effective Swedish manager mostly possess a good mixture of the different skills, needs and behaviours suggested in the theory, but were not outstanding significantly in one dimension in comparison to the other three countries. In total, a high concern for relations is concluded for them.

As a result of globalization and increase interdependence of the world economies, people from different cultures are interacting more frequently. However, most problems and misunderstandings occur when members of one culture assumes that their own unconscious values and beliefs are equally appropriate in other cultures. Typically, this is more prominent in an international business setting where companies are increasingly operating outside their usual working environment and interacting more with people belonging to other cultures. Even though, there are a huge number of studies which have focused on assessing the behaviours prevailing in different cultures and countries, we have noticed that there is a lack of literature aiming to find the leadership behaviours and styles becoming prevalent when there is a shift from one culture to another. More specifically, we have observed that there is a theoretical gap in the literature for understanding the behaviours which leaders adopt when they move from a high power distance culture to operate in a country classified as low power distance. Additionally, even on the basis of the extensive literature review conducted, it has been noticed that there are no studies which have aimed to find out the reasons behind adopting the prevailing leadership behaviours and styles. To achieve the purpose of this study, a qualitative research design and semi structured interviews were conducted with twelve managers in two different companies. Typically, a French and a Japanese company (both classified with high power distance index) operating in Sweden (classified with low power distance index) were selected. The data was analyzed using grounded theory and appropriate coding (open and selective coding) was adopted to generate sub-categories and categories which would help to explain the phenomenon being studied. As a result of the analysis undertaken, we have found out that both companies belonging to the high power distance culture have adopted distinct leadership styles. Basically, the French company has adopted a directive leadership style owing to the increasing influence which it receives from the home culture whilst the Japanese company has adopted a participative leadership style. It has also been found that the prevailing leadership behaviours are because of a number of factors like; the management cultural beliefs, labour laws, local employees, decision making process, monitoring and supervision process and influence from the host culture.

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This study examines the effects of social tie strength, value fit and affect-based trust of overseas workers on their cultural knowledge acquisition in foreign countries. Based on the assumption that cultural knowledge is acquired through social interactions, the research model encompassed 3 social-related independent variables and tested empirically from 536 interpersonal relationships reported by 136 respondents. The results revealed that social tie strength and value fit have positive impacts on cultural knowledge acquisition not only directly but also indirectly, through the mediation role of affect-based trust. However, the mediation effect differs between relationships with local nationals and relationships with non-local nationals. Specifically, affect-based t rust is essential for the effect of social tie strength to local nationals instead of that to non-local nationals; moreover, the mediation effect is sufficient on value fitted non-local nationals but is incomplete on value fitted local nationals. The implications of the findings and the need for future research were also discussed.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the validity of the main concepts of metacognitive theory in a Turkish sample and set the stage for metacognitive research in Turkey from the clinical psychology perspective. In addition to this, research attention was focused on two important topics remained to be empirically validated in the metacognition literature: (1) the unique contributions of &ldquo / cognitive content&rdquo / versus &ldquo / metacognition&rdquo / to the prediction of anxiety and depression symptoms, and (2) the vulnerability function of metacognitions in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms. To achieve these generic aims of the study, a two-step research plan each of which has its own specific objectives was followed. Data for cross-sectional and prospective parts of the study were collected from Turkish and British non-clinical samples. In the cross-sectional part, mainly the independent contribution of metacognitions to pathological worry, obsessive-compulsive symptomatology, and anxiety and depressive symptoms above and beyond the contribution of cognitive content was evaluated. By doing so, also the relationship patterns between metacognitions and psychological symptomatology were revealed in the Turkish sample. Consistent with the recent burgeoning of research, the association between increased levels of metacognitions and increased levels of anxiety and depression was shown in the Turkish sample, as well. Moreover, metacognitive factors were found to be associated with the symptoms of anxiety and depression independently of the relevant cognitive content. In most analyses, metacognitions emerged as slightly stronger predictors of a given symptom dimension compared to the relevant cognitive content. In the prospective part, the causal role of metacognitions following stress in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms was examined. In the Turkish sample, higher levels of negative beliefs about worry predicted augmentation in anxiety and depression symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2. Besides, higher levels of lack of cognitive confidence interacted with higher levels of daily hassles to predict intensification of the anxiety scores. However, the British data did not support the causal role of metacognitions in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms. The statistical comparisons between Turkish and British samples indicated that the Turkish sample has a tendency to score significantly higher than the British sample on the metacognitive variables. Moreover, for all but one metacognitive factor, the interactions with cultural group (Turkish vs. British) were not significant in predicting psychopathology, indicating generalization of metacognitive theory to both the Turkish and British samples. Findings of this study were well in line with the metacognitive theory and discussed in the light of the relevant literature.

Comments and Discussions : Hideko SAKURAI (櫻井秀子)

This reserch aims to investigate the realtionship of expatriate's cross-cultural competence with his entrepreneurship. By building an integrative framework, we identify three constructs, big-five personality, cultural intellegance and cross-cultural adjustment, which were encompassed in cross-cultural competence to have associations with expatriate's entrepreneurship. Using SEM model to analyzed sample of 230 expatriates, our findings reveals that expatriate's personality has positive associations with expatriates' entrepreneurship. In addition, expatriate's personality will affect the ability to cross-cultural adjustment and cultural intelligence for entrepreneurship in their expatriate assignments to MNC's subsidiary. In short, this research proposes a cross-cultural framework to illustrate how expatriate's personality affects their cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment, which act as mediators in the relationships between personality and entrepreneurship. Moreover, cultural difference is found to be an important moderator among all the relationships above entrepreneurial spirit for business performance at host.

This thesis was concerned with the branch of Consumer Marketing known as Consumer Perception Reasoning, and focused on the reasoning behind the Country-of-Origin Effect and image framing on product selling and promotion effectiveness. The well-established research comprising Country-of-Origin was reviewed to establish a rapport for further research exploring reasons that shape existing consumer attitude. With regard to reasoning, different social, political and cultural variables were explored. It was hypothesized that that the majority of Canadians, separated by ethnic origin, are partial to the same reasoning motivating their appeal toward East Asian country-of-origin effects, and therefore, can be categorized into different ethnocentric buying groups. The primary rationale citied was consumer ethnocentrism between the participants and the images; country-of-origin was the basis of this research. An experimental design was performed, making use of real world political and economical issues present in mass media to form a post exposure questionnaire. Overall, the two-way interaction between perception reasoning and cultural values was upheld, albeit with interesting and notable secondary results. Although Western values did shape the majority of consumer opinion, there was a significant lack in country-of-origin knowledge and experience that caused inaccurate perception motivation. This lack created a greater dislike toward the Taiwanese COO tag resulting from image transferability from the Chinese tag. As well, consumer gender played a significant part in shaping perception motivation toward each of the real-time variables. This was the first study to explicitly the Country-of-Origin Effect to a cross-variable framework, thereby offering significant theoretical contributions to the consumer marketing literature.