The purpose of this study was to investigate non-music major college and university students’ self-efficacy beliefs and their perceptions of the four sources of self-efficacy as they related to their participation in active music making and creation in college (e.g., ensembles and musicals, group and private lessons, music theory classes). An online survey was used to collect students’ responses to statements that aligned with the four sources of self-efficacy: enactive mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, vicarious experiences, and physiological and affective states and demographic information about items such as gender identity, cultural background, and previous musical experiences. The participants included 111 students from 11 college and university campuses in Pennsylvania, of which 56 students identified as male and 55 students identified as female. No students listed any other gender identification. The participants also represented 14 unique cultural backgrounds which were categorized as either individualist or collectivist according to Hofstede et al.’s (2010) cultural dimensions. The source of self-efficacy with the highest collective mean score in this study was enactive mastery experience (M = 80.75). The source of self-efficacy with the second highest collective mean score in this study was physiological and affective states (M = 78.92). The only statistically significant difference found between genders was for enactive mastery experiences, with females having a higher mean score (M = 85.06) than males (M = 76.51). The number of previous musical experiences a student reported also impacted their perceptions of the sources of self-efficacy with statistically significant differences between students in the higher experience levels and students in the lower experience levels for the sources of enactive mastery experiences, physiological and affective states, and verbal persuasion. When gender and experience were investigated together, females in experience level 1 and 3 had statistically higher enactive mastery experiences scores than the males, and females in experience level 1 had significantly higher verbal persuasion scores as well. The findings of this study suggest that physiological and emotional states may have particular importance in developing musical self-efficacy. This result was consistent for students from all cultural backgrounds. Implications from this research suggest the importance of creating spaces where students can experience positive verbal persuasion and vicarious experiences, which may lead to positive enactive mastery experiences and physiological and affective states and further support the development of musical self-efficacy beliefs. Further research is needed to better understand the impact of cultural background on self-efficacy belief development and the sources of self-efficacy. This research could also be expanded to investigate socio-economic influences on musical self-efficacy beliefs.

With the rapid and exponential growth of Internet use worldwide, online learning has become one of the most widely used learning paradigms in the education environment. Yet despite the rapidly increasing cultural diversity of online learners, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of cross-cultural Online Learning Systems (OLS) using a suitable measurement to answer the question, "Do culturally different learners perceive OLS effectiveness differently?" In this study, Hofstede's theory on cultural dimensions and Levy's Learners' Value Index of Satisfaction (LeVIS) framework are applied as a foundation for studying how culturally different learners perceive OLS effectiveness. The aim of this comparative study was to gain a better understanding of OLS effectiveness in a non-western culture by comparing cultural dimensions and learners' perceived effectiveness of OLS (across the four pillars: technology/support, course, professor, & learner) among American and Malaysian learners. Learners from American and Malaysian universities were surveyed and a factorial analysis of variance (factorial ANOVA) was used to determine any significant differences among participants regarding perceived OLS effectiveness across the four pillars of OLS based upon Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Results indicated significant differences in perceived OLS effectiveness between American and Malaysian learners in the course and professor pillars based on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. However, the technology/support and learner pillars showed no significant differences between American and Malaysian learners' perceived OLS effectiveness. The main contribution of this study is its findings regarding the effect of culture on perceived OLS effectiveness. This study examined American and Malaysian learners' perceived effectiveness of the technology/support, course, professor, and learner pillars of OLS based on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. Based upon analysis of the survey results, it was determined that American learners perceived a slightly higher OLS effectiveness in terms of the course and professor pillars than Malaysian learners. In other words, the survey indicated that the cultural dimensions distinguishing American and Malaysian learners influenced those two groups' perceived effectiveness of the course and professor pillars of the OLS. Another contribution of this study is its recommendation, based upon the survey results, that Malaysian OLS course designers develop and implement course content and activities in the online learning environment to alleviate the apparent conflict between current online learning and Malaysian cultural characteristics. It is further recommended that Malaysian professors using OLS also strive to develop an instructional method more suitable to the cultural norms of Malaysian society. On a general level, it is hoped that this study will also contribute to a better awareness and understanding of the important and unresolved issues surrounding cultural attributes and learners' perceived OLS effectiveness. Based on this study, recommendations were made for future research in order to broaden, reenforce or adjust its findings. These included, 1) replicating this study in another setting, such as in the collaborative environment of international organizations; 2) including additional independent variables, such as academic major, enrollment status (full or part time), first language, graduate student status, and grade point average; 3) replicating the current study using a larger sample with multiple locations and cultures, and 4) replicating this study at a future date to reflect potential changes in culture, technology, and OLS design.

<p>Culture plays a key role in international business. This work-based thesis undertakes a case-study research of an information management software introduction process from Sweden to China. To design interview questions, the author used Prof. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as the base theory and reviewed a number of literatures which apply this theory in the IT area. After interviews with both Swedish and Chinese sites, the results were analyzed with the theoretical data to examine how cultural differences influence people in a software introduction process. The author also applied software culturalization from Marble and Lu. Compared to the author’s own experiences and interview data, a recommendation list is stated as a guide of how to succeed in software introduction under different cultural backgrounds.</p>

The goal of this diploma thesis is to identify English cultural standards from the Czech point of view. In contemporary globalized world, cultural standards, which help us to discover and understand the specific features, norms of behaviour, thinking and feeling of English people, are essential for successful communication with English partners. This thesis is divided into free parts. The theoretical part is focused on theory of culture, cultural dimensions and standards. In the practical part, the attention is paid to basic information about England, contemporary English society, English culture and social and business etiquette. The goal of the last, empirical part is to describe the view of Czech people on English and to reveal the main differences between both cultures.

<p>Date: May 29, 2009</p><p>Course: Master thesis, EFO705</p><p>Authors: Uliana Kovaleva, 830906, Karolina Turbak, 850710</p><p>Tutor: Tobias Eltebrandt</p><p>Title: The Influence of Culture and the Level of Acculturation on the Perceptions of Service Quality among the Customers with Swedish, Polish and Russian Backgrounds.</p><p>Strategic question: How important is the customers’ ethnic background, culture and level of acculturation when choosing a provider of financial services?</p><p>Research questions: If customers with Polish and Russian origin differ in their perceptions of the service quality attributes from Swedish customers, what kind of influence do culture and the level of acculturation have on their perceptions of service quality?</p><p>Method: Apart from secondary data, the questionnaire results were collected as a source of the primary data. The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire results were analysed in SPSS by applying T-tests, and the answers for the open-ended questions were analysed additionally.</p><p>Theoretical Framework: The theories which were used include service quality dimensions, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the level of acculturation. The results of previous studies addressing the cultural influences on the service quality were applied extensively. The theories were chosen according to the purpose of the study and used in analysis in a comprehensive way.</p><p>Conclusions: According to the study culture and the level of acculturation have influence on the perceptions of service quality. The Polish and Russian customers with the low and medium levels of acculturation have lower overall service quality perceptions compared to the highly acculturated customers with foreign background and Swedish. In particular, the perceptions of assurance and empathy dimensions are significantly different between the studied groups.</p><p> </p> / “The impact of cultural recognition on service‐consumtions among customers in Sweden with foreign background.”

Title: The influence of culture on corporate sustainability Authors: Adriana Corral Alonso and Daphné Lapourré Supervisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Marketing Key words: Sustainability, sustainable development, corporate sustainability, Tetra Pak, culture, cultural influence, cultural dimensions, France, Spain, Sweden… Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how and to what extent cultural aspects can influence the corporate sustainability of a given company. Method: It is a qualitative case study enhancing on one hand primary research and on the other hand secondary data. The primary data based on three interviews of Tetra Pak key employees in France, Spain and Sweden are completed by the secondary research based on facts about Tetra Pak and on key authors’ books. Theoretical framework: The framework consists of theories and models about sustainability and its extensions and about cultural dimensions theories. Conclusion: Culture has an influence on corporate sustainability. However the extents are not easy to measure and vary according to the culture and the country’s means.

Date: May 29, 2009 Course: Master thesis, EFO705 Authors: Uliana Kovaleva, 830906, Karolina Turbak, 850710 Tutor: Tobias Eltebrandt Title: The Influence of Culture and the Level of Acculturation on the Perceptions of Service Quality among the Customers with Swedish, Polish and Russian Backgrounds. Strategic question: How important is the customers’ ethnic background, culture and level of acculturation when choosing a provider of financial services? Research questions: If customers with Polish and Russian origin differ in their perceptions of the service quality attributes from Swedish customers, what kind of influence do culture and the level of acculturation have on their perceptions of service quality? Method: Apart from secondary data, the questionnaire results were collected as a source of the primary data. The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire results were analysed in SPSS by applying T-tests, and the answers for the open-ended questions were analysed additionally. Theoretical Framework: The theories which were used include service quality dimensions, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the level of acculturation. The results of previous studies addressing the cultural influences on the service quality were applied extensively. The theories were chosen according to the purpose of the study and used in analysis in a comprehensive way. Conclusions: According to the study culture and the level of acculturation have influence on the perceptions of service quality. The Polish and Russian customers with the low and medium levels of acculturation have lower overall service quality perceptions compared to the highly acculturated customers with foreign background and Swedish. In particular, the perceptions of assurance and empathy dimensions are significantly different between the studied groups. / “The impact of cultural recognition on service‐consumtions among customers in Sweden with foreign background.”

Globalization and global markets are dominating in the today’s business arena. Companies are more often than not required to internationalize and operate in global markets instead of just competing within national borders. Due to the high level of globalization, psychic distance between nations and countries is argued to have decreased significantly. However, underlying national and business culture differences still very much exist and companies must be aware of and take the differences into account in their international operations. For decades cross-cultural science has been guided by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model and it is widely used to research and describe national cultures and differences between different cultures. Psychic distance concept is one of the most applied constructs of multinational enterprises’ internationalization and it has deservedly attracted a lot of attention within the literature and research of international business. Psychic distance is recurrently utilized when presenting and evaluating differences between a company’s home and foreign market. The general underlying notion of psychic distance is that companies operating in psychically close countries will succeed in their international operations. However, there is an increasing amount of research and literature providing contradictory evidence, referred to as psychic distance paradox. According to the concept of psychic distance paradox, perceived similarities within countries may result in cultural overconfidence and inadequate preparation prior entering psychically close markets resulting in poor organizational performance. The aim of the dissertation is to contribute in the research of the psychic distance concept regarding the existence of the psychic distance paradox and how it appears in the international business. The main focus is on management’s perceptions of psychic distance and how they affect a company’s organizational performance in psychically close foreign market. From the research conducted it can be concluded that the management’s perceptions of psychic distance can essentially affect the company’s organizational performance in a foreign market. In case the management’s perceptions of psychic distance are not in accordance with reality and the differences are overlooked, the company can face difficulties and poor organizational performance even in a psychically close market. The findings of the research provide additional proof to the existence of the psychic distance paradox concept.

The discourse regarding cultural differences has mainly focused on dissimilarities between countries (inter-cultural variations). However, this thesis will suggest that intra-cultural variations also occur within national borders. Especially in developing countries, exposed and influenced by other cultures. The purpose with this thesis is therefore to reveal how culture is perceived on the eastern coast of China compared to the typical view of Chinese culture as a whole. The study has been made by conducting e-mail based surveys with the Swedish company Ericsson, Swedish Chamber of Commerce and the Swedish Trade Council. The result indicates a distinct difference in culture between east coast cities and inland China. Conclusively, intra-cultural variations appeared to be present in the studied country.

The purpose of this paper was to examine how cultural differences affect an MNC’s knowledge transfer of the concept employer branding, and what support subsidiaries need from headquarters for the MNC to become a global employer brand. The result is based on theoretical findings of employer branding, knowledge transfer and culture, applied to interview results at Scania. The knowledge transfer of the concept employer branding involves the implementation of a global employer branding communication platform. Findings show that Scania face challenges in employer branding awareness within the MNC, knowledge transfer internalization in subsidiaries, and balance of standardization and adaptation in connection to cultural dimensions of the markets. To overcome these challenges, Scania needs to further develop relational, social and organizational contexts for the MNC to become a global premium employer brand. The thesis has high originality since it gives implications to a specific MNC regarding the specific topic employer branding in a certain time of the implementation process.