International students experience stress and adaptation difficulties as they study in a new culture. This study examined how cultural distance, acculturative stress, and social support interacted to influence positive and negative emotional responses among international students in the northern part of Cyprus. Acculturation models and the stress-buffering hypothesis served as theoretical frameworks. The 2 research questions involved understanding whether international students experienced more negative emotional responses compared to students from the home culture and whether social support moderated acculturative stress and reactions to being in the northern part of Cyprus. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine differences in emotional reactions between home and international students while 2 hierarchical multiple regressions examined the moderation hypotheses. ANOVA results indicated that Turkish-Cypriots had more positive emotional responses than international students. Results did not support social support as a moderator for either international students' acculturative stress or their emotional reactions. However, results suggested that unmet expectations, less financial satisfaction, and less social support predicted acculturative stress, while being in a relationship, having higher Turkish proficiency, having unmet expectations, and experiencing higher acculturative stress predicted more negative emotional reactions. These results may help universities design programs to support the psychological adaptation of international students, which could ultimately facilitate student retention.

Based on the fact that the number of second/foreign language learners diminishes as their study advances to a higher level, this study investigates how learnersâ?? motivation affects their persistence/termination of the learning of Japanese. The subjects are university students studying Japanese at two levels, elementary and intermediate, either as their major or as an elective in south-east Queensland, Australia. It was assumed that there are many motivational variables, such as the purpose of study, the strength of commitment, their attitudes towards the target language and languages in general, their cultural/linguistic backgrounds, their interest in Japanese language and culture, gender, and the learning environment, which may affect learnersâ?? persistence differently, depending on their level of study. Questionnaires were used as a tool to collect data and were conducted twice, at the beginning and at the end of their course of study. Learnersâ?? motivational traits were examined from the data in accordance with their intention of continuing or discontinuing the study to the next semester. The results show that motivation is not something fixed in the learnersâ?? minds, but may change during the process of learning, and that motivational factors vary according to levels of language proficiency. Based on the findings, this study claims five major points: 1) learnersâ?? sustaining motivation which is based on studentsâ?? continuous appraisal of their learning events may be important for their persistence/termination decision making, 2) one of the most important factors which affect sustaining motivation is the studentsâ?? sense of investment in their Japanese language study, 3) development of the culture-based intrinsic interest in Japanese may work strongly for the investment, and learning environment, especially foreign language learning environment, may play a significant role for studentsâ?? investment, 4) a large gap between learnersâ?? self-efficacy and the demands of real study weakens their motivation, which often leads to the termination of their study, especially at the elementary level, and 5) studentsâ?? cultural/linguistic distance from Japanese, educational background, and gender may affect their sustaining motivation, thus, they perform differently with regard to their persistence in Japanese as a foreign language study in Australian context.

This study explores three dimensions in the integration of Iranian immigrants in Sweden: economic, cultural and social. To test the generalisability of the ideas presented, and to place them in a wider framework the integration of Iranians has been compared with those of three other minorities: Chileans, Poles, and Finns. Data used in the statistical analyses have been obtained from the Centre for Research in International Migration and Ethnic relations (CEIFO). Economic integration of an immigrant group in a new society has been defined as its economic equality with the host population. The first part dealing with this aspect of integration compares Iranians with Swedes by three economic indicators: the ratio of unemployment, socio-economic status and income. By all indicators Iranians hold a considerably lower position as compared with Swedes. Both socio-demographic factors related to the Iranians and discrimination exercised by Swedish employers have been found to be relevant to the economic integration of Iranians in Sweden. The comparison of Iranians with the three other minorities, in terms of discrimination, indicates that the discrimination of these minorities corresponds to their cultural distance from Swedes. Iranians, with the remotest culture from Swedes among the four minorities, suffer the highest degree of discrimination. Finns, with the closest culture, suffer the lowest degree of discrimination. And the two other minorities lie between these two groups, respectively. Discrimination manifests itself mainly in a differential size of incomes which derives from the differential distribution of these groups among the least desirable occupations. The second part dealing with cultural integration evaluates the adaptation of Iranian to Swedish culture by two indicators representing cognitive and normative acculturation. This part is especially focused on the proposition that the westernisation process in Iran and differential reactions against this process are relevant in the acculturation of Iranians in Sweden. Two hypotheses formulated on the basis of this proposition- the negative effects of commitment to Iranian culture and radicalism on the acculturation of Iranians in Sweden- have been supported by the indicator of normative acculturation, but not by that of cognitive acculturation. The comparison of the four minorities has demonstrated that generalities, clustering and uniqueness all exist among the factors explaining their acculturation. The generalities and clustering are more striking in cognitive acculturation. Similarities are more evident between Iranians and Chileans. Finally, the last part dealing with social integration concentrates on the association of Iranians with Swedes. Assuming that association of two individuals with each other requires a common language and a minimum degree of intersubjectivity, it has been generally hypothesised that: 1) social integration of minorities in the new society will be a function of their cultural distance from the host population, and 2) all processes contributing to the increasing or decreasing of cultural distance will contribute also to the increasing or decreasing of their social integration. On the basis of these general hypotheses the following concrete hypotheses have been tested. 1) Among the four minorities, Iranians, as culturally remotest from Swedes, will have the least degree of social integration, followed by Chileans, Poles and Finns, respectively. 2) Commitment of Iranians to Iranian culture, as a medium increasing cultural distance, will correlate negatively with their social integration in Sweden. 3) Countercultural elements in Swedish society, as a medium of cultural-distance reduction, will contribute to the social integration of immigrants in this society. All hypotheses have been supported by the existing data.

Saudi Arabia is increasingly becoming one of the most attractive areas in the world for foreign investors. At the same time the country has a major influence on the economy in the Middle-East. However there exist reasons for why companies previously have been reluctant to enter this market, these reasons have mainly been related to political turbulence, foreign traditions and culture. In recent years some research has been dedicated to this area however there is still more to investigate. The purpose of this thesis has thereby been to identify what problems Swedish companies have encountered when operating in Saudi Arabia in terms of psychic distance, asymmetric information and working towards mutual goals. Hence, what problems they have dealt with during the continuous work and to what extent they have managed to maintain their corporate culture. The authors chose to conduct a deductive multiple case study including four Swedish companies with operations in Saudi Arabia, these were Abetong, IKEA, Oriflame and Tetra Pak. The research took a qualitative approach as four in-depth interviews were conducted with managers in suitable positions at respective company. The findings of the thesis indicate that the companies to a great extent have been able to maintain their corporate culture, and the adaptations that were made were mainly related to women’s role in Saudi society. In terms of psychic distance, this is something that has been encountered to a certain extent by all of the companies. Challenges have mainly been faced within the areas of religion, political systems, culture and educational level whereas the economic development was generally perceived as an opportunity. As for problems with asymmetric information and working towards mutual goals, these have not been reflected to a greater extent within any of the companies. However the problems that have been encountered have been related to language barriers.

Cross-national merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is common and is argued to be a strategic tool for the growth of multinational corporations. Yet, M&A activity has a high failure rate which theorists have explained being due to cultural clashes. Previous research has explained these clashes being due to cultural distance. Other studies have focused on the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated and its relation to cultural clashes. In this study we investigate the relation between cultural distance and the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated as we believe that this relation in turn influences how cultural clashes are perceived by managers. As the human side of M&A has become of great interest within research we stress the importance of understanding what happens with managers in the organization during the post-acquisition process. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to investigate the managers’ perception of cultural clashes, in relation to the perceived extent of cultural integration and perceived cultural distance, in cross-national mergers and acquisitions. In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of a series of cross-national M&As and to answer the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative case study design was used. Semistandardized interviews were made with ten managers from a Swedish firm that has gone through a series of cross-national M&As involving Swiss, French and German managements. The findings show that managers’ perception of cultural clashes differs depending on to what extent two firms are culturally integrated and in relation to the cultural distance between the two firms. No matter if high or low cultural distance managers perceive few cul-tural clashes if the extent to which the firms are integrated is low. If the cultural integration, on the other hand, is high and the cultural distance is high, the cultural clashes are perceived as many. Our findings indicate that cultural clashes are perceived differently depend-ing on how they affect the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. We refer to these clashes as implicit agreements and explicit statements. Clashes in implicit agreements are evolved from behaviour deeply rooted in national culture and corporate culture. These clashes have minor effects on the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. Never-theless, managers need to be aware of the differences and adapt to the preferred behaviour when interacting with the acquiring firm’s management. Explicit statements, on the other hand, affect the managerial role and organizational behaviour and lead to cultural clashes that conduce to frustration, lack of motivation and inefficiency. These clashes are more ap-parent when the extent of culturally integration is high. Therefore, the acquiring firm should not attempt to assimilate its target company in cross-national M&As.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of gender, acculturative stress, coping skills, cultural distance, and perceived social support in predicting college adjustment scores of international students who attend universities in Ankara. The sample of the study consisted of 170 (135 males and 35 females) volunteered international students from one private and four state universities in Ankara. A Personal Data Sheet developed by the researcher, Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (Baker &amp / Siryk, 1984), Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (Sandhu &amp / Asrabadi, 1994), Brief COPE (Carver, 1997), Cultural Distance Scale (Bekta

<p>Cross-national merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is common and is argued to be a strategic tool for the growth of multinational corporations. Yet, M&A activity has a high failure rate which theorists have explained being due to cultural clashes. Previous research has explained these clashes being due to cultural distance. Other studies have focused on the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated and its relation to cultural clashes. In this study we investigate the relation between cultural distance and the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated as we believe that this relation in turn influences how cultural clashes are perceived by managers.</p><p>As the human side of M&A has become of great interest within research we stress the importance of understanding what happens with managers in the organization during the post-acquisition process. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to investigate the managers’ perception of cultural clashes, in relation to the perceived extent of cultural integration and perceived cultural distance, in cross-national mergers and acquisitions.</p><p>In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of a series of cross-national M&As and to answer the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative case study design was used. Semistandardized interviews were made with ten managers from a Swedish firm that has gone through a series of cross-national M&As involving Swiss, French and German managements.</p><p>The findings show that managers’ perception of cultural clashes differs depending on to what extent two firms are culturally integrated and in relation to the cultural distance between the two firms. No matter if high or low cultural distance managers perceive few cul-tural clashes if the extent to which the firms are integrated is low. If the cultural integration, on the other hand, is high and the cultural distance is high, the cultural clashes are perceived as many. Our findings indicate that cultural clashes are perceived differently depend-ing on how they affect the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. We refer to these clashes as implicit agreements and explicit statements. Clashes in implicit agreements are evolved from behaviour deeply rooted in national culture and corporate culture. These clashes have minor effects on the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. Never-theless, managers need to be aware of the differences and adapt to the preferred behaviour when interacting with the acquiring firm’s management. Explicit statements, on the other hand, affect the managerial role and organizational behaviour and lead to cultural clashes that conduce to frustration, lack of motivation and inefficiency. These clashes are more ap-parent when the extent of culturally integration is high. Therefore, the acquiring firm should not attempt to assimilate its target company in cross-national M&As.</p>

Today’s market environment is increasingly growing due to the economical globalization; with international trade, financial transfers and foreign direct investments the economy is becoming highly interconnected. The advances in communication and transportation technology combined with free-market ideology, have given products and services remarkable mobility. Nowadays, international companies are focusing on opening the world markets to their goods especially in emerging markets in order to take advantage of these markets opportunities and be part of its developing and growing infrastructure. In order for international companies to enter foreign markets, there are a variety of factors to consider while planning a strategic approach to reach new customers and differentiate their products and services from national and international competitors within the chosen market. This thesis will focus on featuring the significant factors that could affect companies entering new markets; the study is a qualitative single case study of IKEA, it will specifically investigate IKEA’s franchising in the Moroccan market and forms of internal and external factors that could affect IKEA’s entry into the market as well as it will highlight the main concepts that managers should consider when planning to enter the Moroccan market. The study was based on theoretical framework combined with empirical findings that were collected from secondary data such as annually reports and trade documents as well as through conducting in-depth interviews with IKEA’s managers to increase the study reliability and validity. According to the study findings and analytical results, the conclusion is that IKEA will not face major internal and external obstacles that would affect their operations significantly. There are few factors that could arise while entering the Moroccan market but from a holistic view this minor interferences can be overcame through IKEA’s full awareness of the market and their application of a vigorous, flexible and convenient strategic approach.

Based on the fact that the number of second/foreign language learners diminishes as their study advances to a higher level, this study investigates how learnersâ?? motivation affects their persistence/termination of the learning of Japanese. The subjects are university students studying Japanese at two levels, elementary and intermediate, either as their major or as an elective in south-east Queensland, Australia. It was assumed that there are many motivational variables, such as the purpose of study, the strength of commitment, their attitudes towards the target language and languages in general, their cultural/linguistic backgrounds, their interest in Japanese language and culture, gender, and the learning environment, which may affect learnersâ?? persistence differently, depending on their level of study. Questionnaires were used as a tool to collect data and were conducted twice, at the beginning and at the end of their course of study. Learnersâ?? motivational traits were examined from the data in accordance with their intention of continuing or discontinuing the study to the next semester. The results show that motivation is not something fixed in the learnersâ?? minds, but may change during the process of learning, and that motivational factors vary according to levels of language proficiency. Based on the findings, this study claims five major points: 1) learnersâ?? sustaining motivation which is based on studentsâ?? continuous appraisal of their learning events may be important for their persistence/termination decision making, 2) one of the most important factors which affect sustaining motivation is the studentsâ?? sense of investment in their Japanese language study, 3) development of the culture-based intrinsic interest in Japanese may work strongly for the investment, and learning environment, especially foreign language learning environment, may play a significant role for studentsâ?? investment, 4) a large gap between learnersâ?? self-efficacy and the demands of real study weakens their motivation, which often leads to the termination of their study, especially at the elementary level, and 5) studentsâ?? cultural/linguistic distance from Japanese, educational background, and gender may affect their sustaining motivation, thus, they perform differently with regard to their persistence in Japanese as a foreign language study in Australian context.

The focus is on cross-sectional dependence in panel trade flow models. We propose alternative specifications for modeling time invariant factors such as socio-cultural indicator variables, e.g., common language and currency. These are typically treated as a source of heterogeneity eliminated using fixed effects transformations, but we find evidence of cross-sectional dependence after eliminating country-specific effects. These findings suggest use of alternative simultaneous dependence model specifications that accommodate cross-sectional dependence, which we set forth along with Bayesian estimation methods. Ignoring cross-sectional dependence implies biased estimates from panel trade flow models that rely on fixed effects. / Series: Working Papers in Regional Science