The Fallacy of National Culture

Abstract

The international business and management literature is dominated by the national culture perspective pioneered by Hofstede (1980) with his national culture dimensions and scores, and extended by Gelfand et al. (2011), House et al. (2004) and Schwartz (1999). Our research shows that: (1) the national culture values are often similar across nations, (2) the national culture dimension scores in Hofstede and GLOBE lack convergent and discriminant validity, (3) the national culture measures of Hofstede lack face validity, (4) the projection of national culture characteristics onto individuals is a “measurement ecological fallacy”, and (5) there are diverse transnational and subnational culture archetypes within and across countries. Researchers, practitioners and students of international management should avoid using the stereotype-based national culture models, and recognize both similarities and differences in culture values within and across countries for theory and practice.