Anne-Marie Søderberg | Copenhagen Business School, CBS (original) (raw)
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Papers by Anne-Marie Søderberg
Cultural adjustment and social support as key determinants of international student satisfaction - A comparative study on six countries in Europe and the USA, 2022
The number of students studying outside their home countries has rapidly increased over the past ... more The number of students studying outside their home countries has rapidly increased over the past two decades. It is crucial for their host higher educational institutions to understand the factors that affect these students’ satisfaction in their chosen host countries. Such knowledge can help address the needs of international students, retain them through completion of their academic journeys, and encourage them to spur others to study in the host country. The purpose of this paper is to investigate several key factors as determinants of satisfaction of students studying business and other fields in five European countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, and Poland), and in the United States. The sample consisted of 1183 respondents from 10 universities in the six countries who completed a survey created by a multinational research team. Based on previous studies, the independent variables investigated were self-reported English language proficiency, host language proficiency, intercultural competence, cultural adjustment, and social support. Hierarchical regressions found that cultural adjustment and social support were significantly related to the overall satisfaction of international students across the six countries. Although English language proficiency, host language proficiency and intercultural competence had a significant positive relationship with overall satisfaction in the intermediate models, the effect of these three variables became nonsignificant when cultural adjustment and social support were entered into the model. A follow up analysis among the six countries found that, for Finland, host language proficiency was also significantly related to overall satisfaction. Additionally, variations in the importance of cultural adjustment and social support on satisfaction were found across the six countries. The study has implications for three key stakeholders. First, international students may decide to select a host country based on the satisfaction of their compatriots, and satisfaction may lead to positive performance outcomes. Second, host country educational institutions can offer training in cultural adjustment and provide social support programs and activities to promote international student satisfaction. Satisfaction in turn may lead to higher retention rates and higher reputation for the institution. Third, host country employers may have greater success in recruiting international student graduates by providing cultural adjustment training and social support to increase the satisfaction of international students educated in the host country. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.
De Gruyter eBooks, Feb 4, 2013
Langaa RPCIG eBooks, Apr 26, 2015
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 1, 2003
Merging across borders People, cultures and politics © Copenhagen Business School Press Printed i... more Merging across borders People, cultures and politics © Copenhagen Business School Press Printed in Denmark 1. edition 2003 ISBN 87-630-0115-2 Distribution: Scandinavia Djoef/DBK, Siljangade 2-8, PO Box 1731 DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark Phone:+ 45 ...
Advances in Global Leadership, 2022
The outbreak of COVID-19 brought about an unprecedented increase in individualism and isolation. ... more The outbreak of COVID-19 brought about an unprecedented increase in individualism and isolation. The pandemic threatened the country’s economy and its fragile healthcare system. It also challenged the collective sense of living upon which the Bangladeshi society is built. Government enforcement of social distancing was almost impossible, given Bangladesh’s 180 million population of whom a significant proportion live in poverty. This description focuses on the decisions the government took to address the pandemic and their implications for Bangladeshi society. Also central is how the pandemic impacted the Bangladeshi people and how they built resilience to cope with the restrictions
The strategie management approach to mergers is strongly dominated by U.S. industrial organizatio... more The strategie management approach to mergers is strongly dominated by U.S. industrial organization economics models and theories. These views focus on the financial and operational aspects of mergers at the expense of cultural and human implementation issues. Such approaches, although not always highly successful, have continued to dominate because operation in a seemingly unicultural environment does not demand immediate attention to cultural factors. Although many sub-cultures exist, the differences do not have the magnitude of transnational cultural differences. Therefore, within the U.S. organizational cultures differ, but the dominant national culture, in spite of numerous sub-cultures, does not significantly. It is therefore easy and efficient, at least in the short term, to ignore culture as a factor in mergers. However, as more and more U.S. firms are merging with foreign firms, and as the traditional U.S. melting pot is being replaced with a cultural diversity mosaic, the ethnic and national cultures are becoming more important. For example, when a Japanese firm acquires a U.S. firm, the two entities seem to concentrate on whether the Japanese and the U.S. cultures can blend, rather than whether the two unique cultures of the two organizations can be meshed. The economic and financial models focus on merger planning and merger motives but fail to address the post-merger issues that ultimately determine the fate of a merger. Such economic approaches also fail to fully consider the role of leadership and its influence in the success of mergers. A very refreshing and highly productive approach to mergers comes from Europe where the increasing occurrence of transnational alliances has placed issues of national culture, cultural clashes, and acculturation at the forefront of all merger debates. One cannot live, do business, or visit any European country without becoming aware of cultural differences and their role in determining individual behavior and organizational performance. The predominance of culture in Europe has, therefore, led practitioners and researchers to include culture as a key variable in their study of mergers. Much more than U.S. academic and practitioners' studies of mergers ever
Strategic Change, Dec 1, 1999
Cultural adjustment and social support as key determinants of international student satisfaction - A comparative study on six countries in Europe and the USA, 2022
The number of students studying outside their home countries has rapidly increased over the past ... more The number of students studying outside their home countries has rapidly increased over the past two decades. It is crucial for their host higher educational institutions to understand the factors that affect these students’ satisfaction in their chosen host countries. Such knowledge can help address the needs of international students, retain them through completion of their academic journeys, and encourage them to spur others to study in the host country. The purpose of this paper is to investigate several key factors as determinants of satisfaction of students studying business and other fields in five European countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, and Poland), and in the United States. The sample consisted of 1183 respondents from 10 universities in the six countries who completed a survey created by a multinational research team. Based on previous studies, the independent variables investigated were self-reported English language proficiency, host language proficiency, intercultural competence, cultural adjustment, and social support. Hierarchical regressions found that cultural adjustment and social support were significantly related to the overall satisfaction of international students across the six countries. Although English language proficiency, host language proficiency and intercultural competence had a significant positive relationship with overall satisfaction in the intermediate models, the effect of these three variables became nonsignificant when cultural adjustment and social support were entered into the model. A follow up analysis among the six countries found that, for Finland, host language proficiency was also significantly related to overall satisfaction. Additionally, variations in the importance of cultural adjustment and social support on satisfaction were found across the six countries. The study has implications for three key stakeholders. First, international students may decide to select a host country based on the satisfaction of their compatriots, and satisfaction may lead to positive performance outcomes. Second, host country educational institutions can offer training in cultural adjustment and provide social support programs and activities to promote international student satisfaction. Satisfaction in turn may lead to higher retention rates and higher reputation for the institution. Third, host country employers may have greater success in recruiting international student graduates by providing cultural adjustment training and social support to increase the satisfaction of international students educated in the host country. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.
De Gruyter eBooks, Feb 4, 2013
Langaa RPCIG eBooks, Apr 26, 2015
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 1, 2003
Merging across borders People, cultures and politics © Copenhagen Business School Press Printed i... more Merging across borders People, cultures and politics © Copenhagen Business School Press Printed in Denmark 1. edition 2003 ISBN 87-630-0115-2 Distribution: Scandinavia Djoef/DBK, Siljangade 2-8, PO Box 1731 DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark Phone:+ 45 ...
Advances in Global Leadership, 2022
The outbreak of COVID-19 brought about an unprecedented increase in individualism and isolation. ... more The outbreak of COVID-19 brought about an unprecedented increase in individualism and isolation. The pandemic threatened the country’s economy and its fragile healthcare system. It also challenged the collective sense of living upon which the Bangladeshi society is built. Government enforcement of social distancing was almost impossible, given Bangladesh’s 180 million population of whom a significant proportion live in poverty. This description focuses on the decisions the government took to address the pandemic and their implications for Bangladeshi society. Also central is how the pandemic impacted the Bangladeshi people and how they built resilience to cope with the restrictions
The strategie management approach to mergers is strongly dominated by U.S. industrial organizatio... more The strategie management approach to mergers is strongly dominated by U.S. industrial organization economics models and theories. These views focus on the financial and operational aspects of mergers at the expense of cultural and human implementation issues. Such approaches, although not always highly successful, have continued to dominate because operation in a seemingly unicultural environment does not demand immediate attention to cultural factors. Although many sub-cultures exist, the differences do not have the magnitude of transnational cultural differences. Therefore, within the U.S. organizational cultures differ, but the dominant national culture, in spite of numerous sub-cultures, does not significantly. It is therefore easy and efficient, at least in the short term, to ignore culture as a factor in mergers. However, as more and more U.S. firms are merging with foreign firms, and as the traditional U.S. melting pot is being replaced with a cultural diversity mosaic, the ethnic and national cultures are becoming more important. For example, when a Japanese firm acquires a U.S. firm, the two entities seem to concentrate on whether the Japanese and the U.S. cultures can blend, rather than whether the two unique cultures of the two organizations can be meshed. The economic and financial models focus on merger planning and merger motives but fail to address the post-merger issues that ultimately determine the fate of a merger. Such economic approaches also fail to fully consider the role of leadership and its influence in the success of mergers. A very refreshing and highly productive approach to mergers comes from Europe where the increasing occurrence of transnational alliances has placed issues of national culture, cultural clashes, and acculturation at the forefront of all merger debates. One cannot live, do business, or visit any European country without becoming aware of cultural differences and their role in determining individual behavior and organizational performance. The predominance of culture in Europe has, therefore, led practitioners and researchers to include culture as a key variable in their study of mergers. Much more than U.S. academic and practitioners' studies of mergers ever
Strategic Change, Dec 1, 1999
Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2019
This paper focuses on cultural learning processes in an international businesscontext. The empiri... more This paper focuses on cultural learning processes in an international businesscontext. The empirical material is an in-depth narrative interview with a European expatriate manager who emplots challenging cultural encounters in an Asian subsidiary of a Western European multinational company. We seek turning points and discoveries in her stories to show how and what she learned from her critical incidents. We found that the new business and cultural context posed a huge challenge during the early stages of her assignment and that prior (explicit) knowledge and international experiencedid not ensure smooth collaborations. Successful collaborations required creating new context-specific (tacit) knowledge embedded in organizational culture and locals' behaviors. We found that extrapolating from social interactions led to cultural misinterpretations and inhibited cross-cultural interactions and learning, but continued interactions led to better understandings of cultural others' behaviors as their attributions could be renegotiated. Moreover, we found transformative potential of storytelling for expatriate post-experiential learning. We contribute methodologically to the narrative approach in cross-cultural research. We found that collecting stories by the interviewer who shares a nationality, language, and culture with the interviewee may impose an ethnocentric lens
This study investigates Polish expatriates' stories of encounters with local personnel in a Chine... more This study investigates Polish expatriates' stories of encounters with local personnel in a Chinese subsidiary of a Western multinational company. A narrative analysis of the stories produced important insights into Polish-Chinese communication in an intra-subsidiary context. Low proficiency in the host language was a serious obstacle to expatriate socialization and a source of expatriates' exclusion and social isolation in the workplace, which often led to stress, frustration, and negative attitudes toward collaboration with local personnel. Language-related issues prevented the expatriates from acquiring information from Chinese superiors, learning about problems within a team, and participating in decision-making. The findings of this case study relate to communication challenges in the Chinese subsidiary, expatriates' accounts of how they overcame communication difficulties, and their reflections on what fostered and hampered intercultural communication.