Cultural Distance Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Social Psychology, Intercultural Communication, Intergroup Relations, Acculturation

More often than one might expect, small and new ventures, which already suffer from few resources and a lack of industry legitimacy, take on the additional uncertainties of entry into foreign markets. Some of these foreign entries involve countries that are geographically distant and culturally different from the firm’s home country, making foreign market entry all the more difficult and uncertain. Recent studies have criticized prior academic approaches to understanding these difficulties. Insights may be limited if one uses merely the concept of distance and looks primarily for main effects. Entry by new and small ventures into distant foreign markets is complex, and the factors influencing it are interactive. The aim of this conceptual paper is to contribute to an understanding of the stability of the distance factors, and also the interactive effects between distance factors, market attractiveness, and network relationships, with particular attention to small and new ventures.

Authors/Szerzők: Zuh Deodáth, Kerekes Erzsébet, Schmidt Dániel, Talált Évike, Opra Melánia, Gregus Zoltán, Adorján Beáta, Kányádi Irén, Szőcs Krisztina, Lurcza Zsuzsanna, Veress Károly
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Veress Károly (ed.): The Antinomies of Distance: Hermeneutical and Applied Philosophical Researches (1) ‒ The volume contains studies prepared during the 1st phase of the hermeneutical and applied philosophical project series implemented by the philosophy graduate students (BA students and PhD students of the Philosophy Doctoral School) of the Babeş‒Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. These researches were directed at exploring the hermeneutical productivity of distance.
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A kötet a kolozsvári Babeş‒Bolyai Tudományegyetemen a Filozófiai Doktori Iskola doktoranduszai valamint a filozófia szakos mesterképzős hallgatók által megvalósított hermeneutikai és alkalmazott filozófiai projektsorozat első szakaszának a kutatási eredményeit közli. Ezek a kutatások a távolság hermeneutikai produktivitásának a feltárására irányultak.

- by Károly Veress
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- Dialogue, Phenomenology, Intersubjectivity, Nietzsche
- by Siew Imm Ng
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- Marketing, Tourism Studies, Tourism Management, Tourism

Literary scholars (and tourism boards) have a tendency to foster an idealistic image of “Ernest Hemingway in Spain,” a lens which sometimes causes reflections on the topic to be celebratory in nature and eminently positive in tone. Upon close review of the man’s journalism, letters, and fiction, we find a different milieu—one that is not always a romantic fiesta but a discourse sometimes wrought with rejection, contempt, even mockery. While it is clear Hemingway had a close devotion to things Spanish throughout his life, a pattern of behavior that we might interpret as a test in transnationalization, he was at times ridiculed by Spaniards for pretensions of insider status with bullfighting circles and for what some believed was a poor ability to speak Spanish. José Castillo-Puche, friend and biographer of Hemingway, said that by the end of his life, “Ernesto was no longer a fascinating figure to people in Spain; he had become a sort of joke, in fact” (20). Through scrutiny on Hemingway’s cultural forays into Spanish society—in language and toreo rituals, in particular—this article also aims to reveal a crucial but often neglected aspect of Hemingway’s relationship with the Spanish people.

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate foreign executives appointed into cultural contexts distant from their country of origin and headquarters of organisations to which host-country nationals (HCNs) they supervise and HCN superiors they report to attribute a “local” national identity.
Significant differences of these foreign executives in local organisations (FELOs) from other forms of expatriation, including assigned and self-initiated expatriates, are identified and discussed.
Design/methodology/approach – The research utilises a qualitative exploratory approach based on triangulated multiple data sources. Data are sourced from in-depth semi-structured interviews with foreign executives (n¼46) from 13 countries and their host-country peers (n¼25) in organisations founded and headquartered in Malaysia. Dyadic data from the two sample groups are used to triangulate findings, while non-dyadic and socio-biographical data add further insight.
Findings – The data analysis identifies issues surrounding allegiance, trust, and control, assumptions about income levels, and exposure to heightened local scrutiny as components of the distinct nature of the FELO experience.
Research limitations/implications – Implications for future research on new types of international cross-cultural workplaces are discussed. While construct definitions for self-initiated expatriation (SIE) in the wider mobility and migration literature are still in flux, international management research may be at
risk of neglecting local workplaces and perspectives.
Practical implications – The FELO phenomenon differs significantly from expatriate assignments between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations, and can be viewed as a rare and specific form of SIE. Its occurrence indicates an increasingly global market for individuals with career capital and global mobility.
Originality/value – The findings elucidate the situation of FELOs and provide comparisons to other types of expatriates. The research contributes to extant literature on global mobility as it explores a specific cross-cultural phenomenon that has not been systematically investigated in the academic literature, but is described in the media and executive search firm publications as “fairly new, highly visible, and sometimes controversial” with demand for FELOs “likely to continue”.
Keywords Cultural distance, Expatriates, Global mobility, Career capital, Differences, Foreign executives, Local organizations, Self-initiated expatriation
Paper type Research paper

- by Wendy A Smith
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- International HRM, Cross-Cultural Management, Expatriates, International Management
- by Victor Liu
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- Tourism Studies, Tourism, Cultural Distance, Cultural Clusters

Étienne Balibar, Nous, citoyens d’Europe ? Les frontières, l’État, le peuple (Paris, La Découverte, 2001)

- by Masayuki Tsuda
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- European History, Sociology, Eastern European Studies, Gender Studies

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to offer a compound index of cultural dimensions. Design/methodology/approach-First, the idea of the compound index is described. Then, by integrating Hofstede's and Inglehart's frameworks, the Compound Culture Index (CCI) is constructed, its scores for different countries are computed, and its robustness is validated. Finally, the theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed and some avenues for future research are pointed out. Findings-A Compound Culture Index (CCI) on the basis of Hofstede's and Inglehart's frameworks is conceptualized, computed, and validated. Research limitations/implications-Culture is a very complex concept and cannot be fully grasped by a few dimensions or a dichotomous index. Hofstede's and Inglehart's models have some theoretical/operational differences and correspond to dissimilar time frames that may make their integration imperfect. Due to lack of data, Hofstede's fifth dimension (Timer Orientation) was not included in the calculation of the CCI. Practical implications-The CCI bridges Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural frameworks and offers an integrative measure of national culture. In addition, the CCI represents a robust measure that can be conveniently employed in empirical research. Originality/value-The CCI offers a methodologically novel, theoretically defensible, and operationally robust approach to measuring national cultures.

This paper sheds light on the main aggregate-level determinants of electoral support for regionalist parties across 10 Western European countries. A region being relatively richer than the country to which it belongs is associated with higher electoral support for regionalist parties only to the extent that the region is culturally differentiated. This hypothesis is substantiated theoretically, tested empirically and found to hold in the form of a strong and significant interaction effect between cultural and economic variables. This result, omitted in previous studies, implies a profound change in the interpretation of the role of income and cultural differences in explaining support for regionalism, for both autonomist and separatist parties.

- by Martín Portos and +1
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- Western Europe, Electoral Behavior, Cultural Distance, Autonomism

Recent studies have indicated that the internationalization process of software SMEs is somewhat independent on the effect of psychic or geographic distance. However, these studies have analyzed the general pattern of entries where software SMEs not commonly follow a step-wise entry route from nearby countries to distant ones. Thus, it remains unknown what the effect of psychic and geographical distance is when these firms enter a distant foreign market. The findings in this case study reveal that psychic and geographic distance inhibited the foreign market entry of software SMEs. However, the distant foreign market entry of these firms was facilitated by distance-bridging and distance-compressing factors enabling foreign business operations despite the significant distance between the home and target country.

- by Arto Ojala
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- SME, Cultural Distance, Software Business, Psychic distance

Au fil de nos diverses expériences universitaires et professionnelles, nous avons remarqué les différences fondamentales qui distinguent la traduction anglais-français de la traduction japonais-français. Au-delà du cas particulier de ces deux combinaisons linguistiques, nous nous sommes mis à nous interroger sur l’influence qu’exerce la distance entre les langues et les cultures sur la traduction de manière générale. Lorsque nous discutons de cette question avec professeurs et collègues, les réactions sont généralement aux antipodes : si certains affirment qu’il va de soi que la distance linguistique et culturelle joue un rôle en traduction, d’autres nient la pertinence même de la question.

- by Etienne Lehoux-Jobin
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- Translation Studies, Traductologie, Cultural Distance, Linguistic Distance

Le présent article appartient à la discipline qu’on nomme généralement traductologie en français, translation studies en anglais, et 翻訳通訳学 (hon’yakutsūyakugaku) en japonais. Plus précisément, ce texte s’articule, au point de vue théorique, autour de l’idée de distance entre langues-cultures et s’appuie, au point de vue empirique, sur l’analyse comparative de la traduction des références culturelles dans les sous-titres japonais et anglais de deux films québécois francophones. En confrontant les manières dont sont traduites de part et d’autre les références culturelles, lesquelles nous considérons comme des témoins ponctuels de réalités linguistico-culturelles globales, nous cherchons à comprendre le rôle que joue la distance entre deux langues-cultures dans le processus traductif, selon l’ampleur de celle-ci. Le point de départ de notre recherche est l’hypothèse, présentée ici de manière schématique, selon laquelle la taille du défi de la traduction entre deux langues-cultures tend à augmenter proportionnellement à la distance qui les sépare. /// 本稿は、翻訳通訳学に属する研究で、理論的観点からは言語文化的距離という理念を中心に扱い、実証的観点からはフランス語で制作された2本のケベック映画における文化要素の日本語字幕と英語字幕の訳出の比較分析を行っている。つまり、全体的な言語文化的現実の具体的な表れとみなされる文化要素が日・英両言語でどのように訳されているかを比較することにより、言語文化的距離が翻訳過程に及ぼす影響を理解しようと努めている。

- by Etienne Lehoux-Jobin
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- Translation Studies, Japanese Language And Culture, English, Québec Studies

Purpose – The purpose of our master thesis is to investigate contextual antecedents to Cultural Intelligence development. Particularly, we assess the ability of cultural distance to predict Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient scores.... more

- by Cecilie Larsen
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- Cultural Intelligence, Cultural Distance

Institutions of higher education are increasingly utilizing international education programs (Institute of International Education, 2014), also known as “study abroad” in the USA, especially as a mechanism for increasing students’ cross-cultural awareness (e.g., Marx & Moss, 2011; Salisbury, 2011). The literature on and implementation of such programs does not fully consider two critical issues: the socio-emotional impact of study abroad on participants (i.e., the culture shock they experience), and the relation of cultural identities, such as race, gender, and class, to students’ experiences while abroad. To address this issue, I investigated the ways in which students’ experiences of culture shock were connected to their identity related to race, gender, and class. I used a concurrent mixed methods research design that entailed collecting and analyzing three sets of data: arts-based (self-portraits and students’ reflections on their portraits), qualitative (observations, interviews, and students’ reflections), and quantitative (Revised Cultural Distance Index, a self-rating for culture shock, and demographic information). I collected the data from a sample of students (n =14) who participated in the Ecuador: Immersed in Culture and Education program, which was a short-term program where students taught in indigenous primary schools in Ecuador after a semester-long course.
I found that students experienced a range of amounts of culture shock, that it manifested differently for students across race, gender, and class, and that students enacted varying strategies to cope with their culture shock (and the culture shock of others) while on the trip. Whereas students of color were cognizant of how they portrayed themselves and their culture shock to others from the beginning, white students became more conscious of their self-images after being in Ecuador due in part to feeling like a minority for the first time. For white students from affluent backgrounds, their culture shock tended to be more intense and manifested in complaints and repeated use of words such as “small” to describe themselves in their self-portraits. Students of color and working class white students generally experienced less culture shock quantitatively, but experienced their own culture shock in witnessing their white affluent peers’ complaints. As a result, these students chose to segregate themselves. All of the students sought out like-peers across race and class to find comfort and manage their culture shock. I also found that two students made intentional choices about their gender performance as a strategy to manage their culture shock in relation to their interactions with Ecuadorians. Finally, I found that students’ limited understanding of culture shock and gender impacted how they quantified their culture shock and analyzed their experiences based on gender.
As a result of these findings, I argue for a more expansive view of culture shock that gives more emphasis to the impact of cross-cultural relationships among students while they are abroad. For the students in this study, their manifestations and strategies to adapt to culture shock were intertwined with their perceptions of others across race, gender, and class. I also conclude that international programs must critically engage with cross-cultural issues both in terms of the content of pre-departure training/coursework as well as in terms of the relationships between students in the program. I also argue for training leaders and students in how to identify and manage culture shock. I also discuss some methodological implications for this research, my positionality, and future research.

Purpose-This article aims at offering and validating a theory-driven conceptualization of the cultural distance index. Design/methodology/approach-First, the cultural distance index is conceptualized, its conceptual properties are discussed, and a generic formula is proposed. Subsequently, the generic formula is applied to Schwartz's and Hofstede's frameworks. Finally, using the new formula the cultural distance is calculated, its robustness is examined, and its advantages over the Kogut and Singh's measure are inspected. Findings-Through this paper it is found that by considering issues such as cultural dimensions' alignment and their relative weight, it is possible to build a more accurate index of cultural distance. Moreover, based on the generic formula it is understood that collectivism/individualism and power distance in Hofstede's framework and conservatism, egalitarianism in Schwartz's model are important cultural dimensions and account for a considerable weight in the cultural distance index. Research limitations/implications-The index is based on cultural dimensions and naturally it carries all shortcomings attributed to dimensionalization such as symmetry, linearity, stability and causality. In addition, it can be recognized that while alignment is a legitimate method, it should be interpreted cautiously because cultural dimensions are essentially nebulous concepts. Practical implications-Researchers may use the proposed index to test the implications of cultural differences for a wide range of cross-national issues such as joint ventures, entry mode choices, mergers, negotiations, organizational behavior, and technology transfer. Originality/value-This article offers a novel and theory-driven approach to building the cultural distance index. Considering the popularity of the Kogut and Singh's index in international business, the paper is of major significance.

- by K Hamid Yeganeh
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- Cultural Distance, Cultural Dimensions

Özet: Bu çalışmada, doğrudan yabancı yatırımların (DYY) giriş stratejilerini betimleme ve açıklama amaçlarına kültürel kuram izlenerek ulaşılmaya çalışılacaktır. Giriş stratejisi (mülkiyet yapısı) sadece ekonomik, finansal ve pazar koşulları gibi temel faktörler ile değil, onları da çevreleyen toplumsal kültür ve kültürler arası farklılıklar bağlamında ele alınacaktır. Ancak, toplumsal kültürün etkisi, DYY' ların sahiplik yapılarını etkileyen tek değişken değildir. Yabancı sermayeli işletmelerin mülkiyet yapısı, DYY' ın örgütsel değişkenleri ve faaliyette bulunduğu endüstriyel ortam gibi birçok faktöre bağlı bir fonksiyon olarak değerlendirilebilmektedir. Bu amaçla, kültürel mesafe ile örgütsel ve endüstriyel kontrol değişkenlerinin, DYY' ların mülkiyet oranları üzerindeki etkilerini incelemeye yönelik bir dizi varsayım geliştirilmekte ve bu varsayımlar YASED' den elde edilen ikincil veriler ışığında logit analizi ile test edilmektedir. Aynı zamanda bu çalışma kapsamında, yabancı çokuluslu yatırımcıların, çoğunluk dünya veya gelişmiş ülke kökenli olmalarının, Türkiye' deki yatırımlarında tercih ettikleri giriş stratejilerine nasıl yansıdığı sorusuna da yanıt aranmaya çalışılmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Giriş stratejisi (mülkiyet yapısı), kültürel mesafe, doğrudan yabancı yatırım, gelişmiş ülke, çoğunluk dünya, Türkiye. Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the entry strategies (ownership structure) of foreign direct investments (FDI) by way of cultural perspective. Not only the basic factors such as economical, financial and market conditions, but also the cross-cultural and social culture differences are taken into consideration in order to explain the concept of entry strategies. Nevertheless, the effect of social culture is not the only factor relating to the entry strategies of the FDI. The ownership structure of foreign investment enterprises are dependent upon many other factors deriving from the natures of organization and the endustrial environment in which they function. Therefore, a number of hypothesis relating to the effects of the cultural distance, and organizational and industrial control factors on the ownership of the FDI have been developed. And then, they are analysed with logit regression in light of the secondary data reported by YASED. In this context, the effects of the origin country of multinational partner on the entry strategies of the FDI in Turkey is also discussed.

- by TULAY ILHAN
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- Cultural Distance, Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ), Entry Strategies

Interethnic friendships between students are important for harmonious intercultural rela- tions at school. Drawing on research on intergroup contact and cultural distance between immigrant and non-immigrant groups, we examined how structural and normative condi- tions in the classroom context are associated with friendships between early adolescents with and without an immigrant background in ethnically heterogeneous schools. The sam- ple comprised 842 students (Mage = 11.50 years, SDage = .71; 53% male) attending multiethnic schools in Southwest Germany.
Results revealed that perceived positive contact norms in class and perceived cultural distance predicted friendships between immigrant and non-immigrant students in both groups, even when the ethnic composition of the classroom was taken into account. The associations were largely the same for immigrants and non-immigrants. We conclude that interventions to foster interethnic friendships should aim to reduce perceptions of cultural distance and monitor and improve contact norms in intergroup settings.

- by Maja Schachner and +2
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- Intergroup Relations, Intergroup Contact, Cultural Diversity, Germany

This paper investigates the influence of cultural distance, geographical distance, and three market size variables to the target country preference of SMEs in the software industry. In addition, we examine the shift of priorities in SMEs’ country selection by analyzing how these factors impact the selection of the first, second, and third target countries. Empirical findings of this study suggest that almost 70% of country choices can be explained by software market size and geographical distance alone. The findings adduced also that entry priority of SMEs shifts very fast from countries within a short geographical distance to countries with high purchasing power and within a greater geographical distance. Relations of these macro-level factors are discussed and compared to earlier qualitative and conceptual studies in this field. Implications for managers are also provided.

- by Arto Ojala
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- International Business, SME, Internationalization, International Marketing

The increasing number of students that study abroad calls for a deeper examination of the implications of studying abroad (OECD, 2013). Previous studies have found that students gain short-term benefit from studying abroad (Youtie, Rogers, Heinze, Shapira, & Tang, 2013). Findings on the long-term effects have been mixed (Dwyer, 2004; Rexeisen, Anderson, & Lawton, 2008). I examine whether studying abroad can help academics to tackle the challenge of having to publish continuously. To explain why studying abroad is beneficial for the academic publication success, I apply the career capital theory (Defillippi & Arthur, 1994). Using 141 CVs collected from triple accredited European business schools, I examined the overall effects of studying abroad on academic publication success first. Then, I looked at the nested effects of cultural distance and the academic degree abroad. Overall, studying abroad did not show a significant effect. A master or PhD studies abroad did not show a significant effect either and neither did the cultural distance between home and host country. Contrary to expectations, studying abroad during the bachelor studies had a negative effect on academic career success. These results brings up several questions: Do the previously observed benefits of studying abroad translate into career success (e.g. Milstein, 2005; Salisbury, 2011)? Why can bachelor studies abroad can harm a career? When is studying abroad beneficial for the academic career as found by Youtie et al. (2013)? Maybe the most important question is: should we keep sending students abroad en masse (OECD, 2013)?

- by Job Achterkamp
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- Culture, Early career academics, Students, Cultural Distance

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of 'rapport management' by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers' pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

This article aims at offering a weighted, Mahalanobian, and asymmetrical approach to calculating national cultural distance. The proposed approach improves upon the major shortcomings of Kogut-Singh's Index and explains the inconsistent and curvilinear effects of cultural distance as found in previous research. Using this new approach, the national cultural distances for Hofstede's and GLOBE's frameworks are calculated, the theoretical and methodological implications are discussed, and avenues for future research are proposed. Furthermore, for the use of future researchers, the cross-cultural weighted Mahalabonian distances for Hofstede's and GLOBE's data are reported in separate annexes.

- by K Hamid Yeganeh
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- Culture, International Mangement, Cultural Distance, Cultural Values

The core puzzle in entrepreneurship studies is entrepreneurial opportunities (Suddaby, Bruton, & Si, 2015). In enhancing the understanding of entrepreneurial opportunities, this research explores how cultural similarities and differences between countries influence entrepreneurial activities in a selected host country. This study focuses on the experiences of ethnic migrant entrepreneurs (EMEs) from three migrant sending countries: Indonesia, Pakistan and South Korea (Korea hereafter), in a single host country, Malaysia. Cultural distance (CD) (Kogut & Singh, 1988) calculated using Hofstede’s (2015) indices is employed as a construct to illustrate cultural similarities and differences of country pairings, in which Indonesia as a country is most culturally similar to Malaysia, followed by Pakistan and Korea. The institutional approach (North, 1990; Scott, 2014) frames this study, particularly through North’s (1990, 2005) classification of formal and informal institutions, combined with Scott’s (1995, 2014) conceptualisation of regulative, normative and cognitive institutional pillars. The Forms of Capital model (Bourdieu, 1983; Nee & Sanders, 2001; Vershinina, Barrett, & Meyer, 2011) and the concept of entrepreneurial opportunities (Eckhardt & Shane, 2003; Shane, 2000, 2003; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000) provide complementing theoretical and conceptual basis for this research. Views from the field of ethnic migrant entrepreneurship are incorporated to deepen the contextualised understanding of this study. The rich and in-depth findings of the research are a result of adopting a qualitative approach employing multiple case studies (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2014), enabling a real-life investigation of the context based on detailed narratives (Flyvbjerg, 2006). The three migrant-sending countries are represented as three case studies for this research. This study relied on primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data were obtained from interviews with 32 EMEs in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Additionally, eight supplementary interviews were held with home country trade leaders in the host country, embassy representatives, community leaders and a trade representative from the host country’s official trade agency arm of the government. Secondary data sources, such as trade reports, business directories, community-based magazines and newspapers and websites, were used throughout the research for verification of interviewees’ statements where appropriate. The results of this study indicated that cultural similarities influence ethnic migrant entrepreneurship activities within three aspects: the institutional environment of the host country, sources of key business support and the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. This study produced several propositions which can enrich the discussion on entrepreneurship in international settings. This research offers (a) a link in connecting the institutional-individual gap in discussing entrepreneurship through an institutional lens and (b) a more balanced view of culture in researching international business. As a growing field in international business, researchers are recommended to study underexplored countries, such as Malaysia, in assisting them in examining the selected entrepreneurship phenomenon (Terjesen, Hessels, & Li, 2016). Practice-wise, international entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs across borders will find this study beneficial for future undertakings of international ventures and this research will be useful for policymakers in tailoring trade-related policies in relation to the potential contributions of migration

- by Hamizah Abd Hamid
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- Entrepreneurship, Institutional Theory, Malaysia, Culture

- by K Hamid Yeganeh
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- Cross-Cultural Studies, Cultural Distance

As China continues to expand its outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)
in countries along the “Belt and Road,” Chinese investment enterprises face an increasingly complex
external environment, in which the influence
of institutional distance and cultural distance has become more prominent. According to China’s
OFDI panel data of 94 countries from 2003 to 2017,
especially the data of 61 countries along with the “Belt and Road,” this study demonstrates that
institutional distance, in general, promotes China’s OFDI to countries along the “Belt and Road,”
whereas cultural distance
inhibits OFDI. Moreover, the inhibition effect of cultural distance is signifi- cantly more
substantial than the promotion effect of institutional distance, indicating that cultural distance
is more important than institutional dis-
tance. Also, the promotion and inhibition effects are generally consistent with each other in
different periods, but they are different due to the
imbalance of economic development among the countries. In the subdiv- ision dimension,
institutional distance like Control of Corruption, Voice, and Accountability, and cultural
distance like Masculinity vs. Femininity,
Uncertainty Avoidance, and long-term vs. short-term Orientation exert more significant influences
on China’s OFDI than the other subdivision
dimensions. Therefore, China should pay special attention to the invest- ment effect of specific
dimensions of institutional distance and cultural dis- tance in promoting the “Belt and Road,” and
continuously optimize the
investment layout along the “Belt and Road” in the future.

Although the conceptual toolbox of translation studies (TS) has grown more and more inclusive in recent decades and despite the great variety of spatial metaphors that have been used for translation through the ages, explicit discussions of the seemingly obvious idea of distance (linguistic, cultural, temporal, etc.) are scarce in the TS literature. Why, then, should the concept now be given any thought? When I started translating from both English and Japanese into French, I soon noticed the differences between the two practices. In trying to generalize the problem beyond the case of these three languages, I quickly became interested in the concept of distance, especially linguistic and cultural, and in the effects it has on translation. In short, is distance a factor that influences translating and thus translations? As naïve as the question may seem, it is genuinely thorny as some will dismiss it right away for lack of relevance, while others will answer without hesitation in the affirmative, or in the negative. Moreover, in reading TS texts, I have noticed that although distance is quite often evoked and even invoked, paradoxically, it is rarely defined, objectified or problematized, it does not have the status of “concept” in the discipline, and very few studies overtly make use of it. Yet, I believe it is precisely the countless differences between languages and cultures—which I think of as a whole and refer to as distance—that make translation not only necessary but, above all, possible. However, while I am confident that translation is always achievable no matter the breadth of the gap to be bridged, this does not mean that the processes and the products will be “equivalent.” On a broader level, distance manifests itself in a wealth of relationships found at the very heart of translation: between languages and cultures, of course, but also between regions, periods, societies, audiences, texts, people, etc. I thus think the concept can be put to work and operationalized in various ways to better understand or explain a wide array of areas and phenomena germane to translation (language learning and teaching, machine translation, global translation flows, etc.), well beyond the “narrow” act of translating. I therefore aim to argue not only that the concept of distance (especially between languages and cultures) is relevant to translation (studies), but also that its thorough consideration is long overdue. [...]

- by Etienne Lehoux-Jobin
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- Translation Studies, Subtitling, Cultural Distance, Linguistic Distance

This paper analyses a study of the influence of “cultural distance” on the internationalisation of Spanish hotel companies. To define “cultural distance” we rely on Gesteland’s model which allows measurement of this for each destination. Interpretation of the behaviour of people in a given country involves certain especially relevant variables. We refer to the variables deal-focus or relationship-focus cultures, formal or informal cultures, rigid-time or fluid-time cultures and expressive or reserved cultures. As a goal, we propose to discover if these have a measurable influence, how “cultural distance” affects choice of a destination at which to internationalise a chain, and if countries chosen by Spanish hoteliers are more culturally compatible with Spain. The results of this study support the conclusion that cultural distance should be taken into account in studies of internationalisation of hotels.

(http://www.ajeqsite.org/doc_taikai/2020taikai_programme.pdf) /// 芸術的見地からすれば、ケベックは、文学、演劇、音楽はもちろん、映画によっても世界的に知られている。ケベック映画は、長いこと国際舞台において華々しい成功を収めてきた。しかし、日本におけるケベック映画の状況はどうなっているだろうか？一方、大多数の日本人がケベック映画を鑑賞するのは字幕を通してなので、翻訳の役割は重要である。では、ケベック映画の日本語字幕翻訳には、どのような課題があるだろうか？この二つの問いに答えるために、本報告は二部構成としたい。 /// Au point de vue artistique, le Québec est connu aux quatre coins du monde entre autres pour sa littérature, son théâtre et sa musique, mais également pour son cinéma qui remporte depuis longtemps un vif succès sur la scène internationale. Cela dit, qu'en est-il de la présence du cinéma québécois en terre nippone? Par ailleurs, puisque c'est par l'intermédiaire des sous-titres que la vaste majorité du public japonais accède au cinéma québécois, le rôle de la traduction s'avère fondamental. Or, quel défi représente le sous-titrage des films québécois en japonais? Afin de répondre à ces deux questions, notre communication sera divisée en deux parties.

- by Etienne Lehoux-Jobin
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- Traductologie, Cultural Distance, Japon, Cinéma québécois