Brewer, Paul

Venaik, Sunil

University of Queensland eSpace

 
 
 
Proceedings of the  
 
54th Annual Meeting 
 
of the  
 
 
 
Academy of International Business 
 
 
" Rethinking the Roles of Business, Government and  
NGOs in the Global Economy " 
 
 
Washington, DC, USA 
June 30-July 3, 2012 
 
 
 
Editors 
Susan Feinberg, Program Chair 
Tunga Kiyak, AIB Managing Director 
 
 
 
  
 
(c) 2012 Academy of International Business 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Proceedings of the 
54th Annual Meeting 
of the 
Academy of International Business 
"Rethinking the Roles of Business, Government and NGOs in the Global Economy" 
Washington, DC, USA 
June 30-July 3, 2012 
 
ISSN: 2078-0435 
 
© 2012 Academy of International Business 
 
 
For more information, please contact: 
AIB Executive Secretariat 
G. Tomas M. Hult, Executive Director, or 
Tunga Kiyak, Managing Director 
Eppley Center 
465 N. Shaw Ln Rm 7 
Michigan State University 
East Lansing, MI 48824, USA 
Phone: +1 (517) 432-1452 •  Fax: +1 (517) 432-1009 
E-mail: aib@aib.msu.edu •  Web: http://aib.msu.edu/ 
 
SUNDAY 
 
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings 
 
conditions as well as contextual factors.  We stress the importance of examining a multitude of factors in 
understanding what predicts DMNCs' international learning and under what conditions the learning will facilitate 
international growth. (For more information, please contact: Fiona Xiaoying Ji, Kean University, USA: 
xji@kean.edu) 
 
 
Emerging Market Firms Competing in Other Emerging Markets: Beyond Institutional Voids 
Venkat  Subramanian, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School 
Nikhil  Celly, University of Hong Kong 
 
Academic research on emerging markets (EM), emerging market companies and their internationalization has  
increased in recent years. Much of the work though has been about the attractiveness of emerging markets to 
many developed market MNCs, and the threats to the established MNCs in their home markets.    The focus of 
this paper is exploring the factors that influence success in the market-seeking activities of emerging market 
firms into other emerging markets. We advance the concept of institutional arbitrage  to explain emerging 
market firm competiveness in other EMs, introduce the concept of industry voids and propose that both 
institutional and industry conditions in  home and host countries explain the potential likelihood of success of 
EM firms in emerging markets. Further, we argue that this potential success is only realized through business 
model innovation. We draw on examples of firms from the Indian market across a range of industries to 
illustrate the validity of our propositions and conceptual model.    We suggest that EM MNEs may need to 
develop or possess a dynamic capability that enables them to innovate upon their existing business models 
developed in their home countries to truly take advantage of similar institutional and industry conditions in other 
emerging markets. (For more information, please contact: Venkat Subramanian, Vlerick Leuven Gent 
Management School, Belgium: venkat@vlerick.com) 
 
 
Session: 1.5.13 - Interactive 
Track:  9 - Cross-cultural Management and HRM 
 
Culture at the National and Individual Level 
 
Presented On: July 1, 2012 - 16:15-17:30 
 
Chair: William Stopford Harvey, University of Sydney  
 
National Culture versus Individual Culture: The Importance of the Ecological Fallacy 
Paul Brewer, University of Queensland 
Sunil Venaik, University of Queensland 
 
This article challenges the understanding and use of the Hofstede and GLOBE national culture dimensions in 
much extant culture theory development. Both the Hofstede and GLOBE culture models are derived from 
individual survey data aggregated to, and analysed at, the national level. But culture scales that are correlated 
at the national (ecological) level will most likely not be at the individual level. To presume they are is known as 
the "ecological fallacy" in research literature. In spite of warnings, this fact has often been ignored by culture 
researchers. We analyse five research articles in top journals in general management, international business, 
marketing, accounting and operations and show that all five commit the ecological fallacy by projecting national 
level culture characteristics and associated scores onto individuals. The implications of this error are serious, 
and include the development of invalid culture theory and the persistence of false practitioner presumptions. 
We highlight the need for clarity and consistency in the interpretation and application of national culture 
constructs in future research. (For more information, please contact: Paul Brewer, University of Queensland, 
Australia: p.brewer@business.uq.edu.au) 
 
 
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National culture versus individual culture: The importance of the ecological fallacy

http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:278652/Brewer_Venaik_abstract_p94.pdf

National culture versus individual culture: The importance of the ecological fallacy

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