Scenario-Based Scales Measuring

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Scenario-Based Scales Measuring Cultural
Orientations of Business Owners Christine
Koenig, Holger Steinmetz, Michael Frese, Andreas
Rauch University of Giessen, Germany Zhong-Ming
Wang University of Zhejiang, China
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Introduction

• The scales differ from other scales commonly used
  in cross-cultural research
• Instead of measuring culture at the aggregate
  level, the scales measure cultural orientations
  at the individual level.
• Instead of being based on Likert items, the
  scales are based on scenarios.

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Individual-Level Measurement

• Cross-cultural studies on individual business
  owners should measure cultural orientations
  rather than culture.
• Cultural orientations are manifested in practices
  and values of individuals.
• Among the manifestation of cultural orientations,
  we consider practices to be more relevant for
  studying business owners than values.

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Individual-Level Measurement

• We are not aware of any cultural orientation
  scales measuring practices that are suitable for
  business owners.
• Therefore, we developed cultural orientation
  scales that measure the practices owners apply in
  their businesses.

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Individual-Level Measurement

• The scales measure seven cultural orientations
• uncertainty avoidance
• power distance
• collectivism
• assertiveness
• future orientation
• humane orientation
• performance orientation

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Scenario-Based Measurement

• Cultural orientations should be measured using
  scales based on scenarios rather than using
  scales based on Likert items.
• Likert items and scenarios differ in the
  measurement of cultural orientations.

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Scenario-Based Measurement

• Scales based on Likert items tend to hold lower
  cross-cultural validity than scales based on
  scenarios
• Likert items are more likely to be interpreted
  differently by people from different cultures
  than scenarios.
• Likert items are more affected by the reference
  group effect than scenarios.

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Development

• We developed the cultural orientation scales in a
  team of Chinese and German researchers.
• We created scenarios that consist of social
  situations and behavioral options.
• The social situations describe problems owners
  may encounter in their businesses.
• Each of the social situations represents one of
  the cultural orientations.

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Development

• The behavioral options describe behaviors owners
  may show to solve the problems.
• The first option represents of low score on the
  cultural orientation, whereas the second option
  represents a high score.
• Between the two behavioral options, there are two
  mirror-inverted three-point scales.

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Sample Scenario
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Participants

• Among the 461 owners who completed the scales,
  were 260 Chinese and 201 German owners.
• They were not only owners but also managers of
  their businesses and had at least one employee.
• Their businesses belonged to information
  technology, hotel and catering, automobile, or
  construction industry.

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Cross-Cultural Validation

• To ascertain whether the cultural orientation
  scales hold cross-cultural validity, we tested
  five forms of invariance
• configural invariance
• metric invariance
• scalar invariance
• factor variance invariance
• error invariance

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Configural Invariance

• The model of configural invariance comprised 23
  scenarios that measured the seven cultural
  orientations.

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Model
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Configural Invariance

• The model of configural invariance comprised 23
  scenarios that measured the seven cultural
  orientations.
• The model of configural invariance provided
  adequate fit (Chi2(418) 603.45 RMSEA .044
  CFI .94).

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Metric Invariance

• The factor loadings were constrained to be equal
  across the Chinese and the German samples.
• The model of full metric invariance achieved
  adequate fit (Chi2(434) 628.26 RMSEA .044
  CFI .93).

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Scalar Invariance

• The item intercepts were restricted to be equal
  across the Chinese and the German samples.
• The model of partial scalar invariance achieved
  adequate fit (Chi2(446) 641.92 RMSEA .044
  CFI .93).
• Given metric and scalar invariance, the means of
  the seven cultural orientations can be
  meaningfully compared across both samples
  (Steenkamp Baumgartner,1998).

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Factor Variance Invariance

• The factor variances were constrained to be equal
  across the Chinese and the German samples.
• The model of partial factor variance invariance
  provided adequate fit (Chi2(451) 646.71 RMSEA
  .044 CFI .93).
• Given metric and partial factor variance
  invariance, different covariances can be
  interpreted as different correlations for the
  remaining five cultural orientations (Marsh
  Hocevar, 1985).

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Error Variance Invariance

• The error variances were restricted to be equal
  across the Chinese and the German samples.
• The model of partial error variance invariance
  achieved adequate fit (Chi2(463) 664.85 RMSEA
  .044 CFI .93).
• Given metric and factor variance invariance, this
  result implies that the Chinese sample showed a
  lower reliability in half of the scenarios.

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Conclusion

• All five forms of invariance were at least
  partially supported.
• Given metric and scalar invariance, the means of
  the seven cultural orientations can be
  meaningfully compared across the Chinese and the
  German samples.
• Given metric and factor variance invariance,
  different covariances can be interpreted as
  different correlations except for uncertainty
  avoidance and assertiveness.
• Given metric invariance, regression coefficients
  can be compared across the Chinese and the German
  samples.

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Thank you very much for your attention.