Problems and weaknesses of cross-cultural research

This chapter explains the manifold problems of cross-cultural research and presents solutions to them. One major problem is the inadequate unit of analysis, which has many facets and is described in detail. Specifically, researchers equate nation with culture (which is problematic in case of rather heterogeneous nations), examine “available” cultures (i.e., their home countries), compare a small number of cultures only (mostly two), or use suboptimal sampling methods (e.g., convenience samples that are not comparable). Other problems are equivalence (of data collection, constructs, measurement scales), spurious correlations because cultural values may be confounded with other variables such as religion, the presentation of significant differences that only occur due to a large sample size, the negligence of culture-specific response tendencies (e.g., different proneness to the tendency of the middle), and the value paradox (i.e., presuming that culturally-conforming consumer behavior is always desirable).