Rethinking Ethnocentrism in International Business Research

Abstract

Research summary For nearly five decades, international business (IB) research in general and the literature on organizational design and staffing of multinationals in particular have treated ethnocentrism mainly as an adverse attribute. Limited attention has been paid to the disciplines that originally established the concept—anthropology, sociology, and psychology. These disciplines have examined ethnocentrism as a positive, neutral, or negative phenomenon with a complex hierarchical structure. IB literature, in turn, has almost exclusively adopted a negative view, suggesting that ethnocentrism hinders adoption of a global strategy. This article borrows insights from the three base disciplines to rethink the concept of ethnocentrism in IB research and to draw implications for global strategy research. The article also calls for a more careful borrowing of concepts from other disciplines. Managerial summary This article is about ethnocentrism. Ethnocentric people tend to believe that their group, organization, culture, or ethnicity is superior to others. Ethnocentrism can exist in international business, for instance, where home country staff consider themselves superior to foreign staff in other countries. In international business research, ethnocentrism is usually considered undesirable, something that should be eliminated. However, sociology, anthropology, and psychology, where the concept was originally established, have adopted a wider, far more nuanced and intellectually richer view that also acknowledges the neutrality and benefits of ethnocentrism. We draw on this more refined view to rethink ethnocentrism in international business and show implications for global strategy research.

Expatriate utilization, subsidiary knowledge creation and performance: The moderating role of subsidiary strategic context

“…Because they have the same nationality, similar experiences in their home country and the host country, the same language, and wide communication channels within the MNC network, expatriates in a subsidiary may share a strong identity as members of the expatriate group (Chang et al, 2012;Fang et al, 2010;Gonzalez & Chakraborty, 2014;Sanchez et al, 2000). Since an expatriate group tends to show collective attitudes and behavioral patterns in each subsidiary based on a common ingroup identity and shared experiences (Michailova et al, 2017), we believe that there might be collective dimensions of expatriate utilization. In this study, expatriate utilization is measured by eight items consistent with the expatriate utilization scale originally developed by Wang et al (2009).…”

“…We argue that although there are various alternative international assignees including, third-country expatriates, home-country expatriates still tend to play a major role in carrying out MNCs' internationalization strategy at subsidiaries, transferring knowledge between HQ and subsidiaries (Bonache & Brewster, 2001;Colakoglu, Tarique, & Caligiuri, 2009;Fang et al, 2010;Harzing et al, 2016) and gaining access to, and mobilizing, host country specific knowledge assets (Delios & Björkman, 2000). Particularly for Japanese MNCs, there is still a strong tendency of ethnocentric staffing for key subsidiary positions (Chung & Furusawa, 2016;Michailova et al, 2017). 8 However, we acknowledge that examining the effects of different types of international assignments on subsidiary knowledge creation across various strategic contexts merits further attention in future research.…”

Gender in international business journals: A review and conceptualization of MNCs as gendered social spaces

“…It demonstrates how exclusion of women and ethnic minorities is not necessarily a result of negative perceptions of these social groups per se (cf. Michailova, Piekkari, Storgaard & Tienari, 2017), but of active preference for and inclusion of specific groups within circuits of homo-and ethno-social relations behind the façade of meritocracy (Holgersson et al, 2016).…”

The Influence of Consumer Ethnocentrism on Consumer Purchase Intention of Domestic Food Products

“…In 1906, the ethnocentrism concept was originally commenced by a sociologist named William Sumner (a Polish Jew working in Austria-Hungary) (Bizumic, 2018;Han & Guo, 2018;Park & Yoon, 2017). He saw ethnocentrism as a misconception that influences people to believe that their ethnic group is superior and more important than other ethnic groups and that all other ethnic groups are not as good as their own (Bizumic, 2018;Michailova, Piekkari, Storgaard, & Tienari, 2017;Park & Yoon, 2017;Siamagka & Balabanis, 2015;Souiden, Ladhari, & Chang, 2018). Sumner defined ethnocentrism as; "when one's own group is seen as the center and a reference for all others" (Bizumic, 2018;Che Aniza Che et al, 2018;das & Saha, 2017).…”

“…Therefore, the focal features of ethnocentrism comprise pride in local culture and perception of the imperfection of all other cultures (Siamagka & Balabanis, 2015). Ethnocentrism in developed countries is more applicable because of the tendency of the individuals to assess their made in product as of higher quality (das & Saha, 2017;Lobo, Qing, & Chongguang, 2012;Michailova et al, 2017;Park & Yoon, 2017) and the reverse is applicable in developing countries (Lobo et al, 2012).…”