The Effect of Emotional and Cultural Intelligences on Networks’ Behaviors in International SMEs: Evidence from Portugal

Abstract

The major purpose of this research was to study the predictive value of the top managers’ psychological characteristics regarding their networking behavior. In the international business management context of small- and medium-sized enterprises, we took the top managers’ cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence as determinant capabilities to perform better in their external networking. The sample was composed of 307 Portuguese SMEs’ international decision-makers, specifically founders, owners, chief executive officers (CEOs), managers of international activities, international market managers, or commercial managers. The data was collected from 2–30 April 2019 through online surveys directed to the Portuguese decision-makers that were directly responsible for the firms’ international activities. As a data collection instrument, the surveys were pretested and sent by e-mail. The average age of the participants was approximately 50 years old for males and 45 years old for females. We used self-reported measures to assess the different constructs and the hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. The results showed that cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence were significant drivers of decision-makers’ external networking behavior. A new factor structure concerning external networking behavior was retained. The major results exhibited the predictive value of some cultural and emotional intelligence dimensions over the new retained external networking behavior factors. Therefore, in the international business management context, the capability to adapt to new cultural contexts, as well as the capability to reason about emotions, improved the international decision-makers’ external networking behavior.

The role of workplace friendship in cultural intelligence and quality of work-life: A cross-sectional study

“…Preliminary data analysis used descriptive statistical procedures that included central tendency and Pearson's moment correlation. Regression analysis (complemented with the PROCESS tool for SPSS (Field, 2018;Hayes, 2018) was used to test hypotheses, as it is used substantially in related studies (Cabral et al, 2020;He et al, 2019). Regression is a parametric statistical test; therefore, the design and preliminary data analysis observed several assumptions associated with its usage.…”

“…Like other forms of intelligence, such as emotional and social, CI is a valuable development aspect through education, training, and experience (Raver & Van Dyne, 2018). Earley and Ang (2003)introduced the concept to disciplines in social and management sciences by offering a model of four dimensions: metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioural, which is widely adopted in the literature (Cabral et al, 2020;Fan et al, 2020;Wujiabudula & Karatepe, 2020). However, more recently, Thomas et al (2015) introduced a model of three facets (cultural knowledge, cross-cultural skills, and cultural metacognition) that was adopted in this study as it was theoretically based and, therefore, an improvement on Earley and Ang's (2003) model.…”

Shared Leadership and Improvisation: Dual Perspective of Cognition-Affection

“…EI enables team members to flexibly use emotional resources in dynamic and complex innovative activities and propose new ideas according to different situations, which is conducive to the continuous generation of improvisation. In this process, EI will strengthen the exchange of team members’ ideas and information with other members in a shared and interactive attitude and can also effectively promote them to take the initiative to implement improvisation [ 46 ].…”

“…Meanwhile, EI encourages team members to be more creative and keeps team members engaged in a continuous positive state [ 36 , 45 ]. Positive traits make such individuals more focused on problem-solving rather than reasoning about problems, which can make sure that team members are constantly thinking and using more flexible solutions when faced with unexpected problems [ 26 , 46 ].…”

A Machine Learning Assisted Study Exploring Hormonal Influences on Entrepreneurial Opportunity Behaviour

“…Similarly, Klein (2008) and Berglund (2007) explained that cognitive and social interpretations influence entrepreneurs to evaluate partially developed opportunities. Cabral et al (2020), Korsgaard (2013), and Chiasson and Saunders (2005) further explained that as entrepreneurs engage in social exchange with COI, they develop opportunity beliefs and make structural, cognitive and emotional adjustments. Shedding light on the COI influence, Choi et al (2008) argued that the intensity of interaction determines the level of learning and knowledge the potential entrepreneur gains from the inquiry process.…”