Hype or hope? A new look at the research on cultural intelligence

By Fang Fang, Vidar Schei, Marcus Selart. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2018

140 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Cultural intelligence (CQ), the capability by which expatriates, managers, and others involved in cross-cultural interactions function effectively in a globalized world, was introduced in 2002 and has garnered wide attention recently. In this paper, we present a detailed and up-to-date review of 142 empirical articles in the CQ research field. We first examine the concept of CQ, including its definition, structure, measurement, and validity. We then review the vast number of empirical studies that investigate the antecedents, development, direct and indirect effects, moderating effects, and aggregated effects of CQ, as well as qualitative studies. The analysis shows several issues that likely will be relevant to the research debate in the near future. These issues include investigations of (1) whether cultural intelligence is universal or culture-specific, (2) why objective measures that assess CQ are lacking, (3) to what extent a person can develop cultural intelligence, (4) to what extent there are dark sides to cultural intelligence, and (5) the role cultural intelligence plays as a predictor of individual and group performance. Addressing these questions may help us reveal the true potential of CQ in contemporary organizations and thus, affirm that the promise of CQ is more than just hype.

Subfields: Communication, Political Science and International Relations, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/95ab25365c68418225c5135d80154338a6fcfcfe

How researchers see this paper

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In Communication

1. Nooria Yari
2. Erik Lankut
3. Ilan Alon
4. N. Richter
5. Kerri Anne Crowne

In Political Science and International Relations

1. Nooria Yari
2. Erik Lankut
3. Ilan Alon
4. N. Richter

In Social Psychology

1. Nooria Yari
2. Erik Lankut
3. Ilan Alon
4. N. Richter
5. Kerri Anne Crowne

Citations in the corpus

• Cultural intelligence, global mindset, and cross-cultural competencies: a systematic review using bibliometric methods (2020, background): “Fang et al. (2018) reviewed empirical research (142 publications) on CQ, building on a keyword search in the Web of Science (WoS) database (keyword: CQ in the topic or title, excluding, among others, articles in anthropology, biology, and medicine).”