The Antecedents of Psychic Distance

By Lars Håkanson, Björn Ambos. 2010

470 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study investigates the antecedents of psychic distance. Building on original data in 25 of the world's largest economies, we investigate potential drivers of perceived psychic distances to foreign countries. The results show these perceptions to be influenced by a range of cultural, geographic, political and economic factors. Among these, absolute geographic distance accounts for the largest share of the explained variance, suggesting that physical distance should be given a more prominent role when it comes to empirically investigating international business decisions for which psychic distance perceptions may be important. The findings also suggest that, used in isolation, 'cultural distance' - as measured by the so called Kogut and Singh index - is a poor predictor of such perceptions.

Subfields: Demography, Social Psychology, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/41d0a0ef65eeb6ebcace62aff434ed979bf45474

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Citations in the corpus

Added Psychic Distance Stimuli and MNE Performance: Performance Effects of Added Cultural, Governance, Geographic, and Economic Distance in MNEs' International Expansion (2014, unknown): “Combining our results with those of Håkanson and Ambos (2010) we are able to conclude that the performance effects of differences in PDS may reflect the degree to which the firm is aware of inter-country differences.”
Multinationals and corporate social responsibility in host countries: Does distance matter? (2011, unknown): “While the Kogut and Singh index has been criticized as problematic (Håkanson & Ambos, 2010; Shenkar, 2001; Tung & Verbeke, 2010), it remains the most widely used index for cultural distance.”
Gravity and culture in foreign portfolio investment (2012, background): “…with Beugelsdijk and Frijns (2010) whose geographic distance variable also rises when cultural variables are added, and it is congruent with Hakanson and Ambos (2010) who note that psychic distance is conceptually distinct from cultural distance, and that without a more intensive analysis…”
Widening the lens: Rethinking distance, diversity, and foreignness in international business research through positive organizational scholarship (2016, background): “…and other distance measures can be useful in gauging the differences across countries, a growing number of scholars (Berry, Guillén, & Zhou, 2010; Håkanson & Ambos, 2010; Tung & Verbeke, 2010; Zaheer et al., 2012) raise concerns about the frequent – and sometimes inappropriate – use of these…”
Distance without direction: Restoring credibility to a much-loved construct (2012, background): “argument, Håkanson and Ambos (2010) provide empirical evidence; their investigation into the antecedents of psychic distance both reveals asymmetries and hints at possible sources for them.”
Beyond Hofstede and GLOBE: Improving the quality of cross-cultural research (2010, methodology): “Håkanson and Ambos (2010) analyzed 148 empirical studies using the K-S index, an operational tool based on Hofstede’s cultural distance dimensions.”
Place-Oriented or People-Oriented Concepts for Destination Loyalty: Destination Image and Place Attachment versus Perceived Distances and Emotional Solidarity (2021, background): “Though the explicit link between cultural distance and emotional solidarity has not often been considered, Håkanson and Ambos (2010) argue that perceived cultural differences significantly impact how tourists understand and emotionally relate to residents they encounter while at the destination.”
Distance and Perceptions of Risk in Internationalization Decisions (2015, background): “Hence, when modeling internationalization decisions, scholars must consider the multidimensionality of distance (Aharoni et al., 2011; Håkanson & Ambos, 2010).”
Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship (2014, background): “While parsimonious constructs can be useful in gauging the differences across countries, the cultural distance construct, in particular, has come under increased scrutiny (Berry et al., 2010; Håkanson & Ambos, 2010; Shenkar, 2001; Tung & Verbeke, 2010).”
A Process-Based Explanation of the Psychic Distance Paradox: Evidence from Global Virtual Teams (2014, background): “…work, we expect ‘distances’ between the home and foreign country to result from the perceptions of national differences in various aspects such as business practices or the cultural, political, geographic, and/or economic environments (Child et al. 2009; Ghemawat 2001; Håkanson and Ambos 2010).”