ABSTRACT
While the proliferation of scholarship on cross-cultural management (CCM) has offered important insights on myriad aspects of the phenomenon, the research domain has largely been predicated on a positivist orientation. This chapter provides an overview of positivism in CCM research. It provides a discussion of Geert Hofstede’s legacy in CCM research as one explanation for the intellectual hegemony that positivism currently enjoys in the field. The chapter examines some of the recent work in the area focusing particularly on the undergirding positivist predilection in CCM research. It then discusses the emerging body of research from the critical tradition that has effectively used various strands of critical theory and interpretive methodologies to conceptualize CCM issues. The chapter also focuses on Michel Foucault’s idea of genealogy to provide one alternative for pursuing future research in CCM, while concurrently repudiating the underlying ethos of positivism.
