A First Step on the Road to EMEMUS: Using ROAD-MAPPING at an Austrian Business University

This chapter presents a study which investigated multicultural student teamwork on an English-medium marketing master programme in Vienna. This project was the first major study to use ROAD-MAPPING as an integral part of the analytical approach, first, as the guiding structure for the conceptual framework and, second, as the meta-level methodological guidelines for discussing the findings. The holistic and dynamic nature of the ROAD-MAPPING framework made it possible to examine the setting from macro, meso and micro perspectives, while zooming in on the Practices and Processes dimension. With a focus on how the students negotiate business content and develop a community of practice within their teams, the study combines etic and emic approaches, synthesising an interactional analysis of the students’ teamwork with reflective interviews.

The study confirmed the robustness of the ROAD-MAPPING construct as a means to illuminate the multi-layered and multifaceted nature of the international university setting. At the same time, the study showed that it was necessary to adapt the conceptualisation of some of the dimensions to fit the individual context and highlight certain key aspects better. Nevertheless, the study also revealed that one of the framework's major strengths is the balance it offers between flexibility and structure.