Using Cultural Archetypes in Cross-cultural Management Studies

Studies examining the effects of culture on intentions and behaviors within organizations, as well as of related cross-cultural differences, often focus on either the direct or moderating effect of single cultural value dimensions, or on the moderating effect of country as a proxy of culture. However, culture is i) a multidimensional construct that ii) does not necessarily entirely correspond to particular countries. Disregarding these realities means turning a blind eye to the possibility of more complex interrelationships between various cultural dimensions, or to the possibility of cultural diversity within countries. This paper advocates the use of cultural archetypes in cross-cultural management studies. The use of cultural archetypes represents a configuration approach to studying culture that incorporates a holistic pattern of multiple cultural dimensions. We utilize individual-level data from 10 countries and identify six cultural archetypes that are present in all these countries. Drawing on an illustrative example of culture's effect on entrepreneurial intention, we propose that a cultural archetype approach can be more suitable for analyzing cross-cultural effects than conventional approaches.