It’s personal: The emotional dimension of psychic distance perception in intercultural knowledge transfer
Qiu Wang,
Jeremy Clegg,
Hanna Gajewska-De Mattos and
Peter J. Buckley
International Business Review, 2023, vol. 32, issue 5
Abstract:
Psychic distance (PD) is a perceived obstacle to information flows in knowledge transfer between individuals in different national markets. However, the impact of individuals’ subjective perceptions of macro-level distance factors disrupting these flows has been undertheorized. Prior research has conceptualized PD as a geospatial concept – symmetric, continuous and stable over time. Using appraisal theory and a qualitative study of a Chinese multinational, we analyse individual-level psychic distance stimuli. We examine how perceived psychic distance is impacted in the appraisal of personal concerns, triggering salient emotions in the process of individual’s cross-border interactions. Our key contribution is to trace and explain how individual-level psychic distance is created in intercultural knowledge transfer. We theorize that it is created by a psychological mechanism involving emotionally charged processes of individuals coping with concerns arising from emotional encounter. We find that conventional macro-level psychic distance is moderated by the emotions of individuals.
Keywords: Psychic distance; Emotion; Intercultural knowledge transfer; Chinese MNE; Managerial and employee perceptions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593123000677
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iburev:v:32:y:2023:i:5:s0969593123000677
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/133/bibliographic
DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2023.102167
Access Statistics for this article
International Business Review is currently edited by P. Ghauri
More articles in International Business Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).