Skip to main content

Response Style Differences in Cross-National Research

Dispositional and Situational Determinants

Management International Review volume 52, pages 341–363 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

  • International Management researchers often rely on surveys to collect their data. However, responses to survey questions can be biased by response styles, a respondent’s tendency to provide a systematic response to questions regardless of their content. Response styles vary across countries and individuals, but there is limited systematic research that investigateswhy they vary.

  • Our study investigates middle (MRS) versus extreme response styles (ERS), the tendency to use the middle or extreme categories on rating scales. We examine the impact of culture, different types of scale anchors and the level of knowledge of the topic in question on MRS and ERS.

  • We asked five groups of respondents (Chinese in China, Chinese in Australia, Anglo-Australians in Australia, and two groups of German students in Germany) to indicate on a 10-point scale whether certain employee attitudes or behaviour were more typically Australian (left-hand of the scale) or Chinese (right-hand of the scale). We then asked them how they would rate the performance (low to high on a 10-point scale) of an employee who displayed this attitude or behaviour.

  • Asian respondents showed higher MRS than Western respondents. When scale anchors referred to naturally opposing and mutually exclusive constructs (Australian versus Chinese) respondents showed more ERS than when they referred to level or degree of a construct (low-high performance). Knowledge of cross national differences resulted in higher ERS on behavioural questions but not on performance questions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Notes

  1. In retrospect we should probably have mentioned the country context in which respondents were expected to evaluate performance. However, we argue that in the absence of a country specification, respondents would have been most likely to evaluate performance in the context of their home country. This is likely to be true even for the Chinese students in Australia as researchers have found that values change slowly (see Hofstede,1980/2001 and Olivas-Luján et al.,2004).

  2. A reviewer suggested that standard deviation might not be the most appropriate way to measure extreme response styles as—theoretically—a respondent might display a very low standard deviation if he/she picked all of his/her responses at one end of the scale. We therefore reran our analyses reported below with a recoded variable that gave a score of + 2 for 1/10 scores, + 1 for 2/9 scores, 0 for 3/8, scores, −1 for 4/7 scores and −2 for 5/6 scores. Our results were identical to our analyses based on standard deviation, both in terms of relative ranking of the five data collection groups, and in terms of statistical significances between them.

References

  • Allik, J., & McCrae, R. R. (2004). Toward a geography of personality traits: Patterns of profiles across 36 cultures.Journal of Cross- Cultural Psychology, 35(1), 13–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner, H., & Steenkamp, J.-B. E. M. (2001). Response styles in marketing research: A cross-national investigation.Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 143–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bello, D., Leung, K., Radebaugh, R., Tung, R. L., & van Witteloostuijn, A. (2009). From the editors: Student samples in international business research.Journal of International Business Studies, 40(3), 361–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond, M. H., & Yang, K.-S. (1982). Ethnic affirmation versus cross-cultural accommodation. The variable impact of questionnaire language on chinese bilinguals from hong kong.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 13(2), 169–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brauer, M., Chambres, P., Niedenthal, P. M., & Chatard-Pannetier, A. (2004). The relationship between expertise and evaluative extremity: The moderating role of experts’ task characteristics.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 5–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, P. J., Devinney, T. M., & Louviere, J. J. (2007). Do managers behave the way theory suggests? A choice-theoretic examination of foreign direct investment location decision-making.Journal of international business studies, 38(7), 1069–1094.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chami-Castaldi, E., Reynolds, N., & Wallace, J. (2008). Individualised rating-scale procedure: A means of reducing response style contamination in survey data?The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6(1), 9–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C., Lee, S.-Y., & Stevenson, H. W. (1995). Response style and cross-cultural comparisons of rating scales among east asian and north american students.Psychological Science, 6(3), 170–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2000). Assessing extreme and acquiescence response sets in cross-cultural research using structural equations modelling.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31(2), 187–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chun, K.-T., Campbell, J. B., & Yoo, J. H. (1974). Extreme response style in crosscultural research.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 5(4), 465–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, I (2000). Extreme response style in cross-cultural research: An empirical investigation.Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 15(1), 137–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, I., III (2001). Extreme response style in cross-cultural research.International Marketing Review, 18(3), 301–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Couch, A., & Keniston, K. (1960). Yea-sayers and nay-sayers: Agreeing response set as a personality variable.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60(2), 151–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach, L. J. (1946). Response sets and test validity.Educational and Psychological Measurement, 6, 475–494.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dolnicar, S., & Grün, B. (2007). How constrained a response: A comparison of binary, ordinal and metric answer formats.Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 14(2), 108–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, R. (2004). Standardization to account for cross-cultural response bias: A classification of score adjustment procedures and review of research in JCCP.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35(3), 263–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao, G., Kao, K., & Ting-Toomey, S. (1998).Communicating effectively with the Chinese. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, J. L., Zellner, J. A., & Rudek, D. J. (1999). Effects of language and meaningfulness on the use of extreme response style by Spanish-English Bilinguals.Cross-Cultural Research, 33(4), 369–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenleaf, E. A. (1992). Measuring extreme response style.Public Opinion Quarterly, 56(3), 328–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, E. T. (1976).Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamamura, T., Heine, S. J., & Paulhus, D. L. (2008). Cultural differences in response styles:The role of dialectical thinking. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(4), 932–942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harzing, A. W. K. & 32 country collaborators (2005). The use of english questionnaires in cross-national research: Does cultural accommodation obscure National Differences?International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 5(2), 213–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harzing, A. W. K. (2006). Response styles in cross-national survey research: A 26-country study.International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 6(2), 243–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harzing, A. W. K. & 26 Collaborators (2009). Rating versus ranking: What is the best way to reduce response and language bias in cross-national research?International Business Review, 18(4), 417–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (1980).Cultures consequences. international differences in work-related values. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (2001).Cultures consequences, comparing values, behaviors institutions and organizations across nations, (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., & Gupta, V. (2004).culture, leadership, and organizations: The globe study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks: Sage

    Google Scholar 

  • Hui, C. H., & Triandis, H. C. (1989). Effects of culture and response format on extreme response style.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(3), 296–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, T. J., Kulesa, P., Cho, Y. I., & Shavitt, S. (2005). The relation between culture and response styles.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(2), 264–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, T., O’Rourke, D., Chavez, N., Sudman, S., Warnecke, R., Lacey, L., & Horm, J. (1997). Social cognition and responses to survey questions among culturally diverse populations. In L. Lyberg, P. Biemer, M. Collins, E. de Leeuw, C. Dippo, N. Schwarz, & D. Trewin (Eds.),Survey Measurement and Process Quality (pp. 87–113). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, C., & Green, R. T. (1991). Cross-cultural examination of the fishbein behavioral intentions model.Journal of International Business Studies, 25(2), 289–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leung, K., & Bond, M. H. (1989). On the empirical investigation of dimensions for cross-cultural comparisons.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(2), 133–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donovan, D. (1965). Rating extremity: Pathology or meaningfulness?Psychol Rev, 72(1965), 802.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olivas-Luján, M. R., Harzing, A. W. K., & McCoy, S. (2004). September 11, 2001: Two quasi-experiments on the influence of threats on cultural values and cosmopolitanism. InternationalJournal of Cross-Cultural Management, 4(2), 211–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peng, K., & Nisbett, R. E. (1999). Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction.American Psychologist, 54(9),741–754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, C. E., & Mirowsky, J. (1984). Socially desirable response and acquiescence in a cross-cultural survey of mental health.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 25(2), 189–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shiomi, K., & Loo, R. (1999). Cross-cultural response styles on the Kirton adaptation–innovation inventory.Social Behavior and Personality, 27(4), 413–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Si, S. X., & Cullen, J. B. (1998). Response categories and potential cultural bias: Effects of an explicit middle point in cross-cultural surveys.International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 6(3), 218–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P. B. (2004). Acquiescent response bias as an aspect of cultural communication style.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35(1), 50–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steenkamp, J. B. E. M., & Baumgartner, H. (1998). Assessing measurement invariance in cross-national consumer research.Journal of Consumer Research, 25(June), 78–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stening, B. W., & Everett, J. E. (1984). Response styles in a cross-cultural managerial study.Journal of Social Psychology, 122(2), 151–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi, K., Ohara, N., Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (2002). Commonalities and differences in close relationships among the Americans and Japanese: A comparison by the individualism/collectivism concept.International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26(5), 453–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trompenaars. (1997).Riding the waves of culture. Understanding cultural diversity in business. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Vijver, F. J. R. (2003). Bias and Substantive Analyses. In J. A. Harkness, F. J. R. van de Vijver, & P. P. Mohler (Eds.),Crosscultural Survey Methods ( pp. 207–234). Hoboken: Wiley.

  • van de Vijver, F. J. R., & Leung, K. (1997).Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Herk, H., Poortinga, Y. H., & Verhallen, T. M. M. (2004). Response styles in rating scales: Evidence of method bias in data from 6 eu countries.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35(3), 346–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, D., & Cheung, S. (1995). Culture, gender, and response bias: An analysis of responses to the self-description questionnaire.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26(5), 490–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zax, M., & Takahashi, S. (1967). Cultural influences on response style: comparisons of Japanese and American college students.Journal of Social Psychology, 71(1), 3–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported under Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project DP0555977). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council. This paper was also partly supported by the Key Project by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.: 70732002).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management & Marketing, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Anne-Wil Harzing &  Michelle Brown

  2. Department of Business Administration II, Heilbronn University, Heilbronn, Germany

    Kathrin Köster

  3. School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Shuming Zhao

Authors
  1. Anne-Wil Harzing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michelle Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kathrin Köster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Shuming Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne-Wil Harzing.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Harzing, AW., Brown, M., Köster, K. et al. Response Style Differences in Cross-National Research. Manag Int Rev 52, 341–363 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-011-0111-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-011-0111-2

Keywords

  • Response styles
  • Survey research
  • Culture
  • China
  • Australia
  • Germany