Cross-national distance and international business: an analysis of the most influential recent models

• Published in: Scientometrics 2019-10, Vol.121 (1), p.173-208
• Main Authors: López-Duarte, Cristina, Vidal-Suárez, Marta M., González-Díaz, Belén
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bibliometrics; Business; Citation analysis; Computer Science; Information Storage and Retrieval; Library Science
• ISSN: 0138-9130; 1588-2861
• DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03203-y

Cross-national distance among countries has been of central interest in International Business and Management research. Therefore, different efforts have been made to develop models/measurements to address this issue. In this article we identify the models/measurements of cross-national distance developed since the beginning of the 2000 decade. After briefly presenting each model’s distinctive features, we assess their impact on the research field based on a wide range of bibliometric techniques (direct, indirect, and adjusted citation impacts, altmetrics, academic reviews, journals and publishers’ prestige). Our analysis shows that the narrower cultural distance construct has lost ground to the wider psychic distance one. Furthermore, researchers highly value those models and measurement that go beyond the cultural and psychic distance constructs providing a multidimensional framework to analyze and measure cross-national distance among countries. Our analysis of these models’ impact shows that this a salient issue in the research field as a whole and a central topic in the highest ranked journals in International Business and Management.