Page 27 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience

academic and social activities are difficult to separate-study groups, for example, are both academic and social (Deil-Amen, 2005; Karp, Hughes, & O’Gara, 2010). In addition, studies suggest that minority students are disadvantaged in higher education, making it more difficult for them to graduate (Terenzini & Pascarella, 1977; Carter, 1999; Streeter, 2011). Nonetheless, Tinto provides a useful framework for the studies in this thesis, highlighting the importance of students’ sense of belonging to their success.
Global Integration–Local Responsiveness (I–R) Paradigm
The research in this thesis, which focuses on transnational education, draws on the paradigm of global integration and local responsiveness (I-R) developed by Prahalad and Doz in 1987. This paradigm describes the tension that multinational corporations (MNCs) face in balancing standardization across markets and adapting a service-such as higher education-to a local market. The I-R paradigm has been used to illustrate this tension (Shams & Huisman, 2012; Farrugia & Lane, 2012; Wildavsky, 2012; Silver, 2015) and to show that IBCs “must be concurrently homogeneous with the home country institution and host country expectations” (Silver, 2015, p. 2).
One factor that influences the I-R paradigm is the institutional and cultural distance between the countries involved (Hofstede, 1984; Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1999; Brock & Siscovick, 2007; Kostova & Roth, 2002). Hofstede’s seminal research on cultural distance defines national culture as “the learned values, beliefs, and assumptions that distinguish societal groups” (Hofstede, 1991). Originally, he listed four dimensions that can be used to measure cultural distance, including Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, and Uncertainty Avoidance, later adding Long vs. Short-Term Orientation and Indulgence vs. Restraint (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010). Some research suggests that the extent of cultural distance between two nations corresponds with the extent of organizational differences between the countries (Kogut & Singh, 1988) and that greater cultural distance correlates with a greater need for local adaptation (Kostova & Roth, 2002). While cultural distance is
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General Introduction
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