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Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

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The Effects of Hardiness and Cultural Distance on

Sociocultural Adaptation in an Expatriate Sales Manager
Population
Darin W. White, R. Keith Absher & Kyle A. Huggins
Published online: 23 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Darin W. White, R. Keith Absher & Kyle A. Huggins (2011) The Effects of Hardiness and Cultural Distance
on Sociocultural Adaptation in an Expatriate Sales Manager Population, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 31:3,
325-337

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 THE EFFECTS OF HARDINESS AND CULTURAL DISTANCE ON
SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION IN AN
ExPATRIATE SALES MANAGER POPULATION
Darin W. White, R. Keith Absher, and Kyle A. Huggins

International corporations are increasingly concerned about expatriate executive attrition. There is an urgent need to
develop methods for identifying the antecedents to successful expatriate performance. In choosing sales managers for
international assignments, special attention should be paid to the candidate’s psychological hardiness and cultural distance
between the home and host countries. An empirical study was conducted based on 544 responses from expatriate sales
managers originating from 62 countries who are serving in 77 different countries around the globe. Using hierarchical
regression, the authors tested main effects of both cultural distance and psychological hardiness on the sales manager’s
ability to adapt to a new cultural environment. In addition, psychological hardiness was tested as a moderator of the
relationship between cultural distance and sociocultural adaptation. Results suggest that practitioners now include both
scales as determinants for justification when selecting expatriate sales assignments. Practically speaking, with both global
cultural distance and hardiness scores in hand, companies can better select appropriate personnel who will be able to
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cope with cultural differences in international placements. Finally, this research provides the first known scholarly study
of psychological hardiness in the marketing and sales literature.

If one fails to become personally adjusted, it is virtually impos-
sible to be professionally effective. (Kealey 1996, p. 92)
With emerging markets opening at an unprecedented rate,
organizations around the world are rushing to offer their prod-
ucts and services to billions of new consumers in a multitude
of countries. Global organizations are increasingly finding the
need to develop more sophisticated sales management staffs
to successfully compete in multiple foreign markets. The
need to cultivate multicultural, multinational organizations
is critical for overall firm competitiveness (Price, Speier, and
Novicevic 1999).
Over the past several decades, corporations have depended
heavily on expatriation as the primary managerial means of
achieving global competitiveness (Mayerhofer, Hartmann,
and Herbert 2004; Olsen and Martins 2009). Sending sales
professionals on international assignments is not a new process.
Darin W. White (Ph.D., University of Alabama), Associate Professor
of Marketing, Brock School of Business, Samford University, darin
.white@samford.edu.
R. Keith Absher (Ph.D., University of Arkansas), Dean & Profes-
sor of Marketing, McAfee School of Business, Union University,
kabsher@uu.edu.
Kyle A. Huggins (Ph.D., University of Arkansas), Assistant Profes-
sor of Marketing, College of Business, James Madison University,
hugginka@jmu.edu.
Yet the burgeoning need for firms to “go global” is putting
ever increasing pressure on sales management to establish
international offices, facilitate recruitment and tutoring of
foreign nationals, assist in technical support, and sell their
firms’ products (Naumann, Widmier, and Jackson 2000).
According to the GMAC Global Relocation Service Survey
Report (2008), there are now 30 to 40 million expatriates
living and working globally, which represents a historical
high. In 2006 and 2007, over 67 percent of companies sur-
veyed reported an increase in the number of expatriates they
deployed. Another study by the Office of National Statistics
in the United Kingdom shows that the number of British
expatriates has “shot through the roof in the past ten years”
at a rate of almost 1,000 people every single day (“British
Expatriate Numbers Increase” 2006, p.  1). EasyExpat, a
London-based expatriate Web site provider, reports an average
of 13,000 unique visits per day, 38,000 page views per day,
and over 800,000 visitors to the Web site in January 2008
(www.easyexpat.com).
Expatriation is not without its significant challenges. A
prominent issue in the international staffing literature is
expatriate failure. Expatriate failure or turnover has been
defined as all individuals who either quit or transfer back to
the home country prior to the completion of their expected
foreign assignments (Andreason 2008; Haile, Jones, and
Emmanuel 2007; Lee 2007; Vogel, Van Vuuren, and Millard
2008). Premature return to the home country is a major factor
contributing to the high cost associated with expatriate sales
forces. Vogel, Van Vuuren, and Millard (2008) summarize

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. XXXI, no. 3 (summer 2011), pp. 325–337.
© 2011 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISSN 0885-3134 / 2011 $9.50 + 0.00.
DOI 10.2753/PSS0885-3134310309
 326  Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
much of the data relating to failure rates and early return. The
range of failure rate can be as low as 10 percent and as high as
80 percent, with most of the survey results identifying failure
rates between 30 percent and 40 percent.
The cost of failed expatriate assignments ranges between
$250,000 and $1,000,000 (Vogel, Van Vuuren, and Millard
2008). These calculations include expatriates’ original training
and moving expenses, as well as lost managerial productivity;
but they do not include the decreased performance of the for-
eign subsidiary, damaged relationships with the host country
government, diminished reputation, impact on morale of
other employees, or cost to the company of replacement if
they leave the firm (Wittig-Berman and Beutell 2009). The
total financial cost to U.S.-based companies associated with
expatriation, as well as premature repatriation, are estimated
at between $2 and $2.5 billion (Haile, Jones, and Emmanuel
2007). Taken as a whole, it is evident that the cost of expatri-
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ate failure is significant.
A major impediment to the success of expatriate sales
personnel involves the adaptation of the individual to the
new country. Expatriates “go through an emotional cycle and
typically hit a low between six and twelve months after starting
an assignment” (DeLollis 2007, p. B8). Difficulties associated
with sociocultural adaptation have been identified as the pri-
mary source for many stress-induced reactions experienced
by employees on international assignments in confronting
the day-to-day culture and norms of the host country (Pires,
Stanton, and Ostenfeld 2006; Sims and Schraeder 2004).
The inability to perform effectively in the new environment
typically results in lower than expected performance, poor
management, low productivity, and failure to meet corporate
objectives (Black 1988; Haile, Jones, and Emmanuel 2007;
Kaye and Taylor 1997; Pires, Stanton, and Ostenfeld 2006;
Tung 1987). Clearly, the achievement of corporate objec-
tives is dependent upon successful expatriate sociocultural
adjustment.
A number of factors have been identified in the literature as
contributing to the success of expatriate assignments. Proper
training is typically at the top of the list and should include
how to adapt to different cultures (Friedman, Dyke, and
Murphy 2009). Another factor is fluency in foreign languages
(Haile, Jones, and Emmanuel 2007). The ability of expatriates
to adapt to different cultures seems to be a factor related to
cultural distance. Cultural distance measures the magnitude
of differences in national cultures. According to Shenkar, Luo,
and Yehesker (2008), few theoretical concepts have gained
more acceptance than “cultural distance.”
A review of the success factors and failure rates makes it
apparent that organizations must do a better job of selecting
the right candidate for the expatriate assignment (Andreason
2008). The development of effective and dependable tools for
screening and selection of expatriate sales personnel would
greatly enhance the success of global corporations. We posit
that one of those tools is psychological hardiness.
Agricultural engineers are faced with a similar situation of
selection when attempting to select plants for environmentally
challenging regions. The U.S. National Arboretum created
the plant-hardiness zone map to classify plants and regions
using various hardiness ratings (Pelczar 2001). In agricultural
terms, hardiness is defined as a plant’s ability to survive adverse
growing conditions. The same concept can be found in the
psychology literature. Researchers have conceptualized psy-
chological hardiness as an individual’s ability to thrive under
stressful situations (Owen 2002). More than three decades
of research have shown that hardiness is related to lower
rates of physical strain (Maddi 1999a) and physical illness
(Kobasa 1979). Furthermore, hardiness is related to more
effective coping (Maddi 1999b), providing a buffer against
war stress (Bartone 1999) and the negative effects of trauma
(Waysman, Schwarzwald, and Solomon 2001). According to
Owen (2002), these marks of strength and resiliency suggest
that individuals with a hardy personality disposition may be
better suited for the rigors of sociocultural adaptation.
This study investigates the impact (shown in Figure 1) of
cultural distance and psychological hardiness on the socio-
cultural adaptation process of expatriate sales personnel. In
the next section, we develop a set of hypotheses to be tested
and then define the measurement scales used. Utilizing a
worldwide sample of expatriate sales personnel located in 77
different countries, we test the impact of cultural distance
and psychological hardiness on the expatriate sales manager’s
ability to socially adapt to new cultures.
BACKGROUND LITERATURE AND
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Sociocultural Adaptation
Oberg defines sociocultural adaptation as “the anxiety that
results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of
social intercourse” (1960, p.  177). This adjustment to the
new culture has been categorized as either psychological or
sociocultural in nature (Searle and Ward 1990). Psychological
adjustment refers to the subjective well-being or mood states
of the expatriate, speaks to the ability to “fit in,” and is as-
sociated with stress and coping contexts. Black, Mendenhall,
and Oddou (1991) suggest that the new unfamiliar setting
upsets old routines and creates psychological uncertainty. At
the same time, sociocultural adjustment is linked to behavioral
competence.
Researchers have identified several factors that influence
sociocultural adaptation, including language fluency, length
of residence in the new culture, cultural knowledge, amount
of interaction and identification with host nationals, and ac-

culturation strategies of the company (Barhem 2008). These
stumbling blocks to sociocultural adaptation can produce
stress and even depression in the expatriate (Soylu 2007),
which may result in a lack of productivity in the workplace.
Sociocultural adaptation is increasingly important to bottom-
line performance of multinational corporations (Dowling and
Schuler 1990).
Investigations focusing on sociocultural adaptation have
emerged as important areas of inquiry within the international
business field (Lee 2007). Much of this research has focused
on the impact that compensation, adaptation, selection, and
training have on expatriate managers (Mendenhall and Oddou
1985). A number of researchers have confirmed that the pre-
dominant reason for ineffective managerial performance is not
lack of technical competence of the managers but the dynamics
of the intercultural experience (Brislin 1981; Dinges 1983;
Tung 1982). Thus, we can surmise that successful sociocultural
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adaptation appears to be at the center of successful foreign as-
signments (Adler 1991; Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey 1988;
Samovar, Porter, and Jain 1981). Given the importance of
successful expatriate sociocultural adaptation, we next exam-
ine two potential predictors of acculturation success: cultural
distance and psychological hardiness.
Cultural Distance and Sociocultural Adaptation
Cultural distance can be defined as the difference between
the cultural characteristics of the home country and the host
countries (Hennart and Larimo 1998) and can be described
using Hofstede’s (2005) five bipolar dimensions. The posi-
tion of a country on these dimensions generates a cultural
framework for making predictions about the way a society
operates, including their management processes. Culture is
defined as the “collective programming of the mind which
distinguishes one group or category of people from another”
(Hofstede 2005, p. 5).
Many articles support the use of cultural distance theory
as developed by Hofstede (2001, 2005). Evans and Mavondo
(2002), Jones and Teegen (2001), Morosini, Shane, and Singh
(1998), and Rothaermel, Kotha, and Steensma (2006) have
all found further evidence for Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
However, many others have criticized the use of cultural dis-
tance (Dow and Karunaratna 2006; Shenkar 2001; Tihanyi,
Griffith, and Russell 2005) to estimate cultural values between
countries and have failed to find support for it (Ojala and
Tyrväinen 2007).
Hofstede’s cultural framework was chosen for the cur-
rent study for a variety of reasons. Magnusson et al. (2008)
conducted an exhaustive evaluation of the nine most widely
used measures of cultural distance. They found that Hofstede
(2005) and Trompennars (1994) exhibited the strongest con-
vergent validity. According to Magnusson et al., Hofstede’s
Summer 2011  327
Figure 1
Proposed Model of Moderation
cultural distance framework “clusters the countries most ac-
cording to expectations (0.44)” (2008, p. 195). In addition,
multiple researchers have used Hofstede’s cultural framework
to develop scores for over 80 countries—significantly more
than Trompennars’ (1994) framework. Given the extensive
worldwide sample collected for the current study, we chose
to utilize Hofstede’s framework.
Hofstede’s first dimension, labeled power distance index
(PDI), can be defined as the extent to which the less-powerful
members of institutions and organizations within a country
expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Alter-
natively, it is the degree of inequality among people that the
population of a country considers normal (Hofstede 1993,
2005). Recently, Khatri (2009) used Hofstede’s power distance
cultural construct to explore the effect on comfort level of
participation in an organization.
The second dimension, labeled individualism/collectiv-
ism (IDV), pertains to societies in which the ties between
individuals are loose and everyone is expected to look after
themselves or their immediate families (Murphy 1999).
Parsons and Shils defined individualism as “prime orientation
to the self,” and communitarism as “prime orientation to
common goals and objectives” (1951, p. 39). Triandis (1988)
states that individualistic cultures tend to emphasize personal
goals and are less concerned with emotional attachments to
in-groups. But collectivists subordinate their personal goals
in favor of the in-group goals and have strong emotional
ties to the in-group.
The third dimension is called masculinity/femininity (MAS).
Masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender roles
are clearly defined (Kang and Mastin 2008; Murphy 1999).
Masculine roles are considered “tougher” and are seen as
more assertiveness and competitiveness oriented. Feminin-
ity pertains to “tender” values, such as the quality of life,
maintaining warm personal relationships, service, care for the
weak, and solidarity, which in nearly all societies are associated
with women’s roles. Women’s roles differ from men’s roles in
all countries; but the differences are greater in tough societies
 328  Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
than in tender ones (Hofstede 1993, 2005). Chang (2006)
demonstrated the importance of this dimension to the business
literature when he found that cultural masculinity/femininity
significantly predicted how people viewed themselves in their
business roles.
The fourth dimension, labeled uncertainty avoidance
index (UAI), can be defined as the degree to which people
in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations.
Structured situations are those in which there are clear rules
as to how one should behave. These rules can be written or
unwritten. In countries that score high on uncertainty avoid-
ance, people tend to show more nervous energy, whereas in
countries that score low, people are more easy-going. A na-
tion with strong uncertainty avoidance can be called rigid;
one with weak uncertainty avoidance, flexible. In countries
where uncertainty avoidance is strong, a feeling prevails of
“what is different is dangerous.” In weak uncertainty avoid-
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ance societies, the feeling is “what is different is curious”
(Hofstede 2005, p. 98).
The fifth dimension, called long-term versus short-term
orientation (LTO), was added several years later based on
a study of the values of students in 23 countries (Hofstede
1993, 2005). On the long-term side, one finds values oriented
toward the future, such as saving and persistence. In contrast,
on the short-term side, one finds values oriented toward the
past and present, such as respect for tradition and fulfilling
social obligations. Long-term orientation is not included in
some studies because of the ambiguity associated with the
concept (Kang and Mastin 2008). Hofstede cites examples
of study inconsistencies with this fifth dimension (Hofstede
1993, 2005).
Mendenhall and Oddou (1985) conducted one of the first
studies on cultural distance. They called the phenomenon
“culture toughness” and found that the ability of the indi-
vidual to adjust to overseas assignments is related, in part, to
the country to which the individual is going. More recently,
Lung-Tan (2006) used Hofstede’s (2005) five dimensions in
the assessment of 14 empirical studies relating to the impact of
cultural distance on international joint venture management
and performance. The majority of the studies suggested that
cultural distance was important in the performance of inter-
national joint ventures. Thus, as cultural distance increases
on any of the five dimensions, it becomes much “tougher”
(Mendenahll and Oddou 1985) to successfully adjust and
perform well.
An example along the IDV dimension serves to underscore
how this phenomenon plays out in the current context. The
cultural difference an expatriate salesperson would encounter
when moving from a collectivist culture to an individualistic
culture would likely produce sociocultural adjustment issues
in the following manner. Expatriate sales personnel from
collectivist cultures would likely struggle to adjust to an
environment that is built around pay-for-performance since
competition in collectivist cultures is among in-groups, not
among individuals. In individualistic cultures, the individual
achieves and receives the credit; in collectivist cultures, the
group as a whole achieves. Expatriates from a more commu-
nitarian culture may not be suited for this environment, since
singling out an individual based on their personal results is
not the norm (Triandis 1988). This is but one example of how
cultural distance comes into play to negatively affect expatriate
sociocultural adaptation.
Thus, for the current study, we are theorizing that the
more culturally distant the expatriate’s home culture is from
the host country, the more difficulty the individual will have
in adjusting to the host country’s culture:
Hypothesis 1: The level of cultural distance positively de-
termines the degree of difficulty in sociocultural adaptation
for an expatriate sales manager population.
Hardiness and Sociocultural Adaptation
Psychological hardiness represents an underlying variable
(Britt, Adler, and Bartone 2001) that consists of three indi-
rectly related attitudes: commitment, control, and challenge.
Commitment is the tendency to become involved in whatever
one is doing or encounters (Kobasa, Maddi, and Kahn 1982).
Control is the tendency for an individual to feel and act as if
he or she has influence over life (Kobasa, Maddi, and Kahn
1982). Challenge is the belief that change is a normal part of
life and offers growth opportunities (Cole, Field, and Harris
2004; Tang and Hammontree 1992).
The three interrelated hardiness attitudes of commitment,
control, and challenge are thought to influence mechanisms
that enhance the health and performance of persons experi-
encing stressful conditions (Maddi 1999a). Specifically, hardy
attitudes are believed to influence how individuals experience
stressful life circumstances (e.g., Bartone et al. 1989; Britt,
Adler, and Bartone 2001; Florian, Mikulincer, and Taubman
1995; Maddi 1999b; Maddi and Hightower 1999). Hardy
individuals are upbeat, optimistic, and view challenges in a
positive light (Bartone et al. 1989). They also view activities as
interesting and enjoyable, as being a matter of personal choice,
and as important stimuli for learning (Maddi 1999b). Hence,
they tend to find positive meaning in life (Kobasa 1979;
Maddi and Kobasa 1984). Moreover, individuals exhibiting
low hardiness show increased signs of depression (Rhonewalt
and Zone 1989) as well as anxiety and distress (Cole, Field,
and Harris 2004; Rhonewalt and Agustsdottir 1984; Shepperd
and Kashani 1991).
Hardy individuals cope better with stressful circumstances
because of their ability to put stressful life events in perspec-
tive. They tend to take decisive, rather than avoidant, actions
to resolve problems and reduce stress (Maddi 1999a). Maddi

and Kobasa (1984) found that hardiness encourages people
to cope in a manner that transforms circumstances into less-
stressful life events. Furthermore, high hardiness involves the
conversion of stressful events into opportunities for growth
and development (Kobasa and Puccetti 1983). In ambigu-
ous situations, hardiness equips individuals to draw upon a
personal sense of commitment and control to find meaning
in their tasks (Bartone et al. 1989) and to exercise decision-
making and goal-setting techniques (Cole, Field, and Harris
2004; Kobasa and Puccetti 1983).
Possible relationships among stress, hardiness, and health
have been hypothesized by Kobasa (1979), with similar work
done by Pender (1987). One hypothesis is that high levels
of stress diminish an individual’s physical and mental per-
sonal resources leaving the individual less resistant to disease.
Consequently, hardy individuals, logically, would have more
resources and be more resistant to health problems (Sortet and
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Banks 1996). Not only does hardiness reduce the prospects
of illness, it also has been shown to augment performance,
conduct, and morale (Maddi 1999b). As part of a 12‑year
research program at Illinois Bell Telephone, the initial study
of hardiness (Kobasa 1979) found that highly stressed, hardy
individuals reported lower incidences of illness than highly
stressed, nonhardy people (Cole, Field, and Harris 2004;
Kobasa, Maddi, and Courington 1981; Tang and Hammon-
tree 1992).
A significant number of hardiness studies have been con-
ducted on nurses (Bozionelos 2009) because of the high-stress
nature of the nursing occupation and resulting burnout. This
literature stream provides an appropriate comparison group
for the corporate world because expatriate sales managers
also experience high levels of stress and burnout (Moncrief
et al. 1997).
Several studies of nurses found significant relationships be-
tween hardiness and burnout. Boyle et al. (1991), McCranie,
Lambert, and Lambert (1987), and Rich and Rich (1987) all
studied individuals in the medical profession and found an
inverse relationship between hardiness and burnout. Accord-
ing to Yip and Rowlinson (2009), the literature on nurses has
produced other studies that seem to indicate that hardiness
is significantly related to lower work stress, lower emotional
exhaustion, and fewer health problems. Interestingly, little
research involving the hardiness construct has been conducted
on samples in the business arena. The present study is the first
in the marketing literature to examine the effect of hardiness
on marketing and sales professionals.
Research in military populations and the legal profession
(Tang and Hammontree 1992) have produced similar results
(Kobasa 1982). Kobasa, Maddi, and Kahn’s (1982) research
suggested that hardiness decreases the likelihood of harmful
effects associated with stressful life events. Other studies found
similar relationships among hardiness, job stress, and health
Summer 2011  329
(Sortet and Banks 1996; Tang and Hammontree 1992). Sales
and sales management jobs, relative to employees in other
quasi professional employee populations (e.g., engineers, hu-
man resource professionals), seem particularly prone to job
stress (Sager and Wilson 1995). When the element of an in-
ternational assignment (Jassawalla, Truglia, and Garvey 2004)
is added to an already stressful job, a precarious situation is
created. Given that research in multiple fields has shown that
hardiness buffers individuals from stressful work situations, we
theorize that it will do the same for expatriate sales managers
experiencing stressful sociocultural adaptation issues. Thus,
Hypothesis 2: The level of hardiness negatively determines
the degree of difficulty in sociocultural adaptation for an
expatriate sales manager population.
Previously, our discussion in this section indicated that
cultural distance influences the degree of difficulty associ-
ated with sociocultural adaptation. In addition, we argued
that psychological hardiness provides sales managers more
resiliency to face cultural stressors and, thus, the ability to
handle sociocultural adaptation more positively. Combined, of
particular interest is the interactive effect of cultural distance
and psychological hardiness on the manager’s ability to adapt
socioculturally. Because we expect hardiness to increase a man-
ager’s ability to adapt overall, we suspect that hardiness will
negatively moderate the relationship of cultural distance on
sociocultural adaptation. In other words, the relationship be-
tween cultural distance and sociocultural adaptability becomes
weaker as managers’ psychological hardiness increases.
Hypothesis 3: Psychological hardiness moderates the rela-
tionship between cultural distance and sociocultural ad-
aptation in an expatriate sales manager population. That
is, managers who are more psychologically hardy are better
able to adapt to greater differences in cultural distance than
those who are less hardy.
METHOD
Survey data came from an online questionnaire of expatri-
ate sales managers representing 27 industries, which are
presented in Table 1. The respondents were based in Africa,
Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and
North America. Table  2 lists the 62 countries that respon-
dents reported as their home country. In order to generate
the most culturally diverse sample possible, a convenience
sample of respondents was selected with the objective of
gathering responses from every country in Hofstede’s cultural
framework. Thus, for this exploratory study, we found it more
important to collect matched samples from Hofstede country
groups rather than a random sample weighted by proportion
of the overall population. The sample design employed has
been utilized in previous international research and has been
 330  Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Table 1 Table 2
Industries Represented in Sample Population Home Countries of Expatriate Sales Managers
Represented in Sample Population
Advertising
Automotive Argentina Kuwait
Aviation Australia Liberia
Biotechnology Bahrain Libya
Construction Bangladesh Mexico
Consumer Packaging Bolivia Nepal
Education Brazil Netherlands
Energy Bulgaria New Zealand
Entertainment Cambodia Nigeria
Financial/Banking Canada Norway
Food Services China Pakistan
Government Services Costa Rica Peru
Health Care Czech Republic Philippines
Hospitality Denmark Poland
Information Technology Egypt Russian Federation
Insurance El Salvador Singapore
Manufacturing France South Africa
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Nonprofit Germany Spain

Oil and Gas Ghana Sri Lanka
Pharmaceutical Guatemala Sweden
Publishing Honduras Syria
Real Estate India Taiwan
Retail Indonesia Tanzania
Service Iran Turkmenistan
Shipping/Transportation/Logistics Ireland (Republic) Ukraine
Software Israel United Arab Emirates
Telecommunications Italy United Kingdom
Jamaica United States
Japan Venezuela
Jordan Vietnam
deemed appropriate for exploratory purposes (White and Ab- Kenya Yugoslavia
sher 2007). The respondents’ e‑mail addresses were generated Korea (South) Zimbabwe
from lists of expatriate sales managers provided by executive
education participants at an online international business
school. Before the survey link was e‑mailed, a company official actual selling. Based on an examination of each respondent’s
informed the expatriate sales manager about the importance responsibilities, these individuals’ tasks seemed to be consistent
of the survey via an internal memo. A follow-up e‑mail was with previous discussions of the sales manager’s role.
sent to each respondent along with a personalized cover let- First- and second-wave e‑mails yielded 544 usable question-
ter from the sponsor university explaining the purpose of the naires in five languages. A total of 1,845 e‑mails were sent. Of
study, the benefits for future expatriate sales managers, and those sent, 138 were returned as undeliverable or incomplete.
the confidentiality of the responses. The original questionnaire This resulted in an overall response rate of 31.9 percent.
was in English. To minimize language-related nonresponse Analysis of nonresponse bias (Armstrong and Overton 1977)
bias, four additional versions were developed after extensive did not reveal significant differences between early and late
two-way back translations. These versions were in French, respondents. A follow-up e‑mail was sent to nonrespondents
Spanish, German, and Hindi. to determine why they did not respond. Ninety-two percent
A field sales manager is defined as a sales professional with of the nonrespondents reported they were concerned about
the responsibility to influence others to achieve common goals the anonymity of their responses, were too busy, or thought
for the collective good of the sales organization and company the instrument was too long. The respondents ranged in age
(Ingram et al. 2005). As a screening question, respondents were from 22 to 62 (mean = 38.0, standard deviation = 12.6), with
asked if they were considered part of their company’s formal 61.8 percent male and 38.2 percent female. Almost two-thirds
management team and held full supervisory and other respon- of the population (65.3 percent) were married and 59 percent
sibilities typical of a field sales management position. Expatri- of these had a spouse living with them in the host country.
ate field sales manager responsibilities varied from managing Over half (51.1 percent) of the sample population had chil-
the sales office, scheduling, budget oversight, and training to dren; however, only 50.5 percent of them had the children

with them in the host country. The majority of the expatriate
sales managers (87.1 percent) had a college degree, and 34.7
percent had a master’s degree or higher. Only 20.2 percent
of the respondents reported language congruence between
the home and host country. Although the sample included
expatriate sales managers serving in 77 countries on every
continent except Antarctica, 76 percent of the respondents
were concentrated in the following 15 countries: Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, India,
Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, United Kingdom,
and United States.
Measures
The questionnaire used two existing scale measures and
Hofstede’s (2005) cultural dimension indices to test the
proposed hypotheses. Sociocultural adaptation (SCAS) was
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measured using a scale derived from Ward and Kennedy
(1999), hardiness (HI) was measured using a scale modified
by Law (2005) based on Kobasa’s (1979) original work, and
the cultural distance scores were derived from Hofstede’s
(2005) work.
The SCAS had 29 items and required respondents to in-
dicate the amount of difficulty experienced in a number of
areas by using a five-point scale (no difficulty/slight difficulty/
moderate difficulty/great difficulty/extreme difficulty). The
scale measured the degree to which respondents perceived
difficulties in understanding the local values and cultures,
interacting with the hosts, meeting the demands of daily
life, and behaving in a culturally appropriate manner (Li and
Gasser 2005). Sample items included “dealing with people in
authority” and “making yourself understood.” Lower scores
indicated fewer difficulties in social activities and better so-
ciocultural adjustment. According to Ward and Kennedy, the
SCAS is a “reliable and valid measurement of cultural compe-
tence or behavioral adaptability in cross-cultural sojourners”
(1999, p.  659). The psychometric properties have proven
robust across a wide range of culturally diverse people groups,
including samples from North America, Taiwan, China,
Japan, Great Britain, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong,
the Philippines, Nepal, and Malaysia (In‑Sun 2001; Wang
and Mallinckrodtt 2006; Ward and Deuba 1999; Ward and
Kennedy 1999). The scale has consistently produced internal
reliability (coefficient alpha) ranging from 0.84 to 0.94. The
alpha in the present study was 0.94.
The hardiness scale is an 18-item self-administered in-
strument designed to assess dispositional resilience, which
measures the hardiness facets of commitment, control, and
challenge. Following recent hardiness research, our study
combined the three dimensions into a composite hardiness
index for empirical testing (Bartone 2006; Cole, Field, and
Harris 2004; Eid et al. 2008; Law 2005; Wallace, Bisconti, and
Summer 2011  331
Bergeman 2001). After reverse scoring the negatively worded
questions, higher scores indicated stronger overall hardiness.
According to Maddi and Hightower (1999), estimates of
internal consistency for the scale have generally been in the
0.70s for the subscales (commitment, 0.70–0.75; control,
0.61–0.84; challenge, 0.60–0.71). The current study produced
similar coefficient alphas for the subscales (commitment, 0.78;
control, 0.61; challenge, 0.68). Although these scores are on
the lower end of acceptability, previous studies have produced
similar coefficient alphas, including Eid et al. (2008), Law
(2005), and McNeil et al. (1986).
Hofstede’s national culture dimensions are commonly
used in the academic literature to explain a wide variety of
business-related behaviors and tendencies. The latest Hofstede
data set provides culture indices for 74 countries and regions
(Hofstede 2005). These cultural scores often have been con-
verted into cultural distance indices that measure the extent
to which one country’s culture is similar to, or different from,
another country’s culture (Ng, Lee, and Soutar 2007). A recent
study by Ng, Lee, and Soutar (2007) found 90 articles in the
Proquest Online Database that mentioned Hofstede cultural
distance scores. Utilizing this approach, numerous marketing
academicians have found significant relationships between
cultural distance scores and various international behavioral
phenomenon, including the role of relational mechanisms used
by exporters in creating relationship quality with their foreign
sales intermediaries (Solberg 2008), negotiation behavior
(Leung 1988), and international market entry mode choice
(Morschett, Schramm-Klein, and Swoboda 2008).
Following this approach, the current study asked the re-
spondents a series of questions to establish each respondent’s
“home” culture. Each respondent was asked to report his or
her birth country, how long each had lived in his or her birth
country, and what country each considered his or her home
country. Respondents who had lived in the home country
less than ten years and reported incongruence in the birth
and home country were eliminated. There were only eight
respondents who met this condition. Each respondent was
also asked to report the host country for international assign-
ment. Kogut and Singh’s (1988) cultural index measurement
formula was utilized to calculate the global cultural distance
score (GCD) for each respondent. The index is calculated as
the arithmetic average of the variance-corrected differences
between Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions’ scores for the
two countries of interest.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Summary statistics, including correlations between each of
the variables, are presented in Table 3. As expected, there was
a significant (p  <  0.05) correlation between the dependent
variable (sociocultural adaptation) and the independent
 332  Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Table 3
Summary Statistics (Mean, Standard Deviation, and Correlation with Other Variables)
Standard
Variable Mean Deviation 2 3

SCA 1.78 0.55 –0.204 0.215

(0.000) (0.000)
HAR 3.06 0.31 __ 0.039
(0.451)
CD 22.53 12.56 __

Table 4
Hierarchical Regression Results
Dependent Variable: Sociocultural Adaptation

Model Predictor Variables ß F-Value R 2 ∆R 2

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1 Cultural Distance 0.202**** 14.771**** 0.041 0.041****

2 Cultural Distance 0.209**** 13.316**** 0.071 0.030****
Hardiness –0.175****
3 Cultural Distance (CD) 0.207**** 8.985**** 0.072 0.001†
Hardiness (HAR) –0.177****
CD x HAR 0.032

Notes: All regression coefficients are standardized values (betas). **** p < 0.001; *** p < 0.01; ** p < 0.05; * p < 0.10; † indicates a nonsignificant test of
moderation.

variables (hardiness and cultural distance). In addition, the
independent variables (hardiness and cultural distance) were
not significantly correlated.
Regression analysis was used to test both main and mod-
erating effects in our model. Results, provided in Table 4, test
the hypotheses for the relationships among cultural distance,
hardiness, and sociocultural adaptation. The first hypothesis
in this study posits that cultural distance will positively affect
sociocultural adaptation. This implies that when there is a
greater amount of cultural distance between the home and
host countries, managers’ socioculturally adaptive scores will
increase, indicating greater difficulty in adapting to the new
host country. The second hypothesis predicts that hardiness
will negatively affect sociocultural adaptation, indicating that
managers who are hardier have less difficulty in adapting. In
the final hypothesis, we posit that hardiness moderates the
effects of cultural distance on managers’ ability to adapt to the
host country. Specifically, managers who are higher in hardi-
ness adapt better to greater differences in cultural distance
than those who are less hardy, and vice versa.
To test all the hypotheses in one model, hierarchical regres-
sion analysis (Baron and Kenny 1986) was conducted. First,
we predicted a main effect of cultural distance. The results
in model 1 of Table 4 indicate a significant positive relation-
ship between cultural distance and sociocultural adaptation
(β = 0.202, p < 0.001), supporting H1.
Second, we expected the main effects of hardiness on so-
ciocultural adaptation. Results in model 2 of Table 4 demon-
strate that a significant and negative main effect of hardiness
is also found (β = –0.175, p < 0.001). Specifically, hardiness
significantly increases the R 2 ratio 3 percent (∆R 2 = 0.030,
p < 0.001). The significant change in R 2 highlights the main
effect of hardiness in the second part of the model, support-
ing H2.
Finally, the last hypothesis tested whether psychological
hardiness affected the relationship between cultural distance
and sociocultural adaptability. We predicted that hardiness
would negatively moderate this relationship, indicating that
managers who were more psychologically hardy would better
adapt to greater differences in cultural distance than those
managers who were less hardy. The third step of the hierarchi-
cal regression model specifically tested this hypothesis. Before
running the regression, we centered the means for both the
predictor variable (cultural distance) and the moderator (har-
diness) to reduce the possibility of multicollinearity (Aiken
and West 1991). Next, we created an interaction variable (i.e.,
CD × HAR) from the mean-centered predictors to use in the
test for moderation. The third model in the hierarchical regres-

sion introduced this newly created interaction variable from
the two main predictors. The goal of the analysis was to find
a significant change in R 2 in the final model, thus signifying
that hardiness, indeed, has a significant moderating effect.
However, Table 4 demonstrates that the increase in R 2 for the
interactive model (∆R 2 = 0.001) is not significant. Therefore,
H3 is not supported.
DISCUSSION
As organizations around the world continue to recognize the
possibilities of expansion through globalization, the need
for effective international sales force deployment grows in
importance. Traditional methods of choosing expatriate sales
managers solely on job performance has declined as compa-
nies pursue competitive advantages and strategic initiatives.
The current study suggests that companies should consider
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candidate psychological hardiness and cultural distance when
selecting managers for international assignments.
As expected, expatriate sales managers with higher levels
of psychological hardiness experienced fewer difficulties in
adapting to the host country culture while on international
assignments. Hardiness theory predicts that sales managers
with higher levels of hardiness will view themselves as capable
of influencing events in the new culture and choose to pursue
personal growth and engagement rather than withdrawal and
seclusion. Possessing the type of mind-set and coping skills
that accompany the hardy disposition seems to play an im-
portant role in reducing the negative effects of sociocultural
adaptation. These individuals are also more likely to engage
the new culture in a positive manner and experience a reversal
of the negative effects of sociocultural adaptation through
transformational coping.
The findings of this study introduce the concept of hardi-
ness into the marketing and sales literature and provide further
proof of the validity of hardiness theory. From the practitioner
standpoint, progress has been made toward giving corporate
leaders a tool for identifying expatriate sales manager candi-
dates who are capable of successful adaptation to international
markets prior to investing significant company resources in
the training and deployment process.
Utilizing a sample consisting of expatriate sales manag-
ers from 62 home countries serving in every major business
region, we also evaluated the impact of cultural distance on
expatriate sales manager sociocultural adaptation. Numerous
previous studies have linked national culture to differences
between a variety of organizational and consumer norms, rou-
tines, behaviors, and repertoires (Ng, Lee, and Soutar 2007).
Our findings add to the body of evidence for the validity of
national culture by highlighting that expatriate sales managers
tended to adapt easier when the cultural distance between the
home and host country was, on average, smaller.
Summer 2011  333
Human resource directors and other corporate deci-
sion makers should remain acutely aware of the degree
of cultural distance present when selecting candidates
for international assignments. As this distance increases,
the likelihood of failure significantly increases, making it
increasingly important to select the right candidate. By
examining cultural distance scores along each of the five in-
dividual cultural dimensions, human resource directors can
better prepare candidates for specific sociocultural adapta-
tion issues that might arise. In addition, human resource
personnel might wish to conduct a cultural gap analysis
at the individual level by utilizing survey instrumentation
to determine where candidates fall on the Hofstede’s five
dimensions. When significant gaps are discovered between
the individual score and the host country score, candidates
should either receive training or be disqualified.
Previously, we theorized that psychological hardiness
would buffer the negative effect of cultural distance on
sociocultural adaptation by moderating this relationship.
In other words, we expected that difficulties with sociocul-
tural adaptation in highly cultural distant countries would
be greater for less hardy managers than for more hardy
managers, but we expected this disparity to significantly
diminish as host countries became less culturally distant for
the managers. However, results for the moderation analysis
show that hardiness does not significantly reduce difficulties
in sociocultural adaptability to a greater degress for managers
in less culturally distant countries than for managers in more
culturally distant countries.
In examining why the moderating effect was not observed,
in reality, the effect of hardiness was not strong enough to
substantially reduce the effect of cultural distance on the abil-
ity to socioculturally adapt. Therefore, within this study, the
results for the test for moderation clearly demonstrate that a
manager’s psychological hardiness cannot overcome the more
dominant effect of cultural distance. Future research might
investigate other variables, such as previous cultural exposure,
language congruency, or education, that could potentially
moderate the effect of cultural distance on sociocultural
adaptability.
Although no moderation of hardiness on the relation-
ship between cultural distance and sociocultural adaptation
existed, it still should be noted that there was a main effect
of hardiness. Practically speaking, cultural distance and
hardiness can both be used as significant predictors of a man-
ager’s ability to adapt to a new host culture. We suggest that
practitioners now include both scales as possible indicators
for justifying the selection of expatriate sales assignments.
With both global cultural distance and hardiness scores in
hand, companies can better select appropriate personnel that
will be able to cope with cultural differences in international
placements.
 334  Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
Limitations and Future Research
Like all research, this research has limitations that should be
considered when interpreting the findings presented here. In
this study, we used two well-established constructs (hardiness
and cultural distance) to evaluate sociocultural adaptation.
Myriad factors might affect sociocultural adaptation in an ex-
patriate sales manager, including company training, previous
exposure to a country, age, gender, international experience,
family status, type of company, and compensation.
One possible limitation of this study is the sample size for
some countries. Even though the sample size for this study
is large, particularly compared to many international stud-
ies, some of the individual country sample sizes are small.
This could have an affect on the research results for some
individual countries.
This study used Hofstede’s research on cultural distance
Downloaded by [Linnaeus University] at 13:11 06 October 2014
to calculate cultural distances between countries. A weakness
of Hofstede’s cultural distance construct is that it is based on
country boundaries. This makes some nice neat boundaries
for comparison purposes; however, it is impractical to think
that cultures are limited by political boundaries. A culture
may include several countries, or a country may have several
cultures within its boundaries.
This study provides an appealing starting point for address-
ing future research questions relating to hardiness, cultural
distance, and sociocultural adaptation. A next step could be
developing a profile of individuals who statistically appear to
have the greatest chances of success or, alternatively, a profile
of individuals who would appear to have the greatest chances
of failure. This type of profile could provide practitioners with
information to consider in making international assignments
of personnel.
Variables in addition to cultural distance should be con-
sidered in looking at the relationships between hardiness and
sociocultural adaptation. Is hardiness effective at predicting
sociocultural adaptation across different demographic groups?
These groups could be based on differences in language, gen-
der, age, experience, and education. In the future, research
may want to investigate the three interrelated hardiness at-
titudes of commitment, control, and challenge to see if these
attributes can be developed in individuals who do not have
hardiness characteristics. For example, can hardiness train-
ing modules be developed that would provide prospective
international sales managers with increased opportunities for
success? Can these same psychological hardiness factors be
used to evaluate the families of the sales managers for possible
overseas assignments? Are there other psychological constructs
that contribute to psychological hardiness of an individual
in international assignments? This research provides the first
known scholarly study of psychological hardiness in the mar-
keting and sales literature. We hope that this will stimulate
other researchers to see possibilities and raise questions in
this promising field.
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