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Research has linked cultural differences between a sojourner's home and host country with their cultural transformation. Nonetheless, the results of empirical studies are inconclusive due to different operationalizations of cultural differences and testing among different groups of sojourners. We extend previous investigations by examining the effects of cultural novelty (i.e., the subjective perception of cultural differences) on the experience of international students (N = 1114) in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the USA. Drawing on acculturation and social learning theories, we conceptualized a model of students' adjustment and satisfaction taking into account cultural novelty. We tested the model through multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) and examined the various relationships across subsamples from all five countries. We determined the significant effects of cultural novelty and a range of factors impacting students' intercultural experience, such as their cultural intelligence, cultural background, second-language skills, time in the host country, and socialization with domestic students, and how the effects may vary by the host country. We discuss implications for future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate innovative performance of subsidiaries in multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China from an external local embeddedness perspective. We draw from prior research on subsidiary embeddedness and use social exchange theory (SET) to develop hypotheses relating to how trust with local partners and learning from local partners will impact innovative performance of MNE subsidiaries in China. Given the nature of the Chinese context, we argue that innovative performance will be positively influenced by trusting relationships with local external partners regardless of the location of the subsidiary in China. On the other hand, we argue that the role that learning from local partners plays on subsidiary innovative performance is location-specific, being dependent on the degree to which the location supports an innovative, knowledge economy. In addition, we hypothesize a location-specific interaction effect between trust and local learning. Using data from a survey of 306 MNE subsidiary managers in three tier-1 locations in China (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou) we find strong support for our hypotheses, and identify the strongest interaction effect between trust and local learning in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]