Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient: A Five‐Country Study

• Date: 01 May 2018
• Author: Marta Muñiz‐Ferrer,Michele Boulanger,Carlos Martínez de Ibarreta,Ilan Alon,Judith Meyers,Andrés Vélez‐Calle,Julie Ann Elston,Eleanna Galanaki
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21826

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. • DOI: 10.1002/tie.21826

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Correspondence to: , Department of International Business, Universidad EAFIT, Carrera 49 No. 7 Sur–50, Medellin, Colombia, +574 2619500

(phone), avelezca@ea t.edu.co

Business Cultural

Intelligence Quotient:

AFive-Country Study

By

Ilan Alon

Michele Boulanger

Julie Ann Elston

Eleanna Galanaki

Carlos Martínez de Ibarreta

Judith Meyers

Marta Muñiz-Ferrer

Cultural intelligence ( CI ) has often been linked to performance at the individual, team, and  rm levels

as a key factor in international business success. Using a new measure of CI , the business cultural

intelligence quotient ( BCIQ ), our study provides empirical evidence on several key antecedents of CI

using data on business professionals across  ve diverse countries (Austria, Colombia, Greece, Spain,

and the United States). The  ndings suggest that the most important factors leading to cultural intel-

ligence, in order of importance, are the number of countries that business practitioners have lived in

for more than six months, their level of education, and the number of languages spoken. We  nd that

cultural intelligence varies across countries, suggesting that some countries have a higher propensity

for cross-cultural business interactions. By teasing out the common antecedents of BCIQ among

professionals, our  ndings may help with screening and training professionals for international assign-

ments. Future research may examine the environmental (country-speci c) factors associated with a

FEATURE ARTICLE

237

VIEW FROM PRACTICE

Andrés Vélez-Calle

Andrés Vélez-Calle