Research programmes

My research interests have broadened over the years and now span topics that range from International and Cross-cultural Management to the international research process and the wider impact of academic research.

To keep things manageable, I tend to subdivide my research work into the following programmes. The boundaries between them are not rigid; much of the work I do extends over several areas.

Programme Description
International HRM & Staffing Policies Focuses on several aspects relating to the human dimension of international business. Specific areas of interests are expatriates as control mechanisms in MNCs, expatriate failure, staffing policies and the role of expatriates in knowledge transfer in MNCs.
HQ-Subsidiary Relationships in MNCs Investigates various aspects of strategy, structure, and control mechanisms in MNCs. Specific areas of interest include country-of-origin effects, entry modes, and MNC typologies.
The International Research Process Reviews research process issues in international research, often critically evaluating received wisdom. Projects have focused on academic referencing, international mail surveys, translation issues, stability of cultural dimensions, and the role of cultural distance in international research.
Transfer of HRM Practices in MNCs Researches one of the central questions in the literature on MNCs: the extent to which their subsidiaries act and behave as local firms (local isomorphism) versus the extent to which their practices resemble those of the parent company or some other global standard (internal consistency).
Language in International Business Explores the importance of language barriers in international business and its implications for the management of MNCs. Uses a social identity perspective and aims to integrate the fields of international management, socio-linguistics and cross-cultural training and communication.
Quality and Impact of Academic Research This programme aims to develop a critical assessment of the quality and impact of academics, academic research, and academic journals. A separate project under this programme that has gained a lot of attention internationally, is a large-scale assessment of citation-based impact metrics.

Selected recent publications

Below is a small selection of Anne-Wil's recent publications. For a full list (more than 150 books, book chapters and academic papers), see Full list of publications.

  1. Harzing, A.W.K.; Wal, R. van der (2009) A Google Scholar H-Index for Journals: An Alternative Metric to Measure Journal Impact in Economics & Business?, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, vol. 60, no. 1. Available online...
  2. Noorderhaven, N.G.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2009) Factors Influencing Knowledge Flows Within MNCs, in press for Journal of International Business Studies. Available online...
  3. Pudelko, M.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2008) The Golden Triangle for MNCs: Standardization towards headquarters practices, standardization towards global best practices and localization, Organizational Dynamics, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 394–404. Available online...
  4. Harzing, A.W.K.; Wal, R. van der (2008) Google Scholar as a new source for citation analysis?, Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 62-71. Available online...
  5. Harzing, A.W.K.; Feely, A.J. (2008) The Language Barrier and its Implications for HQ-Subsidiary Relationships, Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 49-60. Available online...
  6. Hocking, J.B.; Brown, M.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2007) Balancing Global and Local Strategic Contexts: Expatriate Knowledge Transfer, Applications and Learning within a Transnational Organization, Human Resource Management, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 513-533. Available online...
  7. Pudelko, M.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2007) Country-of-Origin, Localization or Dominance Effect? An empirical investigation of HRM Practices in Foreign Subsidiaries, Human Resource Management, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 535-559. Available online... [Winner of the 2007 Ulrich-Lake award for the best paper published in Human Resource Management.]
  8. Pudelko, M.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2007) How European is Management in Europe? An Analysis of Past, Present and Future Management Practices in Europe, European Journal of International Management, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 206-224. Available online...
  9. Harzing, A.W.K. (2006) Response styles in cross-national mail survey research: A 26-country study, The International Journal of Crosscultural Management, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 243-266. Available online... [reprinted in Cross-Cultural Management (in the Routledge series Critical Perspectives on Business and Management) Editors: Tim G. Andrews and Richard Mead, Routledge, 2008].
  10. Harzing, A.W.K.; Noorderhaven, N.G. (2006) Knowledge flows in MNCs: An empirical test and extension of Gupta & Govindarajan's typology of subsidiary roles, International Business Review, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 195-214. Available online...
  11. Harzing, A.W.K.; Noorderhaven, N.G. (2006) Geographical Distance and the Role and Management Of Subsidiaries: The Case of Subsidiaries Down-Under, Asia-Pacific Journal of Management, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 167-185. Available online...
  12. Harzing, A.W.K. (2005) Australian Research output in Economics & Business: High volume, low impact?, Australian Journal of Management, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 183-200. Available online...
  13. Harzing, A.W.K.; and 32 country collaborators (2005) The use of English questionnaires in cross-national research: Does cultural accommodation obscure national differences?, International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 213-224. Available online...
  14. Olivas-Luján, M.R.; Harzing, A.W.K.; McCoy, S. (2004) September 11, 2001: Two quasi-experiments on the influence of threats on cultural values and cosmopolitanism, International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 211-228. Available online...
  15. Hocking, J.B.; Brown, M.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2004) A knowledge transfer perspective of strategic assignment purposes and their path-dependent outcomes, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 565-586. Available online...
  16. Christensen, C.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2004) Expatriate failure: Time to abandon the concept?, Career Development International, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 616-626. Available online...
  17. Noorderhaven, N.G.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2003) The "Country-Of-Origin Effect" In Multinational Corporations: Sources, Mechanisms And Moderating Conditions, Management International Review, vol. 43, special issue 2, pp. 47-66. Available online...
  18. Harzing, A.W.K. (2003) The role of culture in entry mode studies: from negligence to myopia?, Advances in International Management, vol. 15, pp. 75-127. Available online...
  19. Feely, A.J.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2003) Language Management in Multinational Companies, Cross-cultural management: an international journal, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 37-52. Available online...
  20. Harzing, A.W.K.; Sorge, A.M. (2003) The relative impact of country-of-origin and universal contingencies on internationalization strategies and corporate control in multinational enterprises: World-wide and European perspectives, Organisation Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 187-214. [Roland Calori Prize for the best paper published in Organization Studies 2003-2004] Available online...