From “Distance” to “Friction”: Substituting Metaphors and Redirecting Intercultural Research

Abstract

The cultural distance metaphor dominates international management research, promoting a sterile, detached view where static antecedents in the form of artificially constructed differences serve as the dominant lens through which culture is viewed and its impact assessed. We examine culture and its positivist treatment in the foreign direct investment literature using the theoretical and real-world lenses. Adopting a social constructionist approach, we propose cultural friction as a substitute metaphor centered on the actual encounter of cultural systems within a context of power relations and potential conflict between a multinational enterprise and its host country constituencies.