Measuring Hofstede's Five Dimensions of Cultural Values at the Individual Level: Development and Validation of CVSCALE

Abstract

Hofstede's (1980 and 2001) renowned five-dimensional measure of cultural values is the overwhelmingly dominant metric of culture. His measure has been used as a contextual variable, but it is often required to directly measure cultural values for individual consumers or managers. The purpose of this research is to respond to the call for developing a psychometrically sound measure of Hofstede's culture at the individual level. Past research in this area has developed a scale for only one of Hofstede's dimensions, a highly work-oriented scale, or a scale with poor reliability. By overcoming every major weakness of past studies, this research offers CVSCALE, a 26-item five-dimensional scale of individual cultural values that assesses Hofstede's cultural dimensions at the individual level. The scale shows adequate reliability, validity, and across-sample and across-national generalizability.