The Eight Universal Dimensions of Culture from a Synthesis of Cultural Taxonomies

Book excerpt: The crucial element of this book constitutes the synthesis of cultural dimensions from existing cultural taxonomies, extended by the operationalization of the eight identified Universal Dimensions of Culture (UDCs) into a questionnaire. First, an extensive Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is pursued to identify the current state of research, demonstrating the research gap on a unified approach for classifying national cultures into cultural dimensions. Eight assumptions displaying the eight UDCs are derived from the results of the SLR. Subsequently, an evaluation and selection framework for identifying the research base of comparable existing cultural taxonomies is developed. A research base of 11 cultural taxonomies and 50 cultural dimensions is retrieved. These serves as the basis for developing the eight UDCs, following a synthesis process and protocol. The eight UDCs are operationalized into a questionnaire, which is extensively pre-tested by experts and in the field. An example country study for Germany, Canada, and Brazil is conducted, and the corresponding country profiles for the eight UDCs are displayed.