Abstract
It is currently common practice in social and business research, to lift concepts and theories from one country context—and extending the validity of the results—using them in another. This paper discusses the question relating to such generalisability in the context of global, innovative industries. Statistical methods are applied to compare results of a quantitative investigation of firm life-cycle theory between two developed countries. Such comparison implemented with statistical rigour on a quantitative basis is not common, and difficult to execute. Results show that even though life-cycle theory has been found meaningful and valid on both country-specific populations, the quantitative comparison of these results has highlighted a substantial amount of statistically significant differences. This leads to the conclusion that extension of social theory between various country contexts needs to consider a variety of contextual parameters, cautioning computer scientists offering solutions to various problems around the world coming from their own, unique, country-specific perspectives to keep an open mind.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is based on my PhD research (Perényi 2010). I would like to acknowledge the support of my supervisors: Professor Christopher Selvarajah and Associate Professor Siva Muthaly, as well as Swinburne University of Technology for giving me the opportunity and support to complete my doctorate. I would also like to acknowledge the reviewers and audience of the Academy of World Business, Marketing and Management Development Conference 2012 for their feedback on the conference paper (Perényi et al. 2012) which was partially the foundation of this paper. This research has ethics approval from Swinburne University of Technology.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Questionnaire
Appendix 2: Descriptive statistics
Appendix 3: Measurement model statistics
Appendix 4: Independent sample t tests
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Perényi, Á. Are theories applicable across different contexts? A cross-national comparative analysis through the lens of firm life-cycle theory in the ICT sector. AI & Soc 29, 289–309 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-013-0463-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-013-0463-1