Fringe Voices in Cross-Cultural Management Research: Silenced and Neglected?

Abstract

This introductory article asks if there are silenced and neglected voices in current cross-cultural management research, and if so, what we can learn from them. Taking departure in the six articles selected for this guest issue we argue that there are indeed valuable fringe voices and that some are neglected while others are instead silenced. From there we proceed to propose new avenues for future research that allow fringe exploration to compete for the attention so far mainly held by the dominant mainstream cross-cultural management literature. We argue that in moving across paradigms cross-cultural management research should confront and oppose excessively simplified notions on culture, nations and individuals. Moreover, we maintain a need for cross-cultural management researchers to question, ourselves and the literature we read, if knowledge produced actually challenges preconceptions or rather comforts the readers.