Cultural distance and psychic distance: refinements in conceptualisation and measurement

Abstract

Cultural distance and psychic distance are two concepts that are widely used in the marketing literature to assess the differences between countries. The purpose of this study is to draw attention of researchers and managers to the general failure in the literature to differentiate between the cultural distance and psychic distance concepts. A critical review of the use of these concepts, outlining their theoretical and methodological properties, shows that a large number of studies use both concepts interchangeably with no clear distinction between them. The concepts are, however, conceptually distinct and address different phenomena. A framework is proposed that allows researchers and managers to recognise the exclusive properties of the two concepts.