Living and Learning Abroad: A Study of the Effects of Inter-Cultural Interaction, Affective Experience and Intent Related Outcomes among Sojourners on Academic Exchange to India

Intercultural interaction is an important subject of research in cross-cultural psychology. Increasing interest in research and practice is visible in the issues of acculturation, cultural sensitization and adaptation of employees of global firms (Phatak, Bhagat and Kashlak, 2008). At B-Schools, international student exchanges have become common worldwide and are considered as an avenue to develop global mindset and impart different types of learning: cultural, socio-political and business tourism apart from classroom academic learning. This inter-cultural learning among exchange students (students who spend a term or two in a host culture on short-term academic exchange) involves participation in academic or social exchange related activities at the host institution. With increased engagement of exchange students with host culture students, exchange students are less likely to experience the notion of “stranger abroad”.

We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 109 exchange students (52 female) from 20 countries at three premier B-Schools in India. This B-school has had academic exchange programs with European, Asian and American B-Schools for the past 15 years. We developed measures to capture the frequency of inter-group interaction in-coming exchange students engaged in during their stay in India. Specifically, we developed 20 items to capture frequency of inter-group interaction and using factor analysis, we found four factors explaining more than 50% of the variance. Using regression, we found that a factor that captured non-academic social interaction generated positive affect and this in turn impacted their recommendation to other students from their B-School/University to choose the Indian B-School for exchange. Another factor measuring search for future business/alliances/business partnership opportunities impacted their intent to work with Indian managers anywhere around the world. The findings support the social psychological theory of inter-group relations view and explain that greater interaction will give more satisfaction from inter-cultural experience. Implications for cross-cultural exchange are discussed.