Chapter 8: The Case of Executives’ Cultural Intelligence in Behavioral Strategy: An Introductory Essay and a Research Agenda

The field of behavioral strategy incorporates psychological factors in the theory and practice of strategic management. The rapid pace of globalization, the increasing internationalization of small and large organizations, and the accelerating rate of international business transactions have made executive cultural intelligence (CQ), defined as an executive’s ability to act effectively in culturally diverse settings, a key strategic competency which is missing from the behavioral strategy literature. This chapter shows that incorporating executive CQ into behavioral strategy will give it more theoretical substance and open up new opportunities to explore and investigate its potential. Drawing on this reasoning, I will discuss how studying executive cultural intelligence informs the theory and practice of behavioral strategy. I will also highlight several implications of this perspective for management education and finish the chapter with an agenda for future research in this area.