The Advancement of Measurement Invariance Testing in Cross-Cultural Research in the Period 1999–2020. Executing Rather Than Scrutinizing?

In business and management, cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons
between countries have been a topic of interest for many decades. Not only do
firms engage in business in different countries around the world but also within
countries. The population has become more diversified over time, making
cross-cultural comparisons within country boundaries increasingly relevant. In
comparisons across cultural groups, measurement invariance (MI) is a prerequisite; however, in practice, MI is not always attained or even tested. Our
study consists of three parts. First, we provide a bibliometric analysis of
articles on cross-cultural and cross-national topics in marketing to provide
insight into the connections between the articles and the main themes. Second,
we code articles to assess whether researchers follow the recommended steps as
outlined in the multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) approach.
The results indicate that MI testing is incorporated in the toolbox of many
empirical researchers in marketing and that articles often report the level of
invariance. Yet, most studies find partial invariance, meaning that some items
are not comparable across the cultural groups studied. Researchers understand
that MI is required, but they often ignore noninvariant items, which may
decrease the validity of cross-cultural comparisons made. Third, we analyze the dissemination of MI in the broader literature based on co-citations with
Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998), a widely cited article on MI in the field
of marketing. We conclude by noting methodological developments in
cross-cultural research to enable addressing noninvariance and providing
suggestions to further advance our insight into cross-cultural differences and
similarities.