Abstract:

This paper attempts to posit a general theory of cultural differences and their implications to you as the international qualitative research practitioner. The model developed should, we believe, be used as a thought-provoker at the earliest stages of the planning of cross-cultural qualitative research. We believe it can be extremely useful in improving on: - group recruitment quality - the effectiveness of the topic guide - moderating techniques and the response quality All of which make for a "good group". It can also be useful in understanding: - why certain approaches can or cannot be used - why local resources may indicate certain approaches cannot be used when occasionally they actually could, and ought to be tried.