{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.013412816691505217, 'fraction_numerical': 0.003477396920019871, 'mean_word_length': 5.5816993464052285, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Looking beyond Culture: Building Successful Multiparty Collaboration

The complexities of global business and the need for rapid, effective responses to problems that cross borders and span cultures demand an understanding of why transnational multiparty collaborations have failed and why they have succeeded. At the core of this work is 1) understanding the role that culture and identity play in creating a meta-identity built on the strengths of individual and organization identities and the sameness those identities represent; 2) the development of strong connectedness between the parties; and 3) the creation of a shared vision of what is trying to be achieved. Ultimately, the strength of the meta-identity surpasses the strengths of individual identities without the loss of same to transition to a place where collaborative success can occur. This paper reports on the first phase of a mixed methods research program - qualitative data gathered through grounded theory techniques on successful transnational multiparty endeavors and unsuccessful experiences. Findings are summarized from interviews conducted with professionals in a variety of businesses encompassing the government, profit, and non-profit sectors representing six nations and four indigenous populations for the purpose of understanding the behavior of transnational, multiparty collaboration. One implication from this study is that managing cultural differences could be viewed from a hygiene factor perspective, where culture can only play a dissatisfaction role and that collaboration comes from the common factors of building on the strengths of individual identities, development of strong interconnectedness and the creation of a shared vision. The second phase of the research program – a qualitative study - introduces a hypothesized model of transnational multiparty collaboration and promulgates a series of hypotheses as well preliminary scales to model the constructs. This work will be conducted in second half of 2016.