Culture distance refers to the degree to which interacting people share meanings. The fewer meanings that are mutually shared, the greater is the culture distance. “Meanings” references the meanings not only of words but also of behaviors, emotions, [Page 196]events, objects, time and space, concepts and ideas, norms and morals, beliefs and ideals—the list is long.

A value is a belief about whether a certain thought or activity is desirable or undesirable, an ideal to be pursued or an evil to be avoided. Values are shared by most members of a group; values are a critical component of each group’s identity. Beginning in infancy, the members of a group acquire a set of values through immersion and emulation within their ingroups, principally their family. This set ...