This study had several limitations. First, because the questionnaire incorporated all the independent and dependent variables, respondents answered these questions in the same time frame. This could have resulted in an obstacle that is referred to as common method variance (CMV). One of the solutions to eliminate this is to use a different Likert scale for different types of variables, e.g., five-point vs. seven-point which the researchers administered in the design of the questionnaire. Another solution is to adopt reverse items to insure that respondents answered all the items carefully and seriously. One of our measures-in-role performance did include two reversed items, which may reduce the possibility of CMV concerns. In addition to addressing prospective problems before collecting the data, Harman’s one-factor analysis was conducted to detect potential bias caused by CMV (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The researcher entered
all the scale items to an exploratory factor analysis and tested the unrotated factor solution. The first principle component accounted for 32.66% of variance, which suggests that the items did not load on a general factor (over 50%) and CMV may not be a big problem in this study. We also applied the unmeasured latent method construct (ULMC) technique to detect a CMV problem (Podsakoff et al., 2003; Williams et al., 1989). Overall, these remedies provide a convincing argument that CMV is not a severe problem of this study. Overall, these remedies provide a convincing argument that CMV is not a serious problem in this study.
Secondly, a potential limitation is that our target sample comprised Taiwanese managers working in Vietnam on behalf of their organization and who agreed to the overseas posting; this contrasts with self-initiated expatriates who choose to pursue work in another country. The findings of this research study do not extend to the latter group, but future research may well investigate this group. Peltokorpi and Froese (2009) found that self-initiated expatriates have higher adjustment scores than organizational expatriates. Future research on CQ and language may consider testing self-initiated expatriates’ cross-cultural outcomes.
Third, our target sample was gathered from expatriates in South Vietnam.
For future studies, we recommend that those in North Vietnam be investigated as there is a great difference between South and North Vietnam. We also anticipate that there will be more studies investigating expatriates in other Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and India in order to generalize our conclusions. We expect future studies to investigate and take those cultural differences into account in order to yield a more comprehensive research picture.
Fourth, proficiency in the host-country language and English were self-assessed with expatriates determining their own ability to speak, read, listening and write the language. It would be better to have an objective measure of language proficiency and also to obtain an assessment of the expatriate’s ability in the language used in both the work place and that spoken by the local people, as suggested by Huff (2013). Finally, we focused only on studies concerned with individual levels of CQ. Future research should expand to an understanding of CQ at the group, team, and organization levels.
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