Watch his deed or examine his words? Exploring the potential of the behavioral experiment method for collecting data to measure culture

Purpose To address three issues of survey-based methods (i.e. the absence of behaviors, the reference inequivalence, and the lack of cross-cultural interaction), the purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of using the behavioral experiment method to collect cross-cultural data as well as the possibility of measuring culture with the experimental data. Moreover, challenges to this method and possible solutions are elaborated for intriguing further discussion on the use of behavioral experiments in international business/international management (IB/IM) research. Design/methodology/approach This paper illustrates the merits and downside of the proposed method with an ultimate-game experiment conducted in a behavioral laboratory. The procedure of designing, implementing, and analyzing the behavioral experiment is delineated in detail. Findings The exploratory findings show that the ultimate-game experiment may observe participants’ behaviors with comparable references and allow for cross-cultural interaction. The findings also suggest that the fairness-related cultural value may be calibrated with the horizontal and vertical convergence of cross-cultural behaviors (i.e. people’s deed), and this calibration may be strengthened by incorporating complementary methods such as a background survey to include people’s words. Originality/value The behavioral experiment method illustrated and discussed in this study contributes to the IB/IM literature by addressing three methodological issues that are not widely recognized in the IB/IM literature.