Article
A Contemporary Re-evaluation of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Framework- A Bibliometric Study from Year 2000 to 2025
Ever since Gert Hofstede published his Cultural Dimensions Theory, based on survey data of IBM employees of more than 50 countries during 1960s and 1970s, the focus social behaviour studies shifted from anthropology to social sciences, esp. management studies. The theory, a framework for comparing national culture along such dimensions as Power Distance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity-Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Longterm Orientation and Indulge-Restrain, is subject of prolific research in international management, organizational behaviour, cross-cultural psychology, marketing, public policy etc. over last 4 decades. However, the framework has increasingly been criticized for its reliance on a single corporate dataset, its assumption of cultural homogeneity within politically decided national boundaries and the stability of national culture scores in a globally interconnected societies over time. Subsequently published Inglehart’s Evolutionary Modernization Theory emphasizes systemic shifts in value priorities as societies modernize. Guided by these concerns, research direction, through field level global surveys and otherwise, has moved towards fine tuning the dimensions nomenclature as well in establishing relative stability of cultural distance amongst nations. This study conducts a systematic bibliometric analysis of 1074 Scopus-indexed publications on Hofstede’s framework between Year 2000 to 2025. The analysis maps year-wise publication trends, identifies most cited research papers, most productive authors and examines the thematic structure through author keywords, co-occurrence patterns and period wise keyword distributions. The result shows sustained growth in Hofstede-related research that has moved from foundational debate to more context applied research.