Cross-cultural response styles on the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory

The Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) is a widely-used measure used in cross-cultural and cross-national studies over the past 20 years. However, researchers have, in general, neglected the issue of cross-cultural response styles and simply accepted differences in KAI scores as indicators of real cross-cultural differences. In the present study we examined the KAI scores of Canadian and Japanese samples to identify any cross-national and gender differences in response styles. Overall, the results of analyses at the subscale and item-level suggest possible differences in cross-national response styles but not to any substantial degree. It is suggested that cross-cultural and gender differences in response styles may be diminishing, at least, in the industrialized nations. Several recommendations are presented to facilitate future study on this issue with the KAI.