During the last decade we have engaged in several heretofore separate and at least initially, somewhat independent research initiatives: 1) Virtual teams and collaborative technologies [Ballantine, Becker, et. al.; 1999], [Becker, Ballantine, et. al., 1999, 2001], [Becker; 2003], [Becker and Cline; 2005]; 2) building bridges between researches across the borders of the Americas [Becker and Sanc...

Economists typically object to preference-based explanations of human behavior; differences in preferences “explain everything and therefore nothing”. But this argument is only correct assuming that no empirical evidence exists to discipline preference-based explanations. In fact, over the past decade, personality psychologists have produced a robust collection of stylized facts about human pre...