Florence Kluckhohn and Frederick Strodtbeck are pioneers of comparative and intercultural research. Their concept of culture, which also considers cultural processes and dynamics, refers on the one hand to the solution of universal human problems, on the other to a value orientation system. Their joint conception of the empirically applied Value Orientation Method (VOM) at Harvard University, which represents manifestations of different value orientations in different cultures, has had a significant impact on intercultural research. Based on their sociological and anthropological study of Texan, Mexican-American and Native American communities in the American Southwest, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck developed a set of characteristics for societal values to investigate variations in social interaction styles between different cultural groups such as human nature, relationship to nature, time orientation or activity orientation.