Beugelsdijk Sjoerd, Kostova Tatiana, Kunst Vincent E, Spadafora Ettore, van Essen Marc
University of Groningen.
University of South Carolina.
J Manage. 2018 Jan;44(1):89-130. doi: 10.1177/0149206317729027. Epub 2017 Sep 8.
This paper presents the most comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the literature on cultural distance and firm internationalization to date. We analyze the effects of cultural distance on key strategic decisions throughout the entire process of internationalization. For the preinvestment stage, we examine the decisions on where to invest (location choice), how much to invest (degree of ownership), and how to organize the foreign expansion (entry and establishment mode). For the postinvestment stage, we examine the decisions of how to integrate the foreign subsidiary into the organization (transfer of practices) as well as the performance effects of cultural distance at both the subsidiary and the firm level. We find that firms are less likely to expand to culturally distant locations but if they do, they prefer greenfield investments and integrate subsidiaries more through transfer of management practices. Cultural distance does not seem to affect how much capital firms invest and whether they enter through a joint venture or full ownership. Interestingly, cultural distance has a strong negative effect on subsidiary performance but no effect on the performance of the whole multinational company. In addition, we find that the effects of cultural distance are not sensitive to time, but they are sensitive to the cultural framework used (e.g., Hofstede vs. Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) and the home country of the company (developed vs. emerging market). Based on our study, we feel confident to offer some theoretical insights, recommendations for improving the validity and reliability of cultural-distance research, and ideas for future research.
本文对迄今为止有关文化距离与企业国际化的文献进行了最全面的综述和荟萃分析。我们分析了文化距离在国际化整个过程中对关键战略决策的影响。对于投资前阶段，我们考察在哪里投资（区位选择）、投资多少（所有权程度）以及如何组织海外扩张（进入和建立模式）的决策。对于投资后阶段，我们考察如何将外国子公司融入组织（实践转移）的决策以及文化距离在子公司和公司层面的绩效影响。我们发现，企业向文化距离较远的地区扩张的可能性较小，但如果它们这样做，它们更倾向于绿地投资，并更多地通过管理实践转移来整合子公司。文化距离似乎并不影响企业投资的资本量以及它们是通过合资企业还是全资所有权进入。有趣的是，文化距离对子公司绩效有强烈的负面影响，但对整个跨国公司的绩效没有影响。此外，我们发现文化距离的影响对时间不敏感，但对所使用的文化框架（例如，霍夫斯泰德与全球领导力和组织行为有效性）以及公司的母国（发达市场与新兴市场）敏感。基于我们的研究，我们有信心提供一些理论见解、提高文化距离研究有效性和可靠性的建议以及未来研究的思路。
