Factors Affecting Organizational Performance: A Five-country ComparisonIt has been extensively documented that significant differences exist between organizations operating in different countries - differences due to factors such as national and organizational cultures, strategic orientations, andmanagement styles. What is less clear, however, is whether there are significant differences in the factors that drive performance in the most successful firms regardless of country. Using nationally representative samples of U.S., English, French, German, and Japanese firms, we found unsurprising differences in organizational cultures (the Japanese businesses with more clan-oriented cultures and the French firms with more hierarchical ones, for instance). However, there were no overall country-specific slopes or intercepts in regressions relating factors such as innovativeness, organizational climate and culture, and customer orientation, to business performance. We conclude that successful firms transcend national culture differences to develop a common pattern of drivers of business performance which includes a primary focus on organizational innovativeness,a friendly climate, and a competitive culture. |
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adhocracy cultures business performance Cameron and Freeman Capon clan culture coefficients Competing Values Conceptual Background context Corporate Culture country-specific slope cross-national culture and climate culture and performance culture types customer firm customer orientation measures described Differences over Countries Diffusion of Innovations distribute 100 points effect on performance England Farley five countries France Frederick E Germany glue that holds H₁ H₂ hierarchies and clans Hofstede National Culture Hofstede's holds my organization Hulbert hypotheses individually significant inter-country differences interviews Japan Japanese firms Journal of Marketing Management Science Market cultures Market Orientation market share Marketing Science Institute Measures and Operationalizations Methodological Implications Michael E National Culture Dimensions organization emphasizes Organization Science organizational climate Organizational Culture Scales organizational innovativeness Ouchi power distance quadrads Quinn relatively research design Robert E Rohit Deshpandé scores segmented regression significant differences significantly slope differences Stanley F stresses supplier Table Theory tional culture tomer uncertainty avoidance Webster