Examining the cultural differences in disseminating green supply chain in global subsidiaries

Abstract

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are composed of subsidiaries with different cultures, and such culture differences between headquarters and subsidiaries have been conceptually proposed to negatively affect headquarters disseminating green initiatives to their subsidiaries. Despite MNCs vast size and cross-national-border influence on green innovation, very few empirical efforts have been devoted to examine the culture distance challenge. Drawing on Cultural Contingency Theory (CCT) and Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV), this research collected data from 141 senior managers in charge of green initiatives from subsidiaries in 39 countries of an MNC. We empirically investigate how national cultural distance influences subsidiaries’ green supply chain (GSCM) adoption levels, and how headquarters can alleviate such cultural influence. Our results show that, though cultural distance has a negative influence on headquarters-subsidiary green compatibility, we empirically validate that headquarters can overcome this cultural-distance problem by strategically using cultural similarity in response to each distinctive culture embedded in subsidiaries to strengthen a shared vision. Specifically, four cultural characteristics can strengthen the shared vision, including low individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and a long-term orientation. MNCs can eventually benefit from the cross-culture cooperation in disseminating GSCM if headquarters can choose a cultural mechanism that best suits local subsidiary.