The influence of cultural context in managerial decision-making: legitimacy views of Finnish and Italian managers

Abstract

This study examines the influence of cultural context in managerial decision-making by comparing the legitimacy views of Finnish and Italian business managers. In the business context, managers often make decisions based on economic interests only; but for moral decisions, other means of legitimacy are required. Although both Finland and Italy are members of the European Union (EU), they differ in terms of cultural dimensions. The study contributes to previous research on managerial decision-making by showing, with a qualitative approach, that the differences between Finnish and Italian managers decision-making relate to the different ways of using legitimacy combined with the short-term vs. long-term orientation of the culture. Finnish managers use the property and perception views of legitimacy that reflect the short-term orientation and normative dimension of the culture, while Italian managers rely on a process view of legitimacy reflecting the long-term orientation.