When opposites attract—Impact of cultural distance and polarised success in the future of economic unions

Abstract

Aggregations between nations may be originated from many reasons: military, political, religious and especially economic. Basing ourselves on neoclassical economic theory and identity theory (i.e. local versus global), the aim of this research is to focus on international economic unions. Thus, we consider as economic polarizations, to investigate the levels of cultural homogeneity within the single polarization, to verify: i) whether in the single aggregation there is, in addition to economic harmonization, also cultural homogeneity and ii), if cultural homogeneity goes hand in hand with the economic success of the aggregation, with the help of Hofstede Model on 5 international economic unions. We also determine the crucial weight of cultural heterogeneity on the success of economic unions. The results also offer relevant theoretical and managerial implications for future aggregations.