Hofstede's Measures Research Articles

Cultural influences on the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosures: an examination of carbon disclosure

PurposeAs more companies choose to disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, it is important to gain an understanding of the quality of disclosures and factors that influence quality. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture as a determinant of the quality of voluntary carbon emission disclosures.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses regression analysis to test the influence of culture on the quality of carbon disclosures. The sample of this study comes from companies who voluntarily report to the carbon disclosure project. The authors operationalize the quality of disclosure using the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. The authors operationalize cultural values using both Hofstede’s metrics (Hofstede, 1980) and Project GLOBE (House et al., 2004).FindingsThis study predicts and finds a negative relationship between quality of disclosure and high individualism scores. This study also finds that the quality of disclosure is lower for companies located in countries with high power distance scores. The authors find that the quality of disclosure is higher for companies located in countries with gender/assertiveness scores that indicate a higher value on the environment than on the importance of economic growth. While quality is marginally related to uncertainty avoidance using Hofstede's measure, quality is not related to uncertainty avoidance using the Project GLOBE metric. The authors did not find a hypothesized negative significant relationship between quality and long-term orientation.Practical implicationsQuality is a measure of importance to users and regulators of disclosures.Social implicationsNational culture is an important determinant of CSR disclosure quality.Originality/valueThis study extends the previous research by using a metric for quality based on an independent evaluation of disclosures and by the role of culture in a multi-country study.

National culture and attitudes' impact on diffusion of sustainable new technology-based products

PurposeSustainability is increasingly becoming an essential aspect of technological innovations. In addition, the diffusion of sustainable new technology-based products appears to be uneven across the globe. The authors examine the effect of three country-level Hofstede measures of culture and two national-level innovation characteristics on the diffusion of Sustainable New Technology-based Products (SNTP).Design/methodology/approachRegression and Necessary Conditions Analysis were used to analyze a panel dataset of electric and hybrid vehicles sales from 2008 to 2017 across 89 countries.FindingsResults suggest Long-Term Orientation (LTO) was correlated with SNTP diffusion, Indulgence (IVR) was partially correlated with SNTP diffusion and was also a necessary condition. Surprisingly, Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) was not correlated with SNTP diffusion. In addition, a national proclivity for developing innovations and a history of utilizing prior generic innovations were both correlated and necessary for SNTP diffusion.Originality/valueThis paper measures the impact of several macro-level variables (culture and other innovation related characteristics of countries) on SNTP diffusion. In addition to regression analyses to measure the average effect size, the authors conduct Necessary Conditions Analysis, which assesses the necessity of a variable for the outcome. These insights may help multinational companies better strategize entry decisions for international markets and aid governments in formulating more effective policies by recognizing and accommodating the influences of national culture and innovation attitudes.

Cross-National Differences in Market Response: Line-Length, Price, and Distribution Elasticities in 14 Indo-Pacific Rim Economies

The field's knowledge of marketing-mix elasticities is largely restricted to developed countries in the North-Atlantic region, even though other parts of the world—especially the Indo-Pacific Rim region—have become economic powerhouses. To better allocate marketing budgets, firms need to have information about marketing-mix elasticities for countries outside the North-Atlantic region. The authors use data covering over 1,600 brands from 14 product categories collected in 7 developed and 7 emerging Indo-Pacific Rim countries across more than 10 years to estimate marketing elasticities for line length, price, and distribution and examine which brand, category, and country factors influence these elasticities. Averaged across brands, categories, and countries, line-length elasticity is .459, price elasticity is −.422, and distribution elasticity is .368, but with substantial variation across brands, categories, and countries. Contrary to what has been suggested in previous research, the authors find no systematic differences in marketing responsiveness between emerging and developed economies. Instead, the key country-level factor driving elasticities is societal stratification, with Hofstede's measure of power inequality (power distance) as its cultural manifestation and income inequality as its economic manifestation. As the effects of virtually all brand, category, and country factors differ across the three marketing-mix instruments, the field needs new theorizing that is contingent on the marketing-mix instrument studied.

Hofstede's Cultural Indices Revisited: The Relationship Between Cultural Values and International Tourism

This article explores the previously unexamined assumption that the cultural profile of international tourists traveling to different destinations mirrors that of the overall population of a nation. Most studies adopt a cross-sectional destination approach, comparing and contrasting visitors from different source markets that visit a single destination. This study adopts a market approach by examining a cohort of socially and demographically homogenous Koreans who have varying travel experiences. The results demonstrated that no significant differences exist among respondents when Hofstede's cultural values scale is applied. Yet, respondents themselves felt their core national cultural values did change because of traveling and also most feel they were less stereotypically "Korean" because of their travel experiences. One reason for the dichotomy is that the standard technique to measure national cultural norms "explains" less than two thirds of the variance in recorded cultural norms. In the end, one wonders how effectively Hofstede's measures really are?

Does National Culture Influence Corporate Carbon Disclosure Propensity?

ABSTRACT This study examines the influence of culture on management's response to the challenge of climate change, as manifested in firms' voluntary participation in carbon disclosure via the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). We argue that national culture impacts managerial attitudes and philosophies about environmental protection and thus affects the willingness as well as the extent to which managers recognize the need for emissions control and disclosure. Based on a sample of 1,762 firms from 33 countries, we find that cultural dimensions of masculinity, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance are strongly and consistently related to carbon disclosure propensity, regardless of whether G. Hofstede, G. J. Hofstede, and Minkov (2010) or Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) culture measures are used. Our results also show individualism and long-term orientation has significant impact under the Hofstede measure, although not under GLOBE measures, after controlling for other compounding factors. In addition, our evidence implies that national culture may moderate the effect of carbon control mechanisms, such as emissions trading schemes. Finally, the empirical evidence indicates that the impact of culture is not sensitive to national wealth and industry membership. The findings suggest culture exerts incremental influences beyond economic and regulatory incentives and therefore should be adequately considered in the combat against global warming and particularly in negotiations for an international climate agreement that is more acceptable to societies with disparate cultural backgrounds.

Empirical testing of Hofstede's measures of national culture and their impact on leadership in four countries

This paper presents the results of empirical investigation of the validity of Hofstede's measurements of national culture in Serbia, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark. In one multinational company the employees have taken part in the questionnaire the purpose of which was to investigate whether the relative relations between positions of the observed national cultures stayed the same when compared according to each of the four national culture dimensions as Hofstede had originally described. In addition, it has been also explored whether a national culture could, through its power distance dimension, be a relevant factor in the choice of leadership style in organizations. The results of the research have demonstrated that the positions of four national cultures and their relative relations have remained the same as Hofstede outlined them through his indexes in three out of four dimensions. The research has also shown that in the national cultures with high power distance, the employees prefer Likert's autocratic leadership styles (exploitative and benevolent), whereas in the cultures with low power distance they tend to choose democratic leadership styles (consultative and participative).

Effects of Cultural Collectivism on Terrorism Favorability

Cultural orientation has long been known to play a substantial role in the decisions individuals make on a range of subjects. This research proposes that participation in acts defined as “terrorism” is strongly correlated to an individual's cultural orientation to collective values. Drawing upon Geehrt Hofstede's extensive work on culture, collectivism describes integration into strong, cohesive in-groups which offer protection in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Considering the overlap between this cultural perspective and the motivations for participation in terrorism, we hypothesize that acts of terrorism will be more prevalent in cultures Hofstede identifies as highly collective. Utilizing the Worldwide Incidents Tracking System (WITS), we identified events where the nationality of perpetrators was known. A correlation analysis with Hofstede's measure of national collective culture was conducted. Given the inconsistent results generated by militaristic and invasive counter-terrorism strategies, an emphasis on creating programs for collective cultures that are locally appropriate is suggested. Limitations and implications of the study are highlighted.

National institutional differences and cross-border university–industry knowledge transfer

Does inter-national institutional difference hamper technology transfer from the foreign university to the business enterprises? A multinational study on institutions suggests that some elements of institutions of nations positively influence international technology transfer, some other elements of institutions negatively influence the international technology transfer, and yet some other elements of institutions of nations have no influence on the international technology transfer. The empirical analysis on six institutional dimensions reveals variegated results: (i) religious distance has a positive effect on international technology transfer when listed companies are controlled; (ii) social distance has a positive effect when listed firms are not controlled; (iii) education distance has a positive effect when listed companies are not controlled; (iv) political distance has no effect on international technology transfer; and (vi) industrial distance has negative effect on international technology transfer. However, Hofstede's measures on national cultural dimensions show no significant effects. The non-significant results could be due to the measurement of national cultures, characteristics of the biopharmaceutical industry, or due to changes in the patterns of national cultures over time.

International market-entry mode decisions: Cultural distance's role in classifying partnerships versus sole ownership

Although the concept of cultural distance (CD) is a fundamental axiom in international business (IB) and has been around for a long time, since 1980 an increasing number of IB publications has quantitatively incorporated it as an independent measure in a wide range of studies. As a contributor to this body of knowledge, López and Vidal examine the choice between direct investment and joint venture as a function of CD, as well as several additional factors such as linguistic distance and political risk. Placing multiple measures of CD side-by-side is an important contribution of their effort. The 15 models examined demonstrate about 15% improvement over chance in case classification. Further, the absence of significant results in all but two CD measures implicitly supports scholars' reliance on Hofstede's measures. Concurrently, they point at fundamental issues that relate to their contribution. This commentary highlights areas related to market entry and CD to which greater attention would be helpful in future research.

DISCUSSION OF A Cross-Cultural Study of the Influence of Country of Origin, Justice, Power Distance, and Gender on Ethical Decision Making

DISCUSSION OF A Cross-Cultural Study of the Influence of Country of Origin, Justice, Power Distance, and Gender on Ethical Decision Making

The impact of country culture on the adoption of new forms of work organization

PurposeThis paper aims at understanding the relationship between the adoption of new forms of work organizations (NFWOs) and measures of country impact, in terms of national culture and economic development.Design/methodology/approachThe adoption of NFWO practices is measured through data from the fourth edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey, while Hofstede's measures are adopted for national culture, and gross national income (GNI) per capita is used as an economic development variable. Multivariate linear regression is applied to investigate relationships, using company size as a control variable. A cluster analysis is utilized to identify groups of countries with similar cultural characteristics and to highlight different patterns of adoption of NFWO practices.FindingsThe authors show that it is possible to explain different patterns in the adoption of NFWO practices when considering company size and cultural variables. GNI is instead only significant for some practices and does not always positively influence the adoption of NFWO. On the other hand, cultural variables are linked to all the practices, but there is no dominant dimension to explain higher or lower NFWO adoption.Research limitations/implicationsResults are limited because only Hofstede's cultural variables are used and manufacturing performance is not considered. Therefore, it is not possible to discriminate between more or less successful NFWO variations.Practical implicationsThis paper provides managers with insights on how to take into account cultural variables when transferring organizational models to different countries.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to previous studies showing the importance of including several contextual variables, country impact in particular, in the study of operations management.

Examining the dimensionality of values for culturally diverse customers in parks and recreation

The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality and usefulness of Hofstede's measure of values and Kahle's List of Values (LOV) in the context of parks and recreation. Parks and recreation areas around the world increasingly serve as international visitor attractions and play an important role in the international tourism industry. Since values presumably differ among members of different cultures and purportedly influence people's perceptions and behaviours, studying values among culturally diverse visitors is important if we are to understand their influence on parks and recreation perceptions and behaviour. In 2005–2006, visitors to Pokfulam Country Park near metropolitan Hong Kong were surveyed. Using a purposive on-site convenience sampling approach at sites known to be heavily used by visitors with diverse ethnic backgrounds, a sample of 253 Hong Kong residents, 153 Mainland Chinese Visitors and 233 Westerners (including American, British, Australian, and European) was obtained. Analyses showed that when employed in a park and recreation context, Hofstede's measure of values must be further refined to provide acceptable validity, reliability, and utility. On the other hand, Kahle's List of Values (LOV) was found to be a meaningful and useful measure of values in a park setting. Two dimensions of values, external and internal, were extracted from the original four-dimension model and were compared among groups. Discussion of the findings and research implications are provided.

National Culture and the Composition and Leadership Structure of Boards of Directors

ABSTRACTManuscript Type:EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue:How and to what extent does national culture influence the composition and leadership structure of the boards of directors of multinational firms?Research Findings/Insights:Societal norms about corporate structure are treated as components of national culture. Hofstede's measures of national culture were shown to predict the board composition and leadership structure of firms based in that culture. The hypotheses were tested with data on 399 multinational manufacturing firms based in 15 industrial countries. The results suggest that national culture can have strong effects on corporate governance and should be considered in any transnational study.Theoretical/Academic Implications:The predictive accuracy of the culture variables provides strong support for the argument that norms embedded in a society's culture affect organizational structure, at least at the board level. The results of the study contribute to our understanding of institutional theory in explaining observed variations in corporate board composition and leadership structure across countries. By linking board composition to the cultural environment, institutional theory provides an explicit framework for analyzing variations in board structure across national boundaries.Practitioner/Policy Implications:When considering board composition and leadership structure, it is important to consider national culture norms. The findings of the study also have important implications for multinational firms setting up boards for their subsidiaries in different countries.

Collectivism, individualism, and outgroup cooperation in a segmented China

A consistent theme in cross-cultural management research is that collectivists are more cooperative than individualists. We use Hofstede's measure for individualism–collectivism and combine it with an experimental measure of cooperation to test this relationship in China. In contrast to the established paradigm, we find that groups with higher individualistic scores are more cooperative than those groups with higher collectivistic scores. We attribute these results to groups being composed of outgroup members. In addition, we find that subjects from the more developed coastal area are more individualistic and cooperative than are subjects from inland China.

Hofstede's measures of national culture and social progress.

Using measures of national cultures published by Hofstede in 1991, this study examined their effects on the weighted index of social progress of 50 countries around the world. Empirical findings indicated that individualism was negatively associated, while power distance was positively associated with the social progress of nations.

Structural and functional equivalence of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire within and between countries

The question was examined as to whether scores at the individual level and scores at the country level on the four scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) have the same psychological meaning. Using data of 24 countries, it was found that the EPQ has different factorial structures at both levels. Both the Lie scale and the Psychoticism scale were shown to jeopardize cross-level equivalence. For further exploration of the meaning of the EPQ scales within countries and between countries country-level correlations were calculated with a variety of country characteristics such as Gross National Product, political indices, religiosity, Hofstede's measures, and subjective well-being. Significant findings for 38 countries included correlations of the EPQ scales with Hofstede's Masculinity, Diener's Subjective Well-Being, religiosity, the number of deaths in a country due to political violence, and bribery. The most striking finding was a substantial negative correlation of the Lie scale with Gross National Product and other wealth-related indices.

A comparison of Japanese and U.S. Auditor decision-making behavior

This study extended research in auditing by examining audit decision making in an international context. Audit decisions made by Japanese and U.S. auditors were compared in areas expected to be affected by cultural differences. Hofstede's measures of national characreristics, specifically, rank consciousness and group orientation, were used to predict the effects of cultural differences. In an audit setting, these differences were expected to result in differences in the acceptance of senior management judgment. Results of hypothesis testing provided evidence of the existence of national differences. The differences, however, appeared to be due to environmental factors rather than the theorized effect of cultural differences.

Culture, Context and Structure: A Test on Hong Kong Banks

This research examined both context and home society culture as predictors of organizational structure in 39 multinational banks operating in Hong Kong. Organizational structure and context were operationalized using the Aston instru ments and culture was operationalized using Hofstede's measures of power dis tance and uncertainty avoidance. The results showed that the contextual variable of size was more strongly associated with structural differentiation while the cultural variable of power distance was more strongly associated with authority. These findings help explain the inconsistent relationships reported in previous studies.

National character and rates of personal violence (suicide and homicide)

The question was examined as to whether scores at the individual level and scores at the country level on the four scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) have the same psychological meaning. Using data of 24 countries, it was found that the EPQ has different factorial structures at both levels. Both the Lie scale and the Psychoticism scale were shown to jeopardize cross-level equivalence. For further exploration of the meaning of the EPQ scales within countries and between countries country-level correlations were calculated with a variety of country characteristics such as Gross National Product, political indices, religiosity, Hofstede's measures, and subjective well-being. Significant findings for 38 countries included correlations of the EPQ scales with Hofstede's Masculinity, Diener's Subjective Well-Being, religiosity, the number of deaths in a country due to political violence, and bribery. The most striking finding was a substantial negative correlation of the Lie scale with Gross National Product and other wealth-related indices.