Assessing the applicability of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for Global 500 corporations’ Facebook profiles and content

Abstract

This research examines how Hofstede's six cultural dimensions are reflected on the official corporate Facebook pages from 259 organizations on Fortune magazine's Global 500 list. This research is grounded in original indices to measure the six dimensions across Facebook's "About Us" section, the textual updates provided by the companies, as well as the media that they share (photographs and videos). This is the first attempt to create a conceptualization of Hofstede's dimensions for organizational social media use. The results paint a mixed picture indicating that the global nature of these corporations is echoed in a somewhat similar overall presence on Facebook; but when the individual elements (About Us, updates, and media) are examined, statistical differences emerge in relation to the reflection of the cultural dimensions. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Cultural diversity and operational performance: entrepreneurial orientation as a mediator

“…Thus, CD can bridge cultural boundaries, offer dramatic solutions for sophisticated problems, and enhance a firm's competitive advantage by reducing response times and error rates and increasing customer satisfaction and quality (Corbett and Rastrick, 2000;Jehn and Bezrukova, 2004;Pless and Maak, 2004;Todorovic and Ma, 2008). The first large-scale study of CD was proposed by Hofstede in the early 1980s (Gambi et al, 2015;Lo et al, 2017;Wu, 2006), and Hofstede's dimensions are widely used in cross-cultural management research to measure CD (Lo et al, 2017). CD refers to the "mixture of people with different group identities within the same social system" (Fleury, 1999) and is revealed through six dimensions (Crespo, 2017;Hofstede, 1994;Lo et al, 2017;Urban and Ratsimanetrimanana, 2015).…”

“…The first large-scale study of CD was proposed by Hofstede in the early 1980s (Gambi et al, 2015;Lo et al, 2017;Wu, 2006), and Hofstede's dimensions are widely used in cross-cultural management research to measure CD (Lo et al, 2017). CD refers to the "mixture of people with different group identities within the same social system" (Fleury, 1999) and is revealed through six dimensions (Crespo, 2017;Hofstede, 1994;Lo et al, 2017;Urban and Ratsimanetrimanana, 2015). First, power distance pertains to the acceptance of power variations among a culture's members (Aramand, 2013;Hofstede, 1994;Lagrosen, 2003).…”

“…For example, low-power-distance managers rely more confidently on the abilities of their followers (Gupta, 2011;Tjosvold and Sun, 2010;Wu, 2006) and have greater EO than managers with high power distance (Aramand, 2013). Second, uncertainty avoidance reflects the level of tolerance for uncertainty and vagueness (Lagrosen, 2003;Lo et al, 2017;Mukherjee et al, 2012). Firms typically try to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity by adhering to written rules to support their performance (Gupta, 2011;Wu, 2006).…”

“…Firms operating in low-uncertainty-avoidance cultures show more entrepreneurial attitudes and higher performance (Swierczek and Ha, 2003). Third, individualism-collectivism is the tendency of individuals to prioritise their own self-interests over group interests (Crespo, 2017;Lo et al, 2017;Sousa-poza et al, 2001). As this dimension affects the way in which individuals evaluate their own goals against common and organisational goals (Gundlach et al, 2006;Mukherjee et al, 2012), several scholars view entrepreneurial activities and high performance as more individualistic than collectivist (Zeffane, 2014).…”

The effect of uncertainty and cooperative behavior on operational performance: Evidence from Brazilian firms

“…Compared to companies in other continents, Latin American companies are significantly more likely to avoid uncertainties (Lo, Waters, & Christensen, 2017). In the context of this paper, results suggest that the level of rejection to uncertainty may be the cause of the long known, frequent short-term orien-tation in regional firms, generating a vicious cycle of instability in many organizations.…”