The role of dynamic cultural theories in explaining the viability of international strategic alliances

Abstract

Many managers of Indo-French alliances consider culture to be a failure, rather than a success factor because they address the national or corporate level for cross-cultural comparisons. In contrast, we propose using the Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) to address the transactional level of culture. In so doing, we overcome some of the limitations of the national, corporate and transactional approaches and provide a systematic framework for discussing the viability of international alliances. Through an analysis of 48 ethnographic interviews and field studies conducted in 25 Indo-French alliances, we offer the following guidelines to managers for the design of viable alliances: (1) The commonly-cited interdependence of the hierarchical and competitive solidarities is not sufficient to ensure the viability of international alliances. (2) The presence of a third solidarity seems essential. (3) An analysis of failed alliances reveals that fatalism is not the third solidarity we are looking for. (4) An analysis of viable alliances shows that the egalitarian solidarity plays a role in ensuring the viability of international alliances by building a bridge between the hierarchical and competitive solidarity, thereby preventing gridlocks. Major methodological limitations of this study include over-emphasis on ethnographic interviews for data and use of unsystematic criteria for identifying solidarities in Indo-French alliances. Unlike our predecessors, we recommend that cultural plurality, not cultural domination, leads to viable alliances. International managers often tend to impose their own thought styles on others, thereby neglecting the inherent wisdom of other thought styles. We stress that cultural diversity, without duality leads to viability.

Making Sense of the Diversity of Ethical Decision Making in Business: An Illustration of the Indian Context

“…As Douglas (1996) points out, each solidarity has its merits and they are interdependent, so that each solidarity needs to coexist with others for its survival. Patel (2005) argues that the competitive solidarity needs the hierarchical solidarity so as to prevent it from falling into total chaos. The competitive solidarity, if left by itself can become so focused on results that it tends to undermine all controlling rules and regulations.…”

“…This obliged traditional family-run Indian companies like Kirloskar (manufacturer of automotive parts, lubricants, etc.) to change the way they worked so as to become more efficient and result-oriented (see Patel, 2005). This focus on outcomes and a willingness to change in order to be more competitive indicate behaviours typical of the competitive solidarity.…”

“…A notion that some national cultures are somehow more attuned to business ethics than others (as discussed above) would seem to stem at least in part from such a perspective. Yet, national cultures are neither homogenous nor unchanging (Usunier, 1998;Patel, 2005Patel, , 2007 and attempts to correlate quantitative measures of national cultural differences against ethical preferences seem problematic from this perspective. A straight-forward relationship between national culture and ethical versus unethical practices is put in question by the work such as Schepers (2006), who demonstrates the presence of different sets of ethical values within a single American corporation, and Resick et al (2006), who found that each of four dimensions, namely character/integrity, altruism, collective motivation and encouragement were universally endorsed as being important for effective ethical leadership, yet that respondents from different cultures varied significantly in the degree of endorsement for each dimension.…”

Douglasian cultural dialogues and the Financial Reporting Council complexity project

“…Cultural theory proposes that within any community (or organisation or nation) the four solidarities are present and in constant competition, and this gives rise to cultural dialogues as the adherents of the four ways of life promote their worldviews and attempt to sway others to join their cause (see for example, Douglas, 1997Douglas, , 2004. Consequently, the notion of cultural dialogues implies that culture is not static and cultural theory does not equate nation states and cultures; on the contrary, it questions the idea of unchanging groups and emphasises the dynamic nature of culture (Patel, 2007).…”

Managers’ Competencies Framework: A Study of Conative Component

“…Therefore, our research question is whether managers in Slovenia have competencies such as opportunity perception, creativity, innovation, risk taking ability and initiative that would allow them to cope efficiently with changing business environment, which is characterized by increasing complexity, uncertainty and discontinuity (Chung et al, 2006;Patel, 2007;Dolenc, 2010). For the investigation of the question, a model of tripartite components of competencies is set: cognitive, affective, and conative ones, with focus on the conative component of competencies as the most stable and unchangeable one.…”