This is pretty obviously true for greenfield FDI, but idk if the culture argument necessarily follows for fusions and acquisitions. Have you read any papers on that?
How about high-trust multinational firms operating in low-trust countries?
Your example of Sweden, France and the US is fine and all, but all three of those countries operate in a high-trust low-corruption environment. How about Swedish and French firms operating in South Africa? Would their decentralized high-trust practices be able to even survive with a large base of low-trust employees?
It seems to me that high-trust organizational structures imposed on a low-trust culture would just have their base corrupted right out from under them.
I've heard that IKEA had a devil of a time trying to do business honestly in Russia:
"In one example, IKEA officials in Moscow were flummoxed when the employees of the local utility company demanded a bribe if the managers wanted to have electricity for their grand opening in 2000. Instead, IKEA rented several diesel generators large enough to power an entire shopping mall, and the opening went on as planned. The utility company turned the power on soon after. As IKEA continued to open stores throughout Russia, in the process earning the reputation as one of the most outspoken critics of Russian corruption, it became common practice to rent generators in order to avoid extortion from local power companies. But several years later the company realized that the Russian executive hired to manage the rental agreements had been taking kickbacks himself to inflate the rental price – and rather than awarded for any punitive damages for the fraud, IKEA was rebuked in court for a breach of the rental contract.[6] More recently in 2010, two top executives of the IKEA’s Russian division were fired for “looking the other way” when bribes were paid to complete a construction site on time.[7] (And even beyond extortion, IKEA has dealt with the controversy of a subsidiary company being accused of clear cutting ancient Russian forests.)"
This is pretty obviously true for greenfield FDI, but idk if the culture argument necessarily follows for fusions and acquisitions. Have you read any papers on that?
How about high-trust multinational firms operating in low-trust countries?
Your example of Sweden, France and the US is fine and all, but all three of those countries operate in a high-trust low-corruption environment. How about Swedish and French firms operating in South Africa? Would their decentralized high-trust practices be able to even survive with a large base of low-trust employees?
It seems to me that high-trust organizational structures imposed on a low-trust culture would just have their base corrupted right out from under them.
I've heard that IKEA had a devil of a time trying to do business honestly in Russia:
"In one example, IKEA officials in Moscow were flummoxed when the employees of the local utility company demanded a bribe if the managers wanted to have electricity for their grand opening in 2000. Instead, IKEA rented several diesel generators large enough to power an entire shopping mall, and the opening went on as planned. The utility company turned the power on soon after. As IKEA continued to open stores throughout Russia, in the process earning the reputation as one of the most outspoken critics of Russian corruption, it became common practice to rent generators in order to avoid extortion from local power companies. But several years later the company realized that the Russian executive hired to manage the rental agreements had been taking kickbacks himself to inflate the rental price – and rather than awarded for any punitive damages for the fraud, IKEA was rebuked in court for a breach of the rental contract.[6] More recently in 2010, two top executives of the IKEA’s Russian division were fired for “looking the other way” when bribes were paid to complete a construction site on time.[7] (And even beyond extortion, IKEA has dealt with the controversy of a subsidiary company being accused of clear cutting ancient Russian forests.)"
Source: https://russiaglobal.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/exhibits/show/jenna/the-paradox-of-business-in-rus