Riassunto analitico
Over the centuries, with developments across different areas such as transportations and technology reducing distance between countries, the world has become more and more interconnected. Against this background, companies have started their internationalization process. However, when entering foreign markets, managers face challenges in adapting to distant systems of values, practices, behaviors, and institutions. To be successful in countries other than the origin one, companies must deal with cultural differences.
The study aims at investigating the role that cultural differences may play when companies set their operations and open subsidiaries abroad. To this extent, three main questions are addressed. The first question focuses on the concept of culture and its role within different national business environments. The second research question shifts the attention to the organizational and human resources management decisions affected by culture and made by companies regarding their organizational design. The last question explores the practices of Italian SMEs with reference to the organizational behavior issues and the attempts to reduce the cultural distances between the home country, host country and corporate cultures.
To answer to these questions, the first three chapters present a literature review of topics such as the globalization, the internationalization process of firms, the concept of culture, frameworks developed to tackle the differences and the macro and micro analysis of the variables which guide managers in the management of foreign subsidiaries. Then, an empirical research is conducted on the case of a medium-size Italian firm. The findings demonstrate the key role of culture in the management of subsidiaries, but at the same time, the challenges that it represents and the need for the development of actionable frameworks for Italian small and medium enterprises to succeed internationally.
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Abstract
Over the centuries, with developments across different areas such as transportations and technology reducing distance between countries, the world has become more and more interconnected. Against this background, companies have started their internationalization process. However, when entering foreign markets, managers face challenges in adapting to distant systems of values, practices, behaviors, and institutions. To be successful in countries other than the origin one, companies must deal with cultural differences.
The study aims at investigating the role that cultural differences may play when companies set their operations and open subsidiaries abroad. To this extent, three main questions are addressed. The first question focuses on the concept of culture and its role within different national business environments. The second research question shifts the attention to the organizational and human resources management decisions affected by culture and made by companies regarding their organizational design. The last question explores the practices of Italian SMEs with reference to the organizational behavior issues and the attempts to reduce the cultural distances between the home country, host country and corporate cultures.
To answer to these questions, the first three chapters present a literature review of topics such as the globalization, the internationalization process of firms, the concept of culture, frameworks developed to tackle the differences and the macro and micro analysis of the variables which guide managers in the management of foreign subsidiaries. Then, an empirical research is conducted on the case of a medium-size Italian firm. The findings demonstrate the key role of culture in the management of subsidiaries, but at the same time, the challenges that it represents and the need for the development of actionable frameworks for Italian small and medium enterprises to succeed internationally.
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