Culture, meaning, and institutions: Executive rationale in Germany and Japan

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Witt, Michael A.; Redding, Gordon
• 署名单位: INSEAD Business School; INSEAD Business School
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2506
• DOI: 10.1057/jibs.2008.81
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 859-885
• 关键词: rationale; culture; VALUES; institutions; varieties of capitalism; comparative business systems

摘要

This paper contributes rare primary empirical evidence to one of the major research questions in the social sciences today, namely, the linkage between national cultures and institutional structures of national business systems. Drawing on the work of Redding, we explore the thinking, or rationale'', of senior executives of leading German and Japanese firms about the ideal structure of the economy. We find considerable variation in rationale across the two countries and in comparison with the shape of the business system of the United States. Our study has implications for our understanding of the meaning of economic activity in different countries and of the evolutionary trajectories of national business systems. Journal of International Business Studies (2009) 40, 859-885.