Unlocking the Role of Language and National Culture: Effects on Supply Chain Operations in a Global Context

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Joo, Mohammad Hashemi; Nishikawa, Yuka; Dandapani, Krishnan; Jayaraman, Vaidyanathan
• 署名单位: California State University System; California State University Los Angeles; California State University System; California State Polytechnic University Pomona; State University System of Florida; Florida International University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1177/10591478241254853
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 929-948
• 关键词: Supply chain operations; NATIONAL CULTURE; language; cash conversion cycle; Inventory management

摘要

We investigate how language, an essential part of culture, affects manufacturing firms' supply chain operations management practices, including the cash conversion cycle and its components. Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which theorizes that a language's structure may affect how its speakers think, prior studies have established that using the future tense to describe future events increases one's mental distance from the future, reducing a person's concern about it. Building upon this foundation, we hypothesize that firms in weak future-time reference countries are likely to be better prepared for future volatility in demand for their products and therefore carry higher inventory to avoid potential stockouts. We also hypothesize that firms in weak future-time reference countries are more apprehensive about long-term relationships with their customers and hence extend longer credit terms to them. Finally, we hypothesize that firms in weak future-time reference countries have longer operating and cash conversion cycles due to carrying higher levels of inventory and extending longer credit terms to customers. The empirical results using a large global sample of 193,625 firm-year observations from 45 countries support our hypotheses. In terms of economic significance, on average, the cash conversion cycle of firms in weak future-time reference countries is similar to 11% longer than that of firms in strong future-time reference countries. We also find that the effect of language is dominant over the influence of traditional cultural dimensions. Together, the results suggest that time encoding in the language of a firm is a determining factor in its supply chain operations.