Meredith Downes and Alex J. Barelka
This paper examines the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) international experience (IE) and firm performance. The authors also examine the symmetry of this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) international experience (IE) and firm performance. The authors also examine the symmetry of this relationship, whereby home and host countries would be interchangeable without any significant change in the impact of each cultural dimension on firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
For a sample of CEOs from Fortune's list of Global 500 companies, firm performance was measured as average net margin for the first four years of CEO tenure. IE was the difference between home country culture and that where CEO experience was gained, based on the GLOBE cultural dimensions. Regression then tested the IE/firm performance relationship. For symmetry, distance direction was coded as either positive or negative, depending on whether home country score on a given dimension was higher or lower than that of the host. Moderator regression then tested for whether distance direction impacted the relationship between IE and firm performance.
Findings
Results show that overall distance between home and host cultures in aggregate does not have a significant effect on firm performance. However, for specific dimensions, greater distances between the CEO's countries of experience and that of the parent company on in-group collectiveness and performance orientation are associated with higher firm performance, and greater distances on power distance and assertiveness are associated with lower performance. The authors further find asymmetric patterns in the IE–performance relationship, attributable primarily to the fact that, when scores on performance orientation are greater for the home than host country, organizational performance is significantly enhanced.
Originality/value
This study's hypotheses are grounded in theory, combining the human capital perspective with cultural paradox theory. In addition, the authors offer a unique approach for measuring the dimensional distance of culture.
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Meredith Downes, Anisya S. Thomas and Carolan McLarney
This study explores the role of expatriate satisfaction in organizational performance. It also posits that international transfer of knowledge and corporate learning are…
Abstract
This study explores the role of expatriate satisfaction in organizational performance. It also posits that international transfer of knowledge and corporate learning are determinants in the overall satisfaction of expatriate managers. Moreover, as organizations gain international experience, their expatriate managers contribute to the global learning of the firm. This corporate learning provides the tools (e.g. foreign market experience and know‐how) for future expatriate managers and increases the likelihood of positive overseas experiences. Results from 132 expatriates of Fortune 500 firms indicate that satisfaction is significantly related to the performance of the organization as a whole and, further, that this relationship will vary depending on the international orientation of the organization.
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Meredith Downes, Iris I. Varner and Masoud Hemmasi
This paper aims to assess the relationship between expatriate personality and effectiveness on overseas assignments.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the relationship between expatriate personality and effectiveness on overseas assignments.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 118 expatriates who were currently on assignments overseas or had been on an assignment in the past.
Findings
Results of multiple regression analysis show expatriate personality traits to be significant predictors of two of the effectiveness measured used. Extraversion, emotional stability, and openness have a significant, positive impact on expatriate adjustment, and agreeableness is significant and positively associate with expatriate job performance.
Practical implications
Organizations may be well‐served to consider expatriate personality as an important criterion for selection for overseas assignments, as successful assignments reflect on the organization in a number of ways and thus contribute to the company's global competitiveness.
Originality/value
Extant research on the connection between expatriate personality and effectiveness has been limited, relies on expatriate or supervisor perceptions of which traits they believe are important to success, and has been inconsistent in measuring the effectiveness construct. This paper directly assesses personality and employs multiple dimensions of effectiveness, thus contributing to the understanding of this relationship.
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Meredith Downes, Anisya S. Thomas and Rodger B. Singley
This study is based on the premise that, as organizations gain experience in the international marketplace, the determinants of job satisfaction for expatriate managers will vary…
Abstract
This study is based on the premise that, as organizations gain experience in the international marketplace, the determinants of job satisfaction for expatriate managers will vary. It is hypothesized that significant learning, manifested in firm international experience, will moderate the effects of work/life experience, mentorship, training and environmental benevolence. Findings partially support this theoretical argument and confirm the expectation that the impact of mentoring on satisfaction will lessen over the course of firm internationalization. Further, the impact of training on expatriate satisfaction was more pronounced for highly internationalized firms than for those with limited exposure abroad. Results of the empirical tests are provided, and their implications are discussed.
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Masoud Hemmasi and Meredith Downes
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural distance and cross‐cultural adjustment. The authors address four hypotheses regarding this relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural distance and cross‐cultural adjustment. The authors address four hypotheses regarding this relationship: the Cultural Distance Hypothesis; the Cultural Distance Paradox; the Null Hypothesis; and the Asymmetry Hypothesis, in an effort to reconcile the disparities found in the literature. Specifically, portions of the extant literature support a positive relationship, while others support the opposite. There is also some evidence that this relationship may vary depending on the direction of expatriate transfer. Finally, some of the research has failed to support any significant relationship between cultural distance and adjustment.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 125 expatriates (117 expatriates and eight repatriates), representing 36 nationalities and on assignment in 32 different countries. Multiple regression analyses were used to regress cultural distance on both general and work‐related adjustment. Cultural distance was first operationalized as a composite of the scores on Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Subsequently, distances for each of the dimensions were entered into the regression models.
Findings
The authors concur with the Cultural Distance Paradox that greater differences in individualism between home and host cultures facilitates work adjustment. Findings also support the Asymmetry Hypothesis that travel from individualistic societies to more collectivist ones results in greater adjustment than does travel in the opposite direction.
Practical implications
Based on the Cultural Distance Paradox, firms may be well‐advised to direct their expatriate training efforts toward those assignments where the home and host cultures are presumably similar, as there may be a tendency to take adjustment for granted and therefore forgo cross‐cultural training. Similar efforts should be made to ease transfers to locations where the culture is more individualistic than that of the parent country.
Originality/value
Rather than fixate on one set of findings from the literature, this study considers all four of the possible relationships between cultural distance and adjustment, as found or suggested in previous research. This comprehensive approach should advance our understanding of cultural distance as a complex construct, with a role that cannot be consistently defined across all situations. This represents a departure from the need to assign static roles to variables that may be dynamic in nature.
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Meredith Downes and Gail S. Russ
The purpose of this paper is to examine the demise of Enron, one of the most curious aspects of which was that on the surface it appeared to be thriving, giving no one any cause…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the demise of Enron, one of the most curious aspects of which was that on the surface it appeared to be thriving, giving no one any cause to question the company's governance structures.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a detailed analysis of the composition of Enron's board of directors, demonstrating how directly observable traits are not the sole determinants of effective corporate governance.
Findings
The paper finds that collectively, the board's qualifications are less overt, and even more elusive are the ethics and morals that drive the governance process.
Originality/value
This case illustrates how ethics and morals are necessary, but that none is sufficient, to deter poor governance, and also underscores the far‐reaching impact of Enron's moral deficiencies.
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Donald Trump portrayed himself as a crusader against corrupt elites, claiming he would “drain the swamp.” Corporate elites generally depicted themselves as either trying to work…
Abstract
Donald Trump portrayed himself as a crusader against corrupt elites, claiming he would “drain the swamp.” Corporate elites generally depicted themselves as either trying to work with him or as directly opposed to him. Yet a closer analysis of Trump's policies and their outcomes in key issue areas, from taxes to immigration to the environment, shows continuity with previous pro-corporate policies. Furthermore, by positioning Trump as opposed to the elite, Trump and commentators on his presidency created a “radical flank” effect that made status quo, pro-corporate policies appear as progressive victories. This analysis suggests that a focus on the personal characteristics of politicians is misleading, and that the focus of political discourse needs to be on the power structure that shapes policy outcomes.
Alain Neher, Alexander Jungmeister, Calvin Wang and Oliver Burmeister
This paper explored the relationship between the embeddedness of a firm’s managerial values and corporate financial performance in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs…
Abstract
This paper explored the relationship between the embeddedness of a firm’s managerial values and corporate financial performance in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by developing a conceptual maturity model of managerial values (MM-MV). The MM-MV articulates the extent to which managerial values are embedded within organizations, allowing the analysis of the interrelationship between the degree of values-embeddedness and financial performance in SMEs. The findings suggested that as managerial values become more embedded, financial performance increases; therefore, SMEs exhibiting highly embedded managerial values such as customer-minded, team spirit, innovation-driven reliability, persistency, competency, and engagement tend to financially outperform SMEs that have not fully embedded managerial values throughout the firm.