Cultural values, institutional arrangements and stakeholder management culture: A cross-national study

This study draws upon the cultural values model, institutional theory and comparative capitalism to investigate differences in organizations’ approach to stakeholder management across country boundaries.

The authors developed a multi-dimensional scale, following the stakeholder culture framework (Jones et al., 2007) to identify differences in the prevalent stakeholder cultures in the USA, Italy and Japan. Data were collected in form of a questionnaire from managers of 530 companies in the USA, Italy and Japan.

Results show that there are important differences in the extent to which different stakeholder cultures exist in each of these three countries, and that the prevalence of stakeholder culture types in each country is influenced by the country’s cultural values and institutional arrangements.

Understanding stakeholder management beyond the conventional firm level to a wider institutional setting has important implications for the dissemination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices across cultures. Developing an understanding of how organizations’ stakeholder management approaches are embedded in the context of the institutional arrangements that exist in a particular country will lead to CSR practices that are better suited to the specific national context. It may also help in a more widespread acceptance of these concepts and practices.