National Culture and Research and Development Activities

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of national culture on the process of innovation and research and development activities in the subsidiaries of multinational companies. For this purpose, we use a sample of 222 subsidiaries for five European countries. The paper has drawn up two important findings. Firstly, cultural dimensions such as individualism, masculinity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance influence research and development activities of the subsidiaries. Secondly, the type of management model, defined according to the location of the parent company, influence the organization of the research and development activities.

Citation

Pedro Couto, J. and Cabral Vieira, J. (2004), "National Culture and Research and Development Activities", Multinational Business Review, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/1525383X200400002