Cultural Values As Anchors For Acquiring And Building Competitive Capabilities in Firms: Indian‐US Experiences

Abstract

Based on analysis of six companies, three each from India and US, it is found that companies using cultural values as anchors for acquiring and building competitive capabilites have outsmarted other companies that followed only conventional routes such as product and process innovations, operating efficiencies, responsiveness to consumers and quality of products and services to build competitive advantage. These six case companies have leveraged their performance by focusing on traditional as well as newly emerging cultural values and practices at the level of an individual, family and professional group. Culture often means “corporate values” in the United States whereas it means “social and sociological values” in India. The cultural management perspective is indeed much broader in India, where Indian managers often refer to a very old history and national culture, to multicentury values and traditions, whereas American managers develop strategies mainly based on emerging values and fashions.

Citation

Jallat, F. and Johri, L.M. (1997), "Cultural Values As Anchors For Acquiring And Building Competitive Capabilities in Firms: Indian‐US Experiences", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb008421