Understanding Cultural Difference Management through Charles Taylor’s Philosophy: Case Studies from the Food Processing Industry

Samuel Marleau Ouellet, Joseph Facal and Louis Hébert
Additional contact information
Samuel Marleau Ouellet: Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Government of Canada, 125 Sussex Dr., Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2, Canada
Joseph Facal: Department of Management, HEC Montréal, 3000 Côte Ste-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada
Louis Hébert: Department of Management, HEC Montréal, 3000 Côte Ste-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada

Administrative Sciences, 2015, vol. 5, issue 2, 1-25

Abstract: In this paper, we use the work of the philosopher, Charles Taylor, to investigate the role of culture on internationalization decisions. Using parameters related to key constructs such as positive liberty, social ontology, expressivism, civic republicanism and common spaces, we look at how culture influences the decisions regarding corporate international expansion. This framework was applied in a multi-interview design in four firms from the food processing industry from France and Canada. Results showed an obvious sensitivity to cultural difference and that managerial practices surrounding this issue tended to be intuitive and emergent. These practices were not crystallized in the form of a conscious and deliberate organizational strategy for dealing with cultural difference when planning foreign market entry. Our findings triggered further reflections on managerial implications such as the importance of searching more explicitly for cultural and organizational anchors when reviewing location factors.

Keywords: culture; decision-making; organizational behaviour; internationalization; international business; multinational corporations (MNCs) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/5/2/46/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/5/2/46/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:5:y:2015:i:2:p:46-70:d:48876

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().