IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v12y2003i3p297-309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is cultural similarity misleading? The experience of Australian manufacturers in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Fenwick, Marilyn
  • Edwards, Ron
  • Buckley, Peter J.

Abstract

Internationalising firms often begin the process by entering similar markets to their own. This strategy has been given as the explanation for the focus by Australian businesses on Britain as the location for much of their foreign direct investment. This paper extends research into Australian investment in Britain published in an earlier edition of this journal by examining problems related to unanticipated differences between Australian and British management styles. It examines the impact on interpersonal relations when the perceived cultural distance between two countries is small and actual distance much greater. Implications for international management are also considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Fenwick, Marilyn & Edwards, Ron & Buckley, Peter J., 2003. "Is cultural similarity misleading? The experience of Australian manufacturers in Britain," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 297-309, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:12:y:2003:i:3:p:297-309
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593103000179
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edwards, Ronald W. & Buckley, Peter J., 1998. "Choice of location and mode: the case of Australian investors in the UK," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 503-520, October.
    2. Ran Lachman & Albert Nedd & Bob Hinings, 1994. "Analyzing Cross-National Management and Organizations: A Theoretical Framework," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 40-55, January.
    3. Lane Kelley & Arthur Whatley & Reginald Worthley, 1987. "Assessing the Effects of Culture on Managerial Attitudes: A Three-Culture Test," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 18(2), pages 17-31, June.
    4. Shawna O'Grady & Henry W Lane, 1996. "The Psychic Distance Paradox," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(2), pages 309-333, June.
    5. Marschan, Rebecca & Welch, Denice & Welch, Lawrence, 1997. "Language: The forgotten factor in multinational management," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 591-598, October.
    6. Stephen R. Jenner, 1982. "Analyzing Cultural Stereotypes In Multinational Business: United States And Australia," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 307-325, July.
    7. Welch, Denice E. & Welch, Lawrence S., 1993. "Using personnel to develop networks: An approach to subsidiary management," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 157-168.
    8. Meyer, Heinz-Dieter, 1993. "The cultural gap in long-term international work groups: A German-American case study," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 93-101, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Håkanson, Lars & Ambos, Björn, 2010. "The antecedents of psychic distance," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 195-210, September.
    2. Leila Hurmerinta-Peltomäki & Niina Nummela, 2006. "Mixed methods in international business research: A value-added perspective," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 439-459, August.
    3. Barmeyer, Christoph & Mayrhofer, Ulrike, 2008. "The contribution of intercultural management to the success of international mergers and acquisitions: An analysis of the EADS group," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 28-38, February.
    4. Freeman, Susan & Lindsay, Sarah, 2012. "The effect of ethnic diversity on expatriate managers in their host country," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 253-268.
    5. Kotler, Philip & Manrai, Lalita A. & Lascu, Dana-Nicoleta & Manrai, Ajay K., 2019. "Influence of country and company characteristics on international business decisions: A review, conceptual model, and propositions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 482-498.
    6. Fang, Tony & Fridh, Camilla & Schultzberg, Sara, 2004. "Why did the Telia-Telenor merger fail?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 573-594, October.
    7. Chapman, Malcolm & Gajewska-De Mattos, Hanna & Clegg, Jeremy & Jennings Buckley, Peter, 2008. "Close neighbours and distant friends--perceptions of cultural distance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 217-234, June.
    8. Yamin, Mohammad & Sinkovics, Rudolf R., 2006. "Online internationalisation, psychic distance reduction and the virtuality trap," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 339-360, August.
    9. Youngok Kim & Sidney J Gray, 2017. "Internationalization strategy and the home-regionalization hypothesis: The case of Australian multinational enterprises," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 42(4), pages 673-691, November.
    10. Andrew Godley & Haiming Hang, 2008. "Revisiting the psychic distance paradox: international retailing in China in the long run (1840-2005," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2008-66, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    11. Eriksson, Kent & Jonsson, Sara & Lindbergh, Jessica & Lindstrand, Angelika, 2014. "Modeling firm specific internationalization risk: An application to banks’ risk assessment in lending to firms that do international business," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1074-1085.
    12. Yamin, Mo & Golesorkhi, Sougand, 2010. "Cultural distance and the pattern of equity ownership structure in international joint ventures," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 457-467, October.
    13. Isaac M Dinner & Tarun Kushwaha & Jan-Benedict E M Steenkamp, 2019. "Psychic distance and performance of MNCs during marketing crises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(3), pages 339-364, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ellis, Paul D., 2007. "Paths to foreign markets: Does distance to market affect firm internationalisation?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 573-593, October.
    2. Isaac M Dinner & Tarun Kushwaha & Jan-Benedict E M Steenkamp, 2019. "Psychic distance and performance of MNCs during marketing crises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(3), pages 339-364, April.
    3. Brewer, P., 2001. "International market selection: developing a model from Australian case studies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 155-174, April.
    4. Alfredo Jimenez & Jonas Holmqvist & Diego Jimenez, 2019. "Cross-Border Communication and Private Participation Projects: The Role of Genealogical Language Distance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 1009-1033, December.
    5. Freeman, Susan & Lindsay, Sarah, 2012. "The effect of ethnic diversity on expatriate managers in their host country," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 253-268.
    6. Malik, Tariq H. & Zhao, Yanzhi, 2013. "Cultural distance and its implication for the duration of the international alliance in a high technology sector," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 699-712.
    7. Aurélien Portuese, 2012. "Law and economics of the European multilingualism," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 279-325, October.
    8. Hurmerinta, Leila & Nummela, Niina & Paavilainen-Mäntymäki, Eriikka, 2015. "Opening and closing doors: The role of language in international opportunity recognition and exploitation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1082-1094.
    9. Sousa, Carlos M.P. & Bradley, Frank, 2008. "Antecedents of international pricing adaptation and export performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 307-320, July.
    10. Arie Y Lewin & Silvia Massini & Carine Peeters, 2020. "Absorptive capacity, socially enabling mechanisms, and the role of learning from trial and error experiments: A tribute to Dan Levinthal’s contribution to international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(9), pages 1568-1579, December.
    11. Schien Ninan & Jonas F. Puck, 2010. "The internationalization of Austrian firms in Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 15(3), pages 237-259.
    12. Palmero, Alfredo Jiménez & Herrera, Juan José Durán & Sabaté, Juan Manuel de la Fuente, 2013. "The role of psychic distance stimuli on the East-West FDI location structure in the EU. Evidence from Spanish MNEs," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(1), pages 36-65.
    13. Musso, Fabio & Francioni, Barbara, 2012. "How Do Smaller Firms Select Foreign Markets?," MPRA Paper 49117, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 02 Nov 2012.
    14. A. George Assaf & Alexander Josiassen & Haemoon Oh, 2016. "Internationalization and hotel performance," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(3), pages 572-592, June.
    15. Blomstermo, Anders & Eriksson, Kent & Lindstrand, Angelika & Sharma, D. Deo, 2004. "The perceived usefulness of network experiential knowledge in the internationalizing firm," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 355-373.
    16. Erika Raquel Badillo & Rosina Moreno, 2018. "Does absorptive capacity determine collaboration returns to innovation? A geographical dimension," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 60(3), pages 473-499, May.
    17. Kotler, Philip & Manrai, Lalita A. & Lascu, Dana-Nicoleta & Manrai, Ajay K., 2019. "Influence of country and company characteristics on international business decisions: A review, conceptual model, and propositions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 482-498.
    18. Lazarova, Mila & Peretz, Hilla & Fried, Yitzhak, 2017. "Locals know best? Subsidiary HR autonomy and subsidiary performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 83-96.
    19. Nakamura, Eri & Sakai, Hiroki & Shoji, Kenichi, 2018. "Managerial transfers to reduce transaction costs among affiliated firms: Case study of Japanese railway holding companies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 102-110.
    20. Nurmi, Niina & Koroma, Johanna, 2020. "The emotional benefits and performance costs of building a psychologically safe language climate in MNCs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:12:y:2003:i:3:p:297-309. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.