Introduction

It can be said globalization is a mixed blessing for German firms. It has certainly offered them the unique opportunity to benefit from their national-specific advantages and although initially at a rather sluggish tempo, successfully expand their business activities throughout the world. The predilection for the establishment of overseas subsidiaries and joint ventures with local partners is so apparent that companies from Germany represent in most countries one of the largest foreign business communities. The process of economic globalization has however unveiled the inability of German firms to reproduce their German management practices abroad, reflecting their dependence on a national framework of institutional and corporate cultural arrangements. In spite of the fact that socio-cultural aspects have turned out to be one of the most frequent risks of failure and gained herewith increasing consideration in recent times, these ‘soft factors’ continue to receive only marginal attention from theorists and practitioners with business, sociological or cultural backgrounds.