What role does corporate culture play in business partnerships ? A case study

Details

Supervisors

Ehnert, Ina

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

This case study explores the role of corporate culture in business partnerships. Corporate culture has been named as one of the key reasons behind the success or failure of mergers and acquisitions, but there is far less research on the impact of corporate culture in partnerships, which makes it a relevant topic to research. The aim of this thesis is to create a better understanding of how corporate culture is seen by the case company and its partners as well as how it affects their business partnership. The research objective is to first and foremost examine the research question, i.e. determine the role of corporate culture in partnerships, but also to identify factors that facilitate a successful cross-cultural partnership between the case company and its partners. The research method consists mainly of an online survey, including a prominent tool used for culture mapping, i.e. the organizational culture assessment instrument (OCAI) and the competing values framework, which the case company and its partners responded to. Thematic networks analysis was used to discuss the findings. According to the empirical research conducted for this case study, corporate culture impacts partnerships in both good and bad ways: it can create synergies that help all parties reach their goals faster, but at times it slows down cooperation. Even though the partners employ a completely different culture than the case company, both according to the OCAI outcome as well as the partners themselves, they are still content with their collaboration, as are those who believe they have a similar organizational culture. Nevertheless, in this case study, partnership success factors seem to circle around the following factors: open and friendly communication, fast response times, focus on high quality, working towards common goals, acting professionally as well as valuing their partnership relationships. Many of these were also mentioned when asked about the impact of organizational culture on their partnership relationship.