Michael A. Witt, Gordon Redding
In all of the literature on management and organization, including that studying its practice comparatively across societies, there is little attention paid empirically to understanding the mental landscape of those in positions to shape enterprise. In this paper, we present empirical evidence of societal differences in conceptions held by board-level executives in Germany and Japan of the reason for the existence of the firm. We further consider the implications of our findings for the understanding of global variety in economic organizations.
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