Essays on supplier responsiveness and buyer firm value - Nyenrode ...

Netherlands. Moreover, the above studies are all from the intra-organizational
perspective and none are from the inter-organizational perspective. In light of the
important findings of Chapter 2 from the buyer’s perspective, regarding the role of
IdRR, buyer satisfaction and supplier brand value as moderators of the supplier
responsiveness and buyer organizational performance relationship, it is pertinent to
examine whether those findings will hold across nations.
3.1.2 Cultural Context
There are a number of theories that describe national culture within the marketing and
management literatures, and the Hofstede index is one of the most widely used
(Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede, 1984; House, Javidan, Hanges, & Dorfman, 2002;
Schwartz, 1994; Trompenaars, 1994). The Hofstede index is based on IBM data
collected from 82 countries. This makes the Hofstede index the largest index in terms
of the number of countries from which data is collected and the most widely used one.
There are other indexes, such as Schwartz, which uses data from 31 countries; the
globe framework, which uses data from 58 countries; and Trompenaars’s framework,
which uses data from 54 countries. Furthermore, the Hofstede index is based on IBM
data, and IBM acquires a substantial percentage of its revenues from B2B activities.
Because of the Hofstede index’s widespread use as an index in the marketing
literature, we use it as an explanatory framework in this paper, but we do not
specifically test any of its dimensions.
To compare the United States and The Netherlands, we first need to
understand the national cultures of both countries and how they affect decisionmaking.
The Hofstede index was initially composed of four dimensions, namely,
power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-femininity, and individualismcollectivism
(Hofstede, 1984). A fifth dimension, long-term orientation, was later
added when it was observed that in some Asian cultures uncertainty avoidance was
not a suitable measure (Hofstede & Bond, 1988). As is reflected in Figure 3.1 below,
The Netherlands and the United States are similar on all dimensions of national
culture except masculinity-femininity. The United States is a masculine culture,
whereas The Netherlands is a feminine culture. This implies that managers within the
United States should be competitive, be ambitious when it comes to career
aspirations, and that there is general difference when it comes to gender roles, with
fewer women present in upper management. On the other hand, in The Netherlands,
managers are expected to be competitive, yet they can use their intuition and gut
feeling while reaching decisions. Managers are expected to have modest career
ambitions, and there is more gender egalitarianism within organizations (Hofstede,
2001, p.318).
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