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Cultural Diversity and the Performance of Multinational Firms

  • Citation: Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., and Leslie E. Palich. “Cultural Diversity and the Performance of Multinational Firms.” Journal of International Business Studies 28 (1997): 309–35.
    • Topics:
    • Business and Trade
    • Keywords:
    • cultural diversity
    • multinational firms
    • Fortune 500 firms

We test the hypothesis that culturally related international diversification will have a positive impact on firm performance and that the opposite will be true for culturally unrelated globalization. Cultural diversity for Fortune 500 firms was used to predict performance over a ten-year period (1985–1994), controlling for several organizational and industry characteristics. Regression tests using nine indicators of cultural diversity revealed no significant cultural effects. Alternate interpretations are offered.

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