CULTURA NAZIONALE E TRASFERIMENTO DEI SISTEMI DI CONTROLLO DI GESTIONE

The relationship between national culture and Management Control System (MCS) has been well addressed in the literature on the international management. Researchers argued that culture is central and crucial to enhance our understanding of the differences in the MCS (Chow et al., 1999; D'Iribarne, 1989; Catturi 1992; Ciambotti, 2001). Therefore, it was called into question the generalizability of the MCS. Despite the non-generalizability of the MCS in the internationalized companies, companies tend to transfer their MCS from their parent company to the foreign subsidiary (Van Der Stede, 2003). Schneider (1988) argued that the parent company is interested in promoting a similar management philosophy within the group. In this context, Roth et al. (1991) deemed that having a shared management philosophy could increase efficiency, reduce communication time and contribute to the success of the corporate strategy. Moreover, the non-generalizability of MCS, caused by the relationship existing between the MCS and the cultural values, implies an adaptation of MCS to the cultural characteristics of the new context. The aim of the research is twofold; firstly, to understand how the MCS is transferred from the parent company to the foreign subsidiary. Secondly, to examine and explain how culture influences the transfer process. The research methodology chosen is qualitative with case studies. The case studies relate to Italian companies that have subsidiaries in Morocco. Italy and Morocco are chosen for this study because they represent areas with reverse positions on cultural dimensions. The research findings show that the internationalized companies are guided in their actions by institutional forces (Boussebaa et al., 2012; Prahalab and Doz, 1987; Rosenzweig and Singh, 1991; Yin and Makino, 2002; Powell and DiMaggio, 1991). The findings show also, that the choice of transfer occurs without considering the cultural elements, consequently the MCS are transferred but not internalized. The internalization process involves, as has been pointed out by Kostova and Roth 2002, the sharing of values and the similarity between the institutional contexts of the mother company and the foreign subsidiary. Therefore, neglecting the cultural factors in an internationalized context leads to the cultural conflicts, Youssfi (2011) showed that the non-consideration of cultural values involves cultural conflicts. This idea was confirmed also by the present study. In other words, cultural values are crucial key for the internalized companies to avoid the cultural conflicts. Results showed also that the parent company becomes aware of the diversity and cultural conflicts only in the second stage of the transfer process, however the behavior adopted by the company does not involve any adjustment to fit the cultural variables.