Cultural distance and its implication for the duration of the international alliance in a high technology sector

This study examines the role of cultural distance in the duration of an international alliance in a high technology sector. The general view is that cultural distance between international partners can hamper the duration of the alliance. We propose the alternative argument that cultural distance can be a source of the alliance duration. We use cultural distance based on widely perceived five cultural dimensions (Hofstede et al., 2010). Overall, the result supports the proposition. The distance based on masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation tends to increase the duration of the alliance. The distance based on power distance and individualism tends to decrease the duration of the alliance. Nevertheless, the composite measure based on all five dimensions also shows a positive effect on the duration of the alliance. The study concludes that learning alliances prefer diversity of knowledge sources. Knowledge transfer is a context dependent phenomenon. The diversity of the context delays knowledge transfer. Therefore, learning alliances tend to be longer when there is a cultural distance between international partners. The article notes some implications and limitations for the future research.

► Alternative to the perceived theory, we tested whether cultural distance can lengthen the duration of the international alliance.
► Cultural distance based on masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation has positive effects.
► Power distance and individualism are negatively correlated with the duration of the international alliance.
► The composite index of cultural distance also shows a positive correlation with the duration.
► This context dependent knowledge transfer needs to be texted in other high technology sectors.