Title: Seen one, seen 'em all? A comparison of organisational culture formation in new ventures across countries

Authors: Sonja Franzke

Addresses: Chair of Entrepreneurship and Digital Business Models, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany

Abstract: While recognising the importance of organisational culture for new ventures, research into its characteristics and how the country context influences it has been scarce. Finding persistent cross-country differences in entrepreneurial outcomes, studying the manifestations of organisational culture across countries might help explain these differences. Drawing on 84 interviews with founding CEOs, employees and investors in Germany and China, this study identifies different types of organisational culture grouped along the dimensions of the competing values framework. The study finds the types of organisational culture to be shaped strongly by internal relationships and external societal pressure, resulting in different organisational cultures per country. German interviewees focus on rational and people-oriented cultures, while Chinese interviewees combine contradictions such as stability and change, or flat hierarchies and a strong leader. This study adds to research on organisational culture and entrepreneurship by explicating organisational culture in a cross-country comparison of new ventures.

Keywords: organisational culture; organisational culture formation; new ventures; cross-country comparison; comparative case study; Germany; China.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2026.154253

European Journal of International Management, 2026 Vol.29 No.3, pp.468 - 495

Received: 29 Jan 2021
Accepted: 13 Jun 2021
Published online: 18 Jun 2026 *

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