International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921

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International Business Review

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev

Facilitating factors in the cross-cultural transfer of management practices:

The case of a German multinational in Brazil
Madeleine Bausch a, *, Christoph Barmeyer a, Ulrike Mayrhofer b
a
University of Passau, Chair for Intercultural Communication, Gottfried-Schäffer-Straße 20, 94032, Passau, Germany
b
Université Côte d’Azur, IAE Nice, GRM, 5, rue de 22ème B.C.A., 06367, Nice, France

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The transfer of management practices in multinational companies has been discussed as a central topic in in­
German multinational ternational business. Research has mainly focused on the challenges associated with transfer processes, but little
Brazilian subsidiary is known about facilitating factors in cross-cultural transfer, even less in emerging markets. Based on a single case
Facilitating factors
study of a German multinational in Brazil, we examine the transfer of quality management practices and map this
Cross-cultural transfer
Management practices
process into three ideal-typical stages. We identify nine facilitating factors that play different roles during the
Intercultural hybridization three stages and highlight their support for the subsidiary’s successful development. Our findings contribute to
constructive approaches of cross-border transfer and show that the emergence of a hybrid organizational culture
through mutual learning favors the transfer of management practices in multinationals.

1. Introduction
Multinational companies (MNC) transfer management practices on a
global scale, and it is commonly known that Western MNCs face chal­
lenges due to misunderstandings and misalignment of management
practices in foreign subsidiaries (Friesl & Silberzahn, 2017), especially
in those located in emerging markets (Cavusgil, Ghauri, & Liu, 2021;
Sánchez & Brühwiler, 2015; Yildiz & Fey, 2012). Cross-border transfer
can be regarded as a process in which actors from different cultural
contexts engage, and in which subjective perception, interpretation and
the creation of meaning play a central role (Brannen, 2004; d’Iribarne,
2012). Diverging interpretation and meaning systems can lead to diffi­
culties in sense-making and implementation (Weick, 1995) and, due to
cultural and linguistic differences, employees from different back­
grounds may have diverging ideas about the content and implementa­
tion of management practices (Brannen, 2004; d’Iribarne, Chevrier,
Henry, Segal, & Tréguer-Felten, 2020).
In IB research, empirical studies often emphasize the conflicting and
problematic aspects of cross-border transfers to emerging markets
(d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007; d’Iribarne, 2012), whereby foreignness is
rather considered as a “liability” than an “asset” (Yildiz & Fey, 2012),
and little is known about the positive factors and success stories of
cross-border activities in general (Barmeyer, Bausch, & Mayrhofer,
2021; Stahl & Tung, 2015) and international transfer in particular
(Koveshnikov, Barner-Rasmussen, Ehrnrooth, & Mäkelä, 2012).
Research on the transfer of management practices (Friel & Pinot de
Villechenon, 2018; Kostova, 1999) shows that, if transposed to other
cultural contexts, these practices should be adapted and “made to fit”
(Ansari, Fiss, & Zajac, 2010) the local cultural and institutional settings.
Several studies highlight factors such as boundary spanners (Mäkelä,
Barner-Rasmussen, Ehrnrooth, & Koveshnikov, 2019), professional
networks (Erçek & Say, 2008), tandem leadership (Barmeyer & Davoine,
2019), or the recruitment of local managers (Koveshnikov et al., 2012)
that may facilitate the cross-border exchange.
Although their positive effects are commonly acknowledged, there is
a lack of process perspectives to study cross-border transfer (Ansari,
Reinecke, & Spaan, 2014), and the relationships between facilitating
factors and their influence on organizational outcomes. A process
perspective is helpful to identify the dynamics between single events
because it provides a more nuanced understanding of why organiza­
tional actions succeed or fail. Management research has therefore called
for adopting diachronic perspectives to better understand cross-border
dynamics and the link between processes and outcomes (Gutierrez-­
Huerter, Moon, Gold, & Chapple, 2020).
Even though scholarly interest in emerging markets has increased
throughout the last decades, Brazil has been widely neglected in IB

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: madeleine.bausch@uni-passau.de (M. Bausch), christoph.barmeyer@uni-passau.de (C. Barmeyer), ulrike.mayrhofer@univ-cotedazur.fr
(U. Mayrhofer).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2021.101921
Received 4 December 2019; Received in revised form 13 July 2021; Accepted 9 September 2021
Available online 24 September 2021
0969-5931/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Bausch et al.
research (Carneiro, Bamiatzi, & Cavusgil, 2018; Hennart, Sheng, &
Pimenta, 2015) despite the country’s importance on the global scene
and the number of local subsidiaries established by foreign multina­
tionals. This lack of research might be attributed to Brazil’s cultural
complexity: the country ranks second in The Global Business Complexity
Index (2020) and 124th (out of 190) in the Ease of Doing Business
Ranking (World Bank, 2020). Thus, “Brazil is not for beginners” (Freitas,
2017, p. 119). Although existing studies focus on the transfer of mana­
gerial practices from Western MNCs to emerging markets (d’Iribarne &
Henry, 2007; d’Iribarne, 2012; Koveshnikov et al., 2012), there is still a
lack of knowledge on practice transfer, and more specifically
cross-cultural transfer, to Brazil (Friel & Pinot de Villechenon, 2018;
Sparkes & Miyake, 2000; Wehling et al., 2009).
To address these gaps, we rely on a process perspective and examine
how facilitating factors shape the transfer process of a management
practice and its outcomes in a Western MNC in Brazil over time. In
particular, we focus on quality management, as its meaning and prac­
tices vary across cultural contexts, despite being a global practice (Juran
& Godfrey, 1999; Vecchi & Brennan, 2009), and thus influence
cross-border cooperation within MNCs (d’Iribarne et al., 2020). We
draw on a single case study of a German family-owned company who
stands out for its product quality and who has successfully transferred its
quality management system to its Brazilian subsidiary.
We primarily contribute to constructive approaches of intercultural
management (Adler & Gundersen, 2008; Barmeyer et al., 2021;
Cameron, 2017; Stahl & Tung, 2015) by highlighting the role of facili­
tating factors from a diachronic perspective. Our findings illustrate that
the cross-cultural transfer of management practices is a process of three
ideal-typical stages. We identify nine factors that can facilitate the
transfer process and the implementation of management practices in the
German-Brazilian context and show that the nine factors play different
roles during the three stages. Moreover, our case reveals that increasing
cross-border collaboration over time leads to the formation of a hybrid
organizational culture, fostering mutual learning and development.
This, in turn, leads to the hybridization of management practices, which
leverages their implementation since employees find sense in them.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. We first present
conceptual considerations on the transfer of managerial practices. We
then describe the case study methodology and present the company
case. The subsequent sections are dedicated to data analysis, the dis­
cussion of our findings and our contributions to theory. We then
conclude and indicate some limitations and research perspectives for
future studies.
2. Conceptual considerations
In this section, we will investigate the literature on the transfer of
management practices in multinationals before focusing on quality
management practices in cross-cultural contexts, in particular with re­
gard to Germany and Brazil, and proposing a constructive perspective on
cross-cultural transfer processes.
2.1. The transfer of management practices in multinationals
Management practices of multinationals have considerably evolved
over the past few decades (Mayrhofer, 2013), and the observed trans­
formations are linked to increased global competition and growing ex­
pectations of well-educated staff in both mature and emerging
economies (Cavusgil et al., 2021). MNCs need to continuously adapt and
diffuse their management practices to a global workforce who is
demanding more self-expression, equality and participation (World
Values Survey, 2020), for example by developing participative leader­
ship and the empowerment of employees. These new management
practices are usually introduced at the corporate headquarters before
being transferred to foreign subsidiaries, with the aim to provide more
responsibility to local staff (d’Iribarne et al., 2020).
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International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
In the field of international business, there has been extensive
research on transfer processes across national borders (Ansari et al.,
2010; Gutierrez-Huerter et al., 2020; Kostova, 1999; Värlander, Hinds,
Thomason, Pearce, & Altman, 2016), and scholars agree that MNCs
should act in a context-sensitive way in the host country environment to
achieve a “fit” (Ansari et al., 2010; Brannen, 2004) and thus their goals
(Hadjikhani, Elg, & Ghauri, 2012; Isaac, Borini, Raziq, & Benito, 2019).
Headquarters-subsidiaries relationships are shaped by internationali­
zation strategies and power politics (Dörrenbächer & Geppert, 2017;
Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach, & Mudambi, 2016), and MNCs must
manage numerous tensions between local integration and global
responsiveness (Ambos, Fuchs, & Zimmermann, 2020). They are
exposed to different institutional settings and logics with multiple, often
conflicting pressures (Minbaeva, Muratbekova-Touron, Nayır, & Mor­
eira, 2020), which may influence transfer processes through labor,
educational and environmental laws. Conflicts and power relationships
can be reinforced by cultural diversity (Dörrenbächer & Geppert, 2017).
Previous research on the cross-cultural transfer of management
practices in multinationals has often dealt with misunderstandings,
tensions and failures caused by cultural and institutional issues (Ansari
et al., 2010; Brannen, 2004; d’Iribarne, 2012; Kostova, 1999), and less is
known about factors that are likely to positively shape or facilitate the
transfer process of management practices in MNCs (Koveshnikov et al.,
2012). A recent literature review on the role of culture in IB research
underlines that knowledge transfer and cross-border collaboration need
to be further explored (Srivastava, Singh, & Dhir, 2020). Moreover,
there are few attempts to capture the dynamic and process aspects of
transfer (Ansari et al., 2014; Gutierrez-Huerter et al., 2020), and these
studies highlight the need to further examine the effects of processes on
outputs or “performance effects” (Ansari et al., 2014). Adopting a pro­
cess perspective is suitable to understand the relationships between
events and outcomes, and can contribute to further theory building.
In this paper, we focus on quality management practices, which
represent particular challenges for multinationals who aim to transfer
such practices, mainly because of the diverging conceptions of quality
across countries (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009). These difficulties tend to be
exacerbated when Western headquarters attempt to transfer their
quality management practices to subsidiaries located in emerging mar­
kets (d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007).
2.2. The transfer of quality management practices across cultures
Studies on quality and quality management practices in a cross-
cultural context have primarily focused on Total Quality Management
(TQM) (Alofan, Chen, & Tan, 2020; Ansari et al., 2014; Erçek & Say,
2008; d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007; Kostova & Roth, 2002), a corporate
philosophy that has found its way into Western MNCs since the 1980s
(Deming, 1986; Juran & Godfrey, 1999). Quality management can be
defined as “an approach to achieving and sustaining high quality
output” (Flynn, Schroeder, & Sakakibara, 1994, 339). As a “timeless
concept”, it remains an important organizational practice that ensures
the satisfaction of internal and external stakeholders and thus supports
organizational development (Juran & Godfrey, 1999).
Even if institutions such as the International Organization for Stan­
dardization (ISO) strive to formally align quality management systems
worldwide, extant research reveals that cultures and societies deal
differently with notions and practices of quality management (Ansari
et al., 2014; d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007; d’Iribarne et al., 2020). In gen­
eral, quality is considered universal and non-negotiable; in reality,
however, practices adapt to the context. Accordingly, cultural and
institutional contexts can have a significant influence on the underlying
interpretation of “good” quality and approaches to its implementation
(Vecchi & Brennan, 2009).
In global comparison, German companies have a specific positioning
with regard to quality. German products and companies are known for
the “Made in Germany” label, which promises longevity, reliability,
M. Bausch et al.
robustness, and precision of products (Ewing, 2014). It is not only the
global companies who epitomize this label, but mostly medium-sized
and/or family-owned companies in the business-to-business sector.
Many of them are global leaders in niche markets and usually unknown
to end customers. Therefore, they are called “hidden champions”
(Simon, 2009).
In Germany, the concept of quality with its associated attributes has
developed over centuries and is strongly shaped by the cultural and
institutional context. Cultural values such as long-term thinking, task
orientation, internalized control mechanisms, paired with a relatively
high autonomy of the individual (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010;
Thomas, Kinast, & Schroll-Machl, 2010), form the understanding and
meaning of quality and its management practices. Logical reasoning and
analytical thinking coined by the enlightenment movement mark pro­
fessional and organizational cultures of hidden champions. National
institutions steadily assess and secure the quality of products and ser­
vices, and seals of quality are important hallmarks for customers.
When German MNCs transfer quality management practices to
Brazil, they often face cultural, organizational and institutional chal­
lenges (Dörrenbächer & Geppert, 2017; Friesl & Silberzahn, 2017) since
there exist significant cultural differences between underlying values.
German culture is primarily characterized by task orientation, direct
communication and rationality. These values influence interpretation
processes and problem-solving mechanisms in intercultural communi­
cation (Hofstede et al., 2010; Thomas et al., 2010). Conversely, in Bra­
zilian society, values such as personal orientation, emotionality,
flexibility, conflict avoidance, indirect communication, paternalism and
power distance are more pronounced (Davila & Elvira, 2012; Freitas,
2017). Even if there exist cross-cultural studies on knowledge transfer in
general from several countries to Brazil (Friel & Pinot de Villechenon,
2018; Sparkes & Miyake, 2000), little is known about the transfer from
Germany to Brazil (Wehling et al., 2009), and even less about quality
management practices within this cross-cultural context.
2.3. A constructive perspective on the cross-cultural transfer of
management practices
The current IB research landscape shows that both theoretical con­
tributions and empirical studies mostly take a negative and problematic
perspective on cross-cultural collaboration in MNCs (Stahl & Tung,
2015). Interculturality, which is marked by cultural differences and by
distinct meaning and interpretation systems, is often described as irri­
tating and conflictual in work situations due to the diverging expecta­
tions, norms, and interpretations of the involved actors (d’Iribarne,
2012). The nature of conflictual situations may correspond to reality,
but they appear to be overrepresented in research. In contrast, neutral
and positive effects of intercultural interactions are rarely perceived.
This is also confirmed by the extensive literature review accomplished
by Stahl and Tung (2015, p. 393): “[W]e know much less about the
positive dynamics and outcomes associated with cultural differences
than we know about the problems, obstacles, and conflicts caused by
them”.
Constructive approaches to cross-cultural management (Adler &
Gundersen, 2008; Barmeyer et al., 2021; Cameron, 2017) argue that
interculturality should be regarded as a resource, and that the per­
spectives of people from different cultures should be used in a comple­
mentary way. In the context of cross-cultural transfer, this means that
cooperation can support learning and development, leading to added
value, knowledge exchange and integration of best practices from each
side.
In IB literature, case studies that highlight the constructive factors in
cross-cultural transfer processes appear to be scarce. The few studies
that deal with facilitating factors in cross-cultural business relationships
emphasize the constructive use of tandem leadership (Barmeyer &
Davoine, 2019), the need for boundary spanners (Barner-Rasmussen,
Ehrnrooth, Koveshnikov, & Mäkelä, 2014; Mäkelä et al., 2019), the
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International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
recruitment of local managers (Koveshnikov et al., 2012) and the use of
professional networks (Erçek & Say, 2008; Westphal, Gulati, & Shortell,
1997). However, extant research (1) has neither matched the facilitating
factors with the different stages of transfer processes, (2) nor does it take
into account the specific context of German-Brazilian head­
quarters-subsidiaries relationships. Therefore, our exploratory study
aims to identify these facilitating factors from a process perspective,
investigating the transfer of quality management practices from Ger­
many to Brazil.
3. Methodology: a single case study of a German MNC in Brazil
We adopted a single case study design (Stake, 1995; Welch, Piekkari,
Plakoyiannaki, & Paavilainen-Mantymaki, 2011) and applied a cultur­
ally sensitive research approach (Awad, Patall, Rackley, & Reilly, 2016).
The single case study seems appropriate to respond to our objective to
explore factors that positively influence the transfer of management
practices in a cross-cultural context because it enables comprehensive
empirical descriptions of one or several phenomena based on a variety of
data sources (Welch et al., 2011). The company was selected as an
outstanding case of a German “hidden champion” (Simon, 2009),
characterized by high quality products, long-term orientation, and
success in the German and international markets. In the Brazilian sub­
sidiary, the success becomes apparent, among others, through the in­
crease of quality-related outputs over the past 15 years, a decline in
failure rates, the regular ISO recertification, and high employee
commitment and satisfaction due to the family culture and long-term
employment.
3.1. Data collection and analysis
Data was collected through field research conducted by the first
author at the Brazilian subsidiary and German headquarters between
June 2018 and April 2019. We combined multiple data sources to gain a
holistic and contextualized view of the studied phenomenon (Symon &
Cassell, 2012): (1) 22 semi-structured expert interviews with managing
directors, quality, production and sales managers, and employees at the
German headquarters and Brazilian subsidiary (Table 1). Interviews
were conducted in the language of the interview partners, German or
Portuguese, recorded and transcribed; (2) five focus groups involving 23
employees at the Brazilian plant with a discussion on current organi­
zational challenges and “good practices” in quality matters within the
organization (Table 2); (3) documents about quality processes at the
headquarters and subsidiary levels; (4) observations at the German and
Brazilian plants. With regard to qualitative research in a Brazilian or­
ganization, the establishment of a personal relationship and rapport
with the interviewees, along with trust-building, served as fundamental
drivers for gathering information (Spencer-Oatey & Franklin, 2009;
Welch & Piekkari, 2006). Personal interaction with the employees at
both sites took place during their spare time and in informal meetings
during lunch and coffee breaks, notably at the Brazilian subsidiary.
To analyze the collected data, we conducted computer-aided analysis
with the software MaxQDA 2018 (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2019) and used
an interpretive approach to understand meaning and sense-making
processes (Weber, 2017; Weick, 1995) from the actors’ perspective in
their social context as well as the changing dynamics of the observed
phenomenon. This approach also allows reflexivity on the findings in a
dialogical manner. We combined a deductive and inductive research
strategy (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014) and analyzed our data
based on concepts of constructive interculturality to explore new factors.
Exploration through qualitative research can be understood as a circular
process of understanding between theoretical assumptions, data
collection and interpretation. Some of the new factors already emerged
during the field work, as data analysis cannot be separated strictly from
data collection (Stake, 1995). All interviews were first coded with
common codes of existing theory, and then with in-vivo codes (Table 3)
M. Bausch et al. International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921

Table 1 Table 2
Overview of semi-structured interviews. Overview of focus groups.
No Location Name & Nationality Length of Duration No Location of Department Participants Duration
of Position employment (hours) corporate unit (number) (hours)
corporate (years)
1 Brazil Production Unit 6 01:49
unit
A
1 Germany Peter, Industrial 2:24 2 Brazil Production Unit 4 01:28
German 10
2 Germany Manager 1:58 B
3 Germany Anna, Employee 1:13 3 Brazil Quality 4 01:40
Industrial German 17 Management
4 Germany 1:00
Engineering 4 Brazil Service 5 01:26
Stefan, Engineering
Managing 5 Brazil Production Unit 4 No recording
5 Germany German 26 1:38
Director A allowed
Business Unit A
Roland, Quality
6 Germany German 6.5 1:13
Manager
Ulrich, Quality Table 3
7 Germany German 30 0:55
Manager Codings based on literature review and data analysis.
Christian,
Codes identified in literature review and New/Altered codes based on data-
Supervisor German 10
data-analysis analysis
Series Launch
8 Germany 1:34
Roman, • Tandem leadership • Managerial dyad in top
Supervisor German 36 • Cultural boundary spanners management
Series Launch • Recruitment of local managers • Managerial dyad in quality
Christoph, • Professional networks management
9 Germany Project Manager German 8 1:19 • Technical-cultural boundary
Production spanners
Klaus, • Self-responsibility and
Managing commitment
10 Germany German 38 0:58
Director • Culture of learning
Business Unit B • Dialogue and consensus
Philip, • Connecting new with existing
11 Germany Production German 22 1:12 practices
Manager
Jörg,
Administrative which emerged from the data (Miles et al., 2014). The first author un­
12 Brazil German 12 1:32
Managing
dertook the coding to build the category system, which was then
Director
Isabel, checked by the second author to ensure confirmability as a quality cri­
13 Brazil Supervisor Sales Brazilian 14 1:04 terion of reliability and objectivity in qualitative research (Sinkovics,
& Logistics Penz, & Ghauri, 2008). We also organized a discussion event with the
14 Brazil Daniel, 1:17
company in June 2019 and presented our preliminary findings to the
Operative
15 Brazil Managing
Brazilian 2
2:04
German interview partners for discussion and validation.
Director
Vilnicius,
3.2. Case description
16 Brazil Production Brazilian 30 1:07
Manager
Sebastian, The company is a family-owned MNC in the industrial sector, pro­
17 Brazil Production Brazilian 26 0:43 ducing construction machinery. Founded in the 1940s, their headquar­
Manager ters are located in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in South West
Leandro,
18 Brazil Quality Brazilian 5 1:46
Germany. The study was conducted in one of the business units with
Manager production sites in Germany and Brazil, employing 9000 people
Mónica, worldwide. The company has been active in Brazil since the 1970s, and
Employee the subsidiary is located in a small town in the federal state of São Paulo.
Brazilian 10
Quality
The organizational culture of the family firm becomes apparent in
Management
Amanda, the Brazilian subsidiary as most employees mentioned the feeling of
Employee being part of a “family”, sharing the “yellow blood” in their veins (the
19 Brazil Brazilian 7 1:40
Quality firm logo is yellow). Long-term employment and commitment are
Management illustrated by the corporate slogan “One time [company name], always
Alexandre,
Employee
[company name]” and backed by numbers: At the German headquarters,
Brazilian 8 the average firm belonging of the interview partners is 20.3 years and at
Quality
Management the Brazilian subsidiary 11.7 years, outperforming the Brazilian average
Wendell, firm belonging of 3.1 years (de Villaverde, 2014). The company thus
Employee
20 Brazil Brazilian 12 00:54 practices long-term planning and the retention of employees’ knowledge
Quality
Management and skills. Despite the enduring economic crisis in Brazil since 2014,
Lucas, relatively few dismissals have been registered compared to other Bra­
21 Brazil
Employee
Brazilian 5 00:51
zilian companies. The values of the company’s founder still play a
Quality central role with regard to quality and are listed in the corporate values:
Management
Cristian, Sales
“We produce the highest quality, in everything we do”.
Brazilian 11 In 2004, the company started to implement its quality management
Manager
22 Brazil 01:35
Mauricio, system (QMS) in Brazil, following the international standard of
Brazilian 10
Employee Sales ISO9001:2015. To the date of the research, the QMS embraced five

4
M. Bausch et al.
pillars (see Fig. 1) which have been established in steps and developed
over the past 20 years. Customer quality refers to the quality perceived
by the customers and contains the interface to customer service, which
strives for continuous improvement through collecting, structuring, and
analyzing information obtained in the field (e.g. failure rates). The
company also applies the concept of the “internal customer”, which
means that employees know from whom they receive the piece or
product they are working on and to whom they pass it on to. Supplier
quality ensures that the product quality of the supplied parts corre­
sponds to what the company expects, by internal and external auditing.
Product quality relates to all processes the company applies to ensure
high product quality, such as the planning and execution of tests (e.g. via
quality gates), the definition and organization of work, and the setting of
KPI (key performance indicators). Process quality refers to general re­
quirements of the QMS as proposed by the ISO9001:2015 standard,
containing process maps, the quality handbook and shopfloor meetings.
Recently, the company added developmental quality as a new pillar
which relates to monitoring development projects, integrating lessons
learned from other plants, FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) and
education (Roland, Quality Manager, Germany; field notes). To this last
pillar add up education and training, the practice of self-responsibility,
the open error and feedback culture because they are supporting
mechanisms to developmental quality.
4. Results: the role of facilitating factors in cross-cultural
transfer
The analysis of the collected data enabled us to depict the transfer of
the Quality Management System (QMS) to Brazil by mapping the single
events and interventions, and to discuss the role of facilitating factors
during this process. As indicated in Fig. 2, we identified three ideal-typical
stages: (1) the introduction of the new QMS and first intercultural
challenges, (2) the gradual evolvement of the QMS by intercultural
learning, and (3) the institutionalization of the QMS by intercultural
hybridization. Along this process, we identified nine facilitating factors
which played different roles during the process:
(1) Stage I: Connecting new with existing practices, self-
responsibility and commitment, dialogue and consensus, and
recruitment of local managers.
(2) Stage II: Culture of learning and technical-cultural boundary
spanners.
Fig. 1. Quality management system and transferred practices (selection) of the MNC.
5
International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
(3) Stage III: Bi-cultural management dyads, short-term assignments,
and intra-organizational networks.
In the following, we present the three stages with their respective
events, the interplaying facilitating factors and their positive outputs.
Appendix in Appendix A provides details about the different events, the
associated facilitating factors and their outputs. Despite the linear pre­
sentation of the transfer process, it should be noted that the events in­
fluence and condition each other, provoking iterative actions and
reactions by the Brazilian and German workforces.
4.1. Stage I: Introduction of the new QMS and first intercultural
challenges
The German multinational company introduced the new quality
management system in 2004 when it decided to implement the inter­
national quality management standard ISO9001:2004 in one of their
eight business units. This decision was based on increasing external
pressure from global customers and the headquarters’ claim to produce
with high quality as expected by their German customers. The Brazilian
subsidiary agreed to implement the ISO standard in order to pursue the
strategic alignment with the headquarters:
A customer naturally expects the highest quality standards, even if
the product comes from [Brazil]. Because it is from [company name],
a German company. Whether it is produced here or there is irrele­
vant. We also always say that it is "made by [company name]". And
"made by [company name]" means "made with quality". […] [D]ue
to the fact that [company name] produced cranes in the early days,
[company name] has a history of QM. (Jörg, Administrative Man­
aging Director, Brazil)
During this first stage, we could identify that one facilitating factor
was the connection of the new practice with existing ones. By connecting the
old with the new, the subsidiary built on already existing but loosely
coupled practices, infrastructure and documentation, and thus enabled
sense-making and acceptance of the new practice among the local staff.
In addition, the Brazilian managers gained the legitimacy to introduce
the new standard among other managers and employees by highlighting
the parallels with lean management practices that had been introduced
“bottom up” 20 years before “because of the cultural diversity and of
different experiences that we had here in Brazil. […] It was an isolated
initiative that started from the bottom up and gained space, became part
of everyone’s knowledge” (Vilnicius, Production Manager, Brazil).
M. Bausch et al.
Fig. 2. Introduction of the QMS over time, facilitating factors and outputs.
The introduction of the standard was also facilitated by the German
values of self-responsibility and commitment, embodied and encouraged
by the German administrative manager. This factor enabled the sub­
sidiary to introduce the QMS which embraced the initiation of regular
audits regarding the accomplishment of quality standards. It is reflected
in the organizational values “We are independent” and “We accept re­
sponsibility” (internal documents). Moreover, long-term orientation and
planning become visible through formal documentation, the need to
respect checklists and guidelines, and the long-term vision of the com­
pany (internal documents). For example, the company engages in anti­
cyclical investments and practices long-term employment in the
Brazilian subsidiary. These principles, in turn, led to an overall
enhancement of “all quality-related aspects”, and to the growth of the
subsidiary and its sales figures:
The ISO certifications […] [were] a significant part of the develop­
ment, of the improvement of all quality-related aspects in our com­
pany. (Vilnicius, Production Manager, Brazil)
We would not have achieved the growth we have done over the past
ten years if we had not been certified. Because one thing is just clear:
certification forces you to organize. (Jörg, Administrative Managing
Director, Brazil)
In addition, dialogue and consensus as practiced by the German family
firm facilitated the negotiation and adaptation of the transferred prac­
tices. The corporate family culture fosters cooperation and
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International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
communication, with comparatively flatter hierarchies than in other
Brazilian companies:
There is flexibility. There is the possibility of adaptation, of align­
ment. […] It does not prohibit, it does not discourage the initiatives
of employees. When we started introducing the methods […], we
were encouraged to continue along this path. (Vilnicius, Production
Manager, Brazil)
This ethnorelativist attitude is also reflected in the abovementioned
corporate value of self-responsibility and shared by a German quality
manager who declared:
I don’t like to use the word "head office". It is important not to go
there and tell them “we are the head office and you are the branch
office”. My approach has always been to inform, discuss and then
look for and build something in common. (Ulrich, Quality Manager,
Germany)
This culture of dialogue, consensus and flexibility has then, among
others, led Brazilian managers to incorporate context-sensitive practices
such as ‘emotional management’ (field notes) that prove well in the
Brazilian context. On large boards in the production halls, employees
indicate with magnetic dots in different colors how they feel every day.
According to the traffic light system, green magnets signify “good”,
yellow ones “moderate” and red ones “bad”, the latter being used if the
employee has health, family, financial or other problems. In case of a
M. Bausch et al.
problem, the supervisor discusses the issue with the employee and helps
to find a solution. As a result, “people feel comfortable here and the
family atmosphere, they really come out in terms of emotions. That has a
positive effect on the quality” (Jörg, Administrative Managing Director,
Brazil) and “people enjoy working here, they like to create a quality
product, in a way that people feel comfortable to work. [This] make[s] it
much easier to have a quality product” (Leandro, Quality Manager,
Brazil). This aspect could also be observed during the fieldwork, because
employees spoke about their “pride” of belonging to the company,
sharing the “yellow blood” that flows in their veins (Focus Group Pro­
duction; field notes), and “being happy” working for 15 years for the
company (Focus Group Service Engineering).
However, the introduction of the QMS did not always run smoothly:
between 2004 and 2008, the subsidiary experienced challenges with
German managers working in Brazil who had difficulties in finding their
way in the Brazilian culture because of missing “social skills”:
The problem was that the German leaders [lacked] social skills. […]
There was only one who was extremely effective, efficient. […] His
differential was that he respected people. He was able to work here in
Brazil, to understand the need and to create solutions. (Daniel,
Operative Managing Director, Brazil)
As a solution, the recruitment of Brazilian managers improved
communication with the local workforce and led to a faster reach of
sense-making and psychological ownership of quality practices among
local employees:
It only started to work out the day they said, “let’s hire local leaders
who have good technical knowledge, who can interact with Germany
and transfer the know-how here to the extent that people here can
take on the know-how”. (Daniel, Operative Managing Director,
Brazil)
The technically versed Brazilian managers were therefore able to
translate the foreign quality practices into the Brazilian language and
contributed to culturally sensitive sense-making by adapting the prac­
tices to local values. For example, the German concise and short ‘shop­
floor meetings’ transformed to ‘bom dia de qualidade’ (‘Good morning of
quality’), in which employees come together, have coffee and may also
talk about private issues before discussing production and quality
related key performance indicators (field notes).
4.2. Stage II: gradual evolvement of QMS by intercultural learning
During the second stage, the implementation of the QMS was
fundamentally supported when the German administrative top manager
introduced the German apprenticeship system to Brazil in 2008. Even
though Jörg has lived in Brazil for over 15 years, he was socialized in the
German apprenticeship system and joined the company as an intern
during his management studies. Equipped with cultural and language
skills, he could push ahead the introduction of the dual vocational
training to the Brazilian plant based on the German apprenticeship
system and the premise that the production of good quality is related to
education and expertise. We could observe that the introduction of the
German educational model in Brazil was facilitated by the company’s
culture of learning. Since dual vocational training was not a common
practice in Brazil, the German headquarters expressed the need to
develop the technical expertise of their local workforce to enhance the
quality of the machines’ welding seams, in line with their internal
mission to “support our employees with training and continuing edu­
cation programs” (internal documents). Consequently, the subsidiary
established a training center for personnel training and initiated a short-
term dual apprentice course for welding. In twelve weeks, the appren­
tices receive a six-week theoretical training at a local education insti­
tution and then another six-week practical training with the welding
specialists of the company (Wendell, Employee Quality Management,
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International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
Brazil; documents: press releases). In the end, “the results are visible”
not just in terms of enhanced quality, but also in terms of regional
economic development: “we have a high technical standard as far as
people are concerned, high quality as far as work execution is con­
cerned”, and the courses “aim to retain the employees” in the company
(Jörg, Administrative Managing Director, Brazil). To speak in numbers,
already in 2014, more than 400 apprentices passed the courses suc­
cessfully (documents: press releases), and the results become apparent in
the long-term employment in the subsidiary.
Moreover, the introduction of trainings and educative resources,
supported by the culture of learning, led to the conscientization and self-
responsibility for quality among the workforce – a concept that in
German is called ‘Werkerselbstprüfung’ (“worker’s self-check”):
It became stronger, this responsibility of [the worker] over the re­
sults. He has to plan, he has to take care of himself so that he meets
these results. (Focus Group Interview Quality Management, Brazil)
We [now] firmly believe in the self-management of our employees
with regard to quality. Whoever does something, he or she is the only
one responsible for quality. […] In our understanding, the […] only
responsible for quality is the person who is executing. (Vilnicius,
Production Manager, Brazil)
The training and education of expertise led to the successful re-
approval every three years and the successful re-certification of the
revised ISO norm in 2008 (Focus Group Quality Management, Brazil;
Leandro, Quality Manager, Brazil). These characteristics can be
explained by the German family business culture of the “hidden cham­
pion”, emphasizing training and development and with a love for the
detail as inherent to the professional culture of engineers.
Two further events in stage II were the recruitment of a German
industrial manager with Brazilian experience who joined the subsidiary
in 2008 and of a Brazilian with international experience who joined in
2013 to take over quality management. Both individuals influenced
positively the further development of the QMS in Brazil because they
dispose not only of technical knowledge and expertise, but also of
intercultural and language skills, which makes these individuals to
technical-cultural boundary spanners. The German industrial manager
Peter speaks fluently Portuguese and has lived in Brazil for more than
ten years. He knows about Brazilian culture, the importance of re­
lationships and personal networks, following the motto “knowing who is
knowing what” (Peter, German Industrial Manager, Brazil). His Euro­
pean colleagues agree that “he has this advantage that he knows Brazil
better than we do” (Anna, Employee Industrial Engineering, Germany).
Before Peter’s recruitment, the Brazilian quality employees often faced
problems with translations of quality-related terms and missed clear
assignments provided by contact persons at the German headquarters
(Focus Group Quality Management, Brazil). Therefore, Peter was able to
solve communication problems and tensions between German managers
and the local workforce, but he also kept acting as an important bridge
for further information exchange. This, in turn, resulted in enhanced
communication and exchange between the German headquarters and
the Brazilian subsidiary, as confirmed by interview partners from both
sides:
Peter, for example, is a person who helped us a lot because there is
often a meaning behind the words, and we don’t have the trans­
lation. If you translate, it will be literal, but maybe it’s something
that has nothing to do with the actual term. (Focus Group Interview
Quality Management, Brazil)
[In Brazil] a lot is done by: "Yes, I know someone who deals with this
topic; I’ll give him a call". […] And that’s why these things often go
centrally via Peter, who in turn has the network there. (Roland,
Quality Manager, Germany)
Five years later, in 2013, the Brazilian Leandro joined the company.
Due to his previous work experience in the US and in other international
M. Bausch et al.
companies, his open and positive attitude as well as his person orien­
tation, he embodies a technical-cultural boundary spanner par excellence.
In his function as quality manager, he succeeded in transferring quality
management practices by establishing relationships with German col­
leagues and by engaging in quality networks within the multinational
company. We observed that with the help of first quality network
meetings, he built up rapport (Spencer-Oatey & Franklin, 2009; Welch &
Piekkari, 2006) with his German colleagues. Leandro established a close
friendship with Ulrich, quality manager at the headquarters, which
fostered regular exchange and eventually led to the alignment of quality
management practices with the headquarters, while allowing for adap­
tation and differentiation in Brazil:
[Ulrich] is a friend of mine. Personally, he really helps us. He opens
the doors and he doesn’t lock them. He doesn’t want to impose
things. And look how it works: we work aligned with each other, but
we also adapt things here. (Leandro, Quality Manager, Brazil)
By the means of this connection, Leandro was able to transfer and
introduce new quality management methods and good practices from
Germany to Brazil, as contested by one of his colleagues:
When Leandro went there, he got to know the quality management
system, and he saw how it worked. And he then said: “we can
implement this in here in our processes, too, it works well, and we
will have a gain”; so, he brought it here. (Wendell, Employee Quality,
Brazil)
At this stage, it becomes evident that the intensification of cross-
border contacts through technical-cultural boundary spanners, paired
with the culture of learning, paves the way for the hybridization of
organizational cultures, structures, and practices. Their positive effects
become clear in stage III, reflecting the successful institutionalization of
the QMS.
4.3. Stage III: institutionalization by intercultural hybridization
The intercultural cooperation between the headquarters and the
subsidiary was strengthened by the recruitment of a second top man­
ager, the Brazilian operative manager Daniel, who joined the German
administrative manager to form a bi-cultural top management dyad in
2016. Although the Brazilian subsidiary is characterized by German
values, many Brazilian employees still expect a rather paternalist lead­
ership style and prefer to communicate in their native language.
Consequently, the hiring of the Brazilian operative manager resulted in
improved “top down” communication (Daniel, Operative Managing
Director, Brazil), “to bring the remaining division managers on track so
that it can be rolled out in practice”, and in a “completely different level
of support for Leandro from the management in Brazil […] because: if
the support from above is there, then it moves in this positive direction”
(Ulrich, Quality Manager, Germany).
Another important event in establishing the QMS in Brazil was the
revision of the ISO norm version 9001:2015, which took place between
mid-2017 and September 2018. According to the requirements, the
quality team under Leandro’s leadership undertook the following
changes: a revision of the process map, the introduction of a new quality
policy, the creation of new strategic goals with key performance in­
dicators and their mutual alignment. During this period, it was primarily
the intra-organizational quality network and the bi-cultural quality man­
agement dyad between Leandro and Ulrich that served as facilitating
factors to accomplish these changes.
The intra-organizational quality network meetings enabled the Bra­
zilian quality manager to learn about quality management approaches of
other subsidiaries and to integrate the Brazilian subsidiary into the
global network and into the strategic quality approach of the German
company. Due to its comparatively small market share, the Brazilian
subsidiary used to play a minor strategic role within the group. The
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network enabled Leandro to learn from quality management approaches
in other countries by getting to know the respective quality managers:
When I say network, I mean that you have already met colleagues,
you can exchange emails and ask questions, or simply call them. […]
The [network meeting] helped me a lot to get information […] [and]
to build up a relationship network. (Leandro, Quality Manager,
Brazil)
During these intra-organizational network meetings, Leandro and
Ulrich established a friendship-like relationship, enabling them to form
a bi-cultural quality management dyad which helped Leandro to receive
the necessary information to revise the Brazilian process map following
ISO9001:2015, to introduce the new quality policy and to create new
strategic goals with key performance indicators. For example, before its
revision in 2017, the Brazilian process map was characterized by opaque
structures, and employees did not know about the “internal customers”
they had to report to. Missing and non-transparent processes led em­
ployees to “confuse the process with the department” (Focus Group
Interview Quality Management, Brazil). Leandro solved this problem by
requesting the headquarters’ process maps and comparing them to
Brazilian practices. In the following, his team of 14 employees re-
designed the Brazilian process map according to the ‘prototypes’ and
managed to clarify the assignment of tasks, roles and responsibilities, as
well as to spread knowledge about the “internal customers”:
L: We can already feel this change in some people’s statements.
Because they have been working for years, and they talked about
processes, but it wasn’t clear what they meant. They used to confuse
the process with the department.
T: And it was also cool to see the development; sometimes a process
would indicate that a person delivers such and such a thing to such
and such process. And then the process would show: "Wow, but I
didn’t know that this person delivered this to me!” So, it became
clearer among them; of what, from whom, where it comes from.
(Focus Group Interview Quality Management, Brazil)
As a result, the quality management team aligned the process map
with the headquarters’ prototypes while adapting it to Brazilian reality.
Both Brazilian and German managers agree that the enhanced collabo­
ration initiated the shift from quality control to quality management,
which triggered the gradual change towards more individual re­
sponsibility, flatter hierarchies and cooperation, all leading to a slow but
steady reduction of guarantee cases, production errors and thus associ­
ated guarantee costs and costs of rework, as confirmed by the German
quality manager:
We can also see this in the warranty statistics, in the defect statistics,
[…] and in the quality figure, to which we then apply the processes,
we can already see that an improvement has started here; and thus
the plant is becoming more productive, has lower costs, warranty
costs, quality costs. […] Before, it was all about quality control. […]
And now we achieve successes in very large steps. (Ulrich, Quality
Manager, Germany)
The success is also reflected by the obtained recertification of the ISO
standard 2015 which opened the pathway for the “company [to] move
in the direction of competitiveness” (Vilnicius, Production Manager,
Brazil):
Today, we have a well-structured and implemented quality man­
agement system. […] a lot of work has been done for this migration.
It was a very extensive job, redefining processes, mapping processes,
[…]. But in the end, the result was very positive. We achieved cer­
tification. (Focus Group Interview Production, Brazil)
By analyzing the interplay of the observed events and associated
facilitating factors, we could discover that the intercultural collabora­
tion and integration intensified over time, forming a German-Brazilian
M. Bausch et al.
hybrid organizational culture, which fundamentally influenced the suc­
cess, functioning and development of the quality management at the
Brazilian subsidiary. Whereas the Brazilian plant acted relatively
autonomously at the beginning (2004), the recruitment of technical-
cultural boundary spanners, the establishment of bi-cultural managerial
dyads, short-term assignments and inter-organizational network meetings
intensified the cross-border collaboration. They not only led to the
alignment of QM practices with the headquarters while allowing for
adaptation and differentiation, but they also formed a hybrid organi­
zational culture which helped employees to learn and develop
personally.
An illustrative example was the promotion of self-responsibility
(German: ‘Werkerselbstprüfung’, in translation ‘worker’s self-check’)
among employees in order to ensure the quality of processes and
products. Although patriarchal structures still prevail in Brazil and, for
many employees, the responsibility lies with the managers due to their
power status, we could observe that a transition takes place at the
Brazilian subsidiary, in which managers are increasingly demanding the
personal responsibility and ‘self-check’ of their employees. In this sense,
German values are transferred to Brazil where they contribute to form a
hybrid organizational culture: Since autonomy, independence and re­
sponsibility are deeply anchored in Germany’s social and organizational
values, the company creates a cultural change at the Brazilian plant
through employee assignments and knowledge transfer that is likely to
ensure quality in the long term. In the end, this cultural approximation
supported the change from a system of quality control to quality
management.
5. Discussion
The conducted case study provides novel insights on the successful
transfer of managerial practices across borders, especially from German
headquarters to subsidiaries in emerging economies such as Brazil. As
the aim of our research was to identify factors that facilitate the cross-
cultural transfer process of management practices over time, we will
discuss two major learnings from our findings: (1) the emergence of
ideal-typical stages of practice transfer in which different facilitating
factors play an important role and (2) the formation of a hybrid orga­
nizational culture that leverages the implementation process. We will
then accentuate (3) the theoretical and empirical contributions of our
research in which we discuss possible generalizations of our findings for
other cultural and institutional contexts.
5.1. Ideal-typical stages of practice transfer and their respective
facilitating factors
By mapping the transfer process over time, we identified three stages
in the transfer of managerial practices, with nine facilitating factors
playing different roles during the stages:
(I) Introduction stage with intercultural challenges: Connecting new
with existing practices, self-responsibility and commitment, dia­
logue and consensus, recruitment of local managers.
(II) Evolvement stage with intercultural learning: Culture of learning,
technical-cultural boundary spanners.
(III) Institutionalization stage with intercultural hybridization: Bi-
cultural management dyads, short-term assignments, intra-
organizational networks.
In stage I, the cornerstones of the new practice are set, but inter­
cultural challenges are likely to arise. Discrepancies in working styles,
interpretations and sense-making are considered as barriers to successful
practice implementation (Brannen, 2004; d’Iribarne et al., 2020),
inhibiting constructive collaboration. Therefore, creating an environ­
ment of dialogue and exchange at the beginning of the transfer is
paramount because it fuels the recognition of sense among managers
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International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
and employees, and supports the acceptance, legitimacy and imple­
mentation of the new practice. By connecting the old and known with
the new and unknown, sense-making (Weick, 1995) takes place and
learning becomes possible. Connecting new with existing practices there­
fore seems an indispensable facilitating factor during this stage (d’Iri­
barne & Henry, 2007). The recruitment of local managers (Koveshnikov
et al., 2012) can support these developments since they dispose of the
necessary linguistic and cultural knowledge to communicate about
means and reasons with local employees. Trust and rapport are more
likely to be established with “cultural insiders”, especially when local
employees do not dispose of fluent language skills or when resource
dependencies and power relationships exist between subsidiaries and
headquarters (Geppert et al., 2016). Sense-giving at this stage appears to
be particularly important in the Brazilian context, because Brazilians
tend to neglect the rule if there is no apparent reason to do so (de
Holanda, 1995[1936]), a feature linked to the country’s institutional
instability (Cavusgil et al., 2021). Moreover, in our case, self-­
responsibility and commitment have proven successful to establish
long-term goals as well as a mission and vision to pursue. These values
can be clearly linked to long-term orientation as inherent to German
culture (Hofstede et al., 2010) and family companies such as the
investigated “hidden champion” (Simon, 2009). These values reveal a
“fit” (Ansari et al., 2010) with an increasing desire and demand of the
younger and more open-minded Brazilian generation who aims to act
more independently and more self-responsible, in line with more
self-expressive and less traditionalist values (Cavusgil et al., 2021; World
Values Survey, 2020).
In stage II, the evolvement of the transferred practice takes place
through intercultural learning. In this phase, it is chiefly the culture of
learning and the technical-cultural boundary spanners that facilitate the
further implementation of the practice by training and knowledge ex­
change between the headquarters and the subsidiary.
On the one hand, the company’s culture of learning, characteristic of
German family firms (Ewing, 2014), paved the way for the institution­
alization of the practice because training and education convey reasons,
needs and the importance of the practice. The trainings trigger the
conscientization for quality and self-responsibility among the work­
force, which supports a sense of urge and psychological ownership
(Kostova, 1999). Nevertheless, it is important to mention that this cul­
ture fell on fertile ground in Brazil, as we could observe an inherent
interest in learning marked by curiosity and openness for practices from
abroad. These observations can be linked to the estrangeirismo as a cul­
tural concept defined as “the valorization of what is foreign” (Prestes
Motta, Alcadipani, & Bresler, 2001, p. 67). It refers to the fascination for
people, products and practices from other countries and manifests in the
appropriation of practices, especially from advanced economies. The
concept of estrangeirismo has also been discussed in other empirical
studies. For example, in a multiple case study, Bartel-Radic (2013)
shows that estrangeirismo fosters the development of intercultural com­
petences in Brazilian MNCs. The field surveys conducted by Caldas and
Wood (1997) indicate that the concept facilitates the adoption of im­
ported managerial expertise by Brazilian companies. The cultural
analysis provided by Prestes Motta et al. (2001) suggests that estrange­
irismo can play a role of segregation, with both positive and negative
effects in organizations. Foreign companies should thus pay specific
attention to the way they deal with estrangeirismo in their Brazilian
subsidiaries.
On the other hand, extending on existing studies of boundary span­
ners (Barner-Rasmussen et al., 2014), we found the technical competence
in addition to language, cultural and organizational knowledge to be
paramount in our case of the engineering industry, because these in­
dividuals mediate between technical and social realms. Especially the
recruitment of the German industrial manager with Brazilian experience
and the Brazilian quality manager with international experience, both
with technical expert skills, supported exchange and mutual collabora­
tion in headquarters-subsidiary relationships. We can thus argue that,
M. Bausch et al.
whatever the cultural context, these individuals serve as important
nodes and bridges to translate and exchange information (Mäkelä et al.,
2019) but must be complemented by profession-related components
such as the technical component in our case.
Moreover, the interpersonal and communicative dimensions of the
boundary spanners’ competences appear to be essential in Brazil. We
link this importance to the ‘personalism’, the relevance of interpersonal
relationships in society, and the valorizing of personal relationships over
tasks (Davila & Elvira, 2012). Although boundary spanners serve
important functions across all cultures, they may be particularly valu­
able in person-oriented cultures such as in Latin America.
In stage III, institutionalization (Kostova, 1999) takes place through
intercultural hybridization. Learning and development from stage II
paved the way for mutual exchange, rapprochement and dialogue,
which eventually lead to the internalization of the practice. It is above
all the bi-cultural managerial dyads (Barmeyer & Davoine, 2019) and
intra-organizational networks (Erçek & Say, 2008) along with short-term
assignments that facilitated the integration of the practice. We argue that
the hybridization of the practices and the organizational culture (Ambos
et al., 2020; Yousfi, 2014) resulted from the approximation of both sides
through the bi-cultural managerial dyads who established rapport
(Spencer-Oatey and Franklin, 2009) in network meetings and assign­
ments which eventually led to a considerable improvement of all
quality-related aspects.
Independently of the culture, professional networks are important
when it comes to the transfer of management practices (Erçek & Say,
2008). Intra-organizational networks may fundamentally shape and
change the meaning and relevance of certain management practices
within a company. Nevertheless, we argue that especially in
person-oriented cultures, physical network meetings through short-term
assignments, along with close relationships between managerial dyads,
may play a stronger role than in task-oriented cultures because trust is
created by personal acquaintances and by knowing about the person’s
private background (Freitas, 2017). As our data shows, this was the case
in Brazil, where the local workforce needed to know their German
counterparts personally to constructively demand, send, and exchange
information.
5.2. The formation of a hybrid organizational culture leverages the
implementation process
In a diachronic perspective, it was interesting to observe that the
more Brazilians and Germans interacted through managerial dyads and
technical-cultural boundary spanners, the more integrated the practices
became, and the more successful they proved in the implementation.
This shows that the facilitating factors at the human resources level
leveraged the implementation process over time because the local staff
established close connections with the headquarters, participated in
intra-organizational networks and consequently built rapport (Spen­
cer-Oatey & Franklin, 2009), helping them to align their practices while
demanding space for adaptation. Both the bi-cultural management dyads
and the technical-cultural boundary spanners could thus understand the
headquarters’ intentions while translating their content to Brazilian
employees. Their intermediary positions allowed to negotiate and
re-negotiate the adaptation of practices (Brannen & Salk, 2000),
fostering purpose and sense-making among the Brazilian workforce and
fueling the culture of learning and development.
Our case thus shows that the hybridization of practices proved suc­
cessful because employees could bring in their perspectives, cultures,
and interests while learning from each other (Yousfi, 2014). For
example, by changing the shopfloor meetings’ name and by translating
it into Portuguese, the employees were able to maintain the familiar and
personal component in meetings (Davila & Elvira, 2012), that could
open the path towards an institutionalization of the practice (Kostova,
1999). Moreover, the adoption of the ‘worker’s self-check’ (‘Werker­
selbstprüfung’) matches with the employees’ desire to contribute, and to
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International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
feel proud of their work. By emphasizing responsibility among the
workforce, the company thus contributes to the formation of flatter hi­
erarchies and the stronger engagement of local staff, as increasingly
demanded by the workforce in emerging economies (Cavusgil et al.,
2021).
These positive dynamics supported the reconciliation of globaliza­
tion with localization tendencies (Ambos et al., 2020) and provoked the
hybridization of the organizational culture, forming a German-Brazilian
hybrid organizational culture at the Brazilian subsidiary. As organiza­
tions reflect national cultural values (Hofstede et al., 2010), our findings
show how the new hybridized organizational culture intermingles
German values such as long-term orientation, emphasis on education,
dialogue (‘consensus’) and self-responsibility (Hofstede et al., 2010;
Thomas et al., 2010) with Brazilian values such as person orientation,
flexibility, creativity, and interest and curiosity in the foreign (Caldas &
Wood, 1997; Davila & Elvira, 2012; Freitas, 2017; Prestes Motta et al.,
2001). This hybrid culture was thus able to offset national cultural dif­
ferences (Alofan et al., 2020).
We argue that this amalgamation, in turn, influences the hybridiza­
tion of practices, promoting organizational development at the subsid­
iary level. Our results can thus be linked to the perspectives of a
negotiated (Brannen & Salk, 2000) and hybrid culture (Ambos et al.,
2020) both on the practice level and on the organizational level, which
influence and benefit from each other. By the approximation of the
headquarters and the subsidiary, mutual understanding and common
ground is created, and new practices emerge. This negotiated or hybrid
culture proved to be stronger and more successful than the initial rather
independent acting of the company, because it developed by exchanging
and integrating ideas.
5.3. Theoretical and managerial contributions
The conducted research presents several theoretical and managerial
contributions concerning the transfer of management practices in MNCs
companies. Overall, our study contributes to constructive approaches of
intercultural management (Adler & Gundersen, 2008; Barmeyer et al.,
2021; Barmeyer & Davoine, 2019; Cameron, 2017; Stahl & Tung, 2015)
which emphasize the need to learn from positive examples to advance
the field.
First, we examined the influence of facilitating factors in the cross-
cultural transfer of management practices from a process perspective
(Ansari et al., 2014; Gutierrez-Huerter et al., 2020), whereby the process
can be mapped into three ideal-typical stages: (1) the introduction stage
with intercultural challenges, (2) the evolvement stage with intercul­
tural learning, and (3) the institutionalization stage with intercultural
hybridization. The three stages are considered ideal types (Weber, 2017)
of practice transfer, which can partially overlap and influence each
other. The case study allowed us to characterize these three stages in the
field of quality management in the German-Brazilian context. The
identified process may also concern other management practices than
quality management that may be interpreted differently across cultures
and thus influence cross-border cooperation within MNCs (d’Iribarne
et al., 2020). Moreover, the process may apply to other geographic
contexts that are marked by strong cultural differences. The three
ideal-typical stages can take place in very diverse contexts even if they
may take different forms according to the cultural and institutional
characteristics of the home and host countries. The German culture is
characterized by task orientation, direct communication and rationality
(Hofstede et al., 2010; Thomas et al., 2010), and MNCs from other
Western countries such as France and Italy might use different ap­
proaches to transfer management practices to subsidiaries in emerging
markets. In the same way, the Brazilian culture is marked by values such
as personal orientation, indirect communication, emotionality and
power distance (Davila & Elvira, 2012; Freitas, 2017), and subsidiaries
located in other emerging markets such as China and Russia may adopt
foreign management practices in a different way. The respective cultural
M. Bausch et al.
values of the home and host countries can then involve different inter­
cultural challenges, which may require specific learning processes and
other forms of intercultural hybridization.
Second, in line with constructive approaches (Adler & Gundersen,
2008; Barmeyer et al., 2021; Cameron, 2017; Stahl & Tung, 2015), we
identified nine facilitating factors that are important for the transfer
success and may therefore contribute to improve subsidiary perfor­
mance (Friesl & Silberzahn, 2017; Isaac et al., 2019). Several factors are
consistent with previous studies in international business, namely
bi-cultural leadership dyads and boundary spanners (Barmeyer &
Davoine, 2019; Barner-Rasmussen et al., 2014), the recruitment of local
managers (Koveshnikov et al., 2012), and intra-organizational networks
(Erçek & Say, 2008). This suggests that they can be applied in multiple
cultural and institutional contexts, even if they are likely to play
different roles during the three identified ideal-typical stages.
Conversely, some factors appear to be particularly useful for geographic
contexts that are marked by strongly opposed cultural values such as
Germany and Brazil (Wehling et al., 2009). In those specific cultural
settings, facilitating factors such as connecting new with existing prac­
tices, self-responsibility and commitment, dialogue and consensus, cul­
ture of learning and short-term assignments might be particularly
relevant for the cross-border transfer of management practices. Several
facilitating factors may apply specifically to the context of our family
firm case study. Our findings indicate that in some industries and fields,
such as quality management, it seems essential that boundary spanners
dispose of both technical/professional and cultural competences.
Moreover, unlike the MNC under study, many Western MNCs do not
promote vocational training and often face a high turnover of local
employees in emerging markets, which can limit the long-term benefits
of internal training programs and thus the valuable support of
technical-cultural boundary spanners.
Third, by adopting a process perspective, we highlight that these
facilitating factors play different roles during the three ideal-typical
stages. In stage I, it is necessary to connect new practices with existing
ones, to develop self-responsibility and commitment, to establish dia­
logue and consensus, and to recruit local managers. In stage II, the
culture of learning and technical-cultural boundary spanners play an
essential role. In stage III, bi-cultural managerial dyads, short-term as­
signments and intra-organizational networks are of particular impor­
tance. Each stage is marked by certain facilitating factors, but these can
also concern other stages. Studies in other emerging market contexts
underline the importance of connecting the values of existing practices
with new ones (d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007), as well as the need of
self-responsibility and a sense of task ownership (Friel & Pinot de Vil­
lechenon, 2018) at early stages, while networking and assignments
represent an important factor throughout the whole process (Kovesh­
nikov et al., 2012). This indicates that, independently of the context,
some factors are likely to be particularly important at the very beginning
of the transfer – namely the establishment of dialogue and consensus, as
well as assigning responsibility because these factors are able to build
common ground and can thus guide the transfer collaboration into a
positive direction – while others can be successively adopted, such as the
use of local management or network meetings. Factors that our study
has identified at later stages (e.g., regular assignments and networking
activities) may become relevant at earlier stages, depending on the
organizational resources as well as cultural and institutional character­
istics. We thus suggest that several facilitating factors such as the use of
technical-cultural boundary spanners and bi-cultural managerial dyads
may serve from the very beginning because they foster knowledge ex­
change and mutual understanding.
Fourth, our study adds value to the exploration of the role of culture
in knowledge transfer and cross-border collaboration (d’Iribarne et al.,
2020; Friesl & Silberzahn, 2017; Srivastava et al., 2020) by showing how
the national and organizational cultures interact to create a hybridized
organizational culture that fosters learning and development. Our case
study shows that increasing cross-cultural collaboration over time leads
11
International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921
to the hybridization of management practices which proves to be suc­
cessful because executing employees find sense and meaning in the
practices, connecting them to their realities (d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007)
and internalizing them (Kostova, 1999). These negotiated practices, as a
result of a hybrid, negotiated culture (Ambos et al., 2020; Brannen &
Salk, 2000), reflect the desired organizational and cultural “fit” com­
panies generally need to succeed.
Fifth, we provide new insights in the German-Brazilian context,
which has been underexplored so far. Despite its importance on the
global scene and the number of local subsidiaries established by foreign
multinationals, we notice that Brazil has often been neglected in IB
research (Carneiro et al., 2018; Hennart et al., 2015; Yildiz & Fey, 2012),
which may be due to its cultural complexity (Freitas, 2017). Our findings
reveal cultural characteristics of Brazil, which can make management
transfer processes from Western MNCs to local subsidiaries more chal­
lenging than in other geographic markets. We found that person orien­
tation, flexibility, curiosity and an inherent interest in the foreign,
represented by the cultural concept of estrangeirismo, played important
roles in the implementation of the managerial practice. Therefore,
managerial dyads, intra-organizational networks, and the culture of
learning and development can contribute to the successful transfer of
managerial practices in this context.
Finally, from a practitioner’s perspective, our findings can help
MNCs to better succeed in the transfer of management practices (Friesl
& Silberzahn, 2017), in particular to the Brazilian or other emerging
market contexts (Yildiz & Fey, 2012). They show that such practices can
only be implemented successfully if they are “made to fit” (Ansari et al.,
2010) the local requirements and the expectations of local actors while
maintaining their core sense and intent. Thus, multinationals should
provide more attention to cultural issues and support facilitating factors
that constructively shape the transfer processes within their settings. It
seems necessary to focus on the profile of individual actors, their re­
lationships with each other, and the atmosphere conveyed by the
organizational culture since these factors seem to play an important role
for the successful practice transfer. Despite the cultural and institutional
heterogeneity of emerging markets (Hadjikhani et al., 2012; Isaac et al.,
2019), we can note that the findings of our case study, which are based
on a German company in Brazil, could also be useful for other Western
MNCs who wish to implement managerial practices in subsidiaries
located in emerging markets (Beddi & Mayrhofer, 2013). As ‘good
practices’, they may also serve as models for other MNCs in the sense of
reverse knowledge transfers (Mudambi, Piscitello, & Rabbiosi, 2014).
However, due to the complexity of cross-cultural transfer processes, it is
evident that ideal-typical stages and the associated facilitating factors
vary according to the cultural and institutional characteristics of both
home and host countries.
To sum up, we argue that the findings from our single case study of a
German family multinational in Brazil can be extended to other cultural
and institutional contexts. They could notably apply to other Western
MNCs who transfer management practices, which are shaped in their
home country, to subsidiaries located in emerging economies such as
BRIC countries (Cavusgil et al., 2021; Sánchez & Brühwiler, 2015).
6. Conclusion
In this research, we contribute to constructive approaches of inter­
cultural management (Adler & Gundersen, 2008; Barmeyer et al., 2021;
Barmeyer & Davoine, 2019; Cameron, 2017; Stahl & Tung, 2015) by
examining facilitating factors in the transfer of managerial practices
from a process perspective (Ansari et al., 2014; Gutierrez-Huerter et al.,
2020). Previous studies have dealt with the transfer of management
practices in cross-cultural contexts (Ansari et al., 2010; Brannen, 2004;
d’Iribarne & Henry, 2007; d’Iribarne et al., 2020; Kostova, 1999), but it
remains unclear which factors positively influence the complex process
of management practice transfer. Our case study fills this gap by iden­
tifying three ideal-typical stages and nine facilitating factors in the
M. Bausch et al. International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921

context of quality management transfer from a German multinational to
Brazil. We show that the nine facilitating factors play different roles
during the three stages of the transfer process. Our study thus joins and
extends existing literature on constructive intercultural management in
the field of international business (Adler & Gundersen, 2008; Barmeyer
et al., 2021; Stahl & Tung, 2015) and adds value by illustrating how the
hybridization of practices and organizational culture (Ambos et al.,
2020; Yousfi, 2014) can contribute to the transfer of management
practices in multinationals.
The conducted research also presents several limitations that provide
promising avenues for future studies. First, it seems necessary to further
investigate the relevance of the identified facilitating factors and their
interactions during the ideal typical stages of the transfer process and to
determine their impact on subsidiary performance (Isaac et al., 2019).
Second, our case study focuses on positive aspects of cross-cultural
management practice transfer, and it is also important to analyze and
– if possible – to solve challenges and problems that take place in
cross-cultural relationships within MNCs. A reflexive research practice
(Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2017) could help scholars to balance positive
and negative aspects in a more appropriate way. Third, we examined the
German-Brazilian context and did not consider the heterogeneity of
Brazilian society, which appears to be one of the most pronounced in the
world (Freitas, 2017). Future studies should take Brazil’s within-country
diversity into account when examining the adoption of managerial
practices. Fourth, the findings of the single case study can only be
generalized to a limited extent, for example, to other person-oriented
cultures in Latin America or Asia. In line with Stake (1995, p. 7), the
identified factors occurred “all along the way in the case” which results
in a ‘petite generalization’ instead of a ‘grand generalization’. Future
research should verify the role of the identified facilitating factors in
other cross-cultural settings. It would therefore be interesting to extend
our study to other emerging economies, to other forms of organizations
and to other industries. Finally, future studies could also explore facil­
itating factors in re-transfers from emerging market multinationals to
mature or other emerging economies.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.

Appendix A

Appendix A: Events, facilitating factors, and their influence on outputs over time.

PERIOD EVENTS FACILITATING FACTORS CHANGES EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

• Sense-making of the new practice

Introduction of ISO9001:2004 in one
business unit out of 8 & Roll-out of QMS
2004− 2008
Challenge of German managers to
navigate in Brazilian culture
Introduction of the apprentice system in
Brazil
2008
German industrial manager with
Brazilian experience joins the subsidiary
Brazilian with international experience
2013
joins the subsidiary and takes over QM
Brazilian operative top manager joins
2016
German administrative top manager
Revision of ISO norm and introduction of
2017–Sep new quality standard ISO9001:2015 &
2018 Consolidation and integration of the new
quality standard
Connecting new with
existing practices
Self-responsibility and
commitment
Dialogue and consensus
Recruitment of local
managers
Culture of learning
Technical-cultural
boundary spanner
Technical-cultural
boundary spanner &
Short-term assignments
Bi-cultural management
dyad
Intra-organizational
networks
Bi-cultural management
dyad
• Introduction of the new QMS
• Initiation of regular audits
• Negotiation and adaptation of QM practices
• Improved communication with Brazilian
workforce
• Faster reach of local sense-making of QM
practices
• Establishment of own training center and
introduction of technical trainings and
educative resources for personnel training (e.
g. welding courses)
• Acts as bridge for quality-related information
exchange and solves communication prob­
lems and tensions between German managers
and local workforce
• Establishment of close collaboration and
personal relationships with German
colleagues
• Easier and faster “top-down” communication
with the headquarters and Brazilian
workforce
• Learning about QM approaches from other
plants
• Revision of the process map
• Introduction of a new quality policy
• Creation of new strategic goals with key
performance indicators (KPI)
for local staff and legitimacy to
introduce new QMS
• Enhancement of “all quality-
related aspects”
• Growth of the subsidiary and its
sales figures
• Incorporation of context-sensitive
practices such as ‘emotional
management’
• Practice internalization
(‘psychological ownership’)
• Fostering of technical training,
learning and development
• Retention of workforce
• Conscientization and self-
responsibility for quality among
the workforce
• Successful ISO re-certification in
2008
• Enhanced communication between
German headquarters and
Brazilian subsidiary
• Introduction of new QM methods
and best practices
• Top-management support to
introduce QMS helped to “move
into the positive direction”
• Integration of the Brazilian plant
into the global network and the
global quality strategy
• Clarification of tasks, roles and
responsibilities
• Shift from quality control to
quality management
• Recertification of the ISO standard
• Decline in guarantee and error
costs, higher customer satisfaction
(continued on next page)

12
M. Bausch et al. International Business Review 31 (2022) 101921

(continued )
PERIOD EVENTS FACILITATING FACTORS CHANGES EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

• Alignment of QM practices with

the headquarters, although
tolerating adaptation and
differentiation
• Consolidation of German-Brazilian
hybrid organizational culture

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