Revisiting Hofstede in the Indian context: Understanding the influence of entrepreneurial culture on performance of micro, small and medium enterprises

The performance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has been closely linked to factors unique to the respective countries or regions, namely, macro environmental factors, firm specific factors and entrepreneurial factors. The influence of macro environmental and firm specific factors on Indian MSMEs has been well researched and documented. The nature and extent of the influence of culture on MSME performance has not yet been largely researched or documented. This paper attempts to see whether the cultural dimensions of entrepreneurs across different regions of India influence the performance of MSMEs. The six dimensional cultural framework identified by Hofstede and the seventh dimension brought out through the validation study done recently by Thampi et al. in the Indian context are used for this study. Quantitative analysis of the inputs on the cultural orientations of MSME entrepreneurs and the enterprise performance parameters established the influence of cultural determinants on enterprise performance.