Impact of Dynamic Operations Complexity on Performance: The Role of National Culture

Abstract

We build on the national culture, complex adaptive systems, and operations complexity literature to develop hypotheses about the moderating role of national culture on the negative relationship between dynamic operations culture and operational complexity. Monthly performance data were collected from 179 plants in a multinational corporation's global plant network that spans all national culture clusters. We use random effects time series modeling to incorporate the transitory nature of this relationship and control unobserved heterogeneity over time. The results indicate that the relationship between dynamic operations complexity and operational performance is moderated by every dimension of national culture except gender egalitarianism and institutional collectivism. We contribute to the literature on complexity by introducing the dynamic operations complexity construct and showing the moderating effect of national culture. We contribute to the national culture literature by comprehensively examining the role of national culture supporting the national culture divergence thesis. Managerial implications relate to locating new plants in regions whose national culture is supportive of key goals and allocating tasks and products accordingly.