A dyadic approach to the impact of differences in organizational culture on relationship performance Sjoerd Beugelsdijk a, ⁎, Carla Koen b, 1 , Niels Noorderhaven c,2 a Nijmegen School of Management, Nijmegen University, Thomas van Aquinostraat 5.0.65, PO Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands b Tilburg University, Tias Nimbas Business School, Warandelaan 2, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands c Tilburg University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Organisation and Strategy, Warandelaan 2, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands article info abstract Article history: Received 11 October 2005 Received in revised form 7 May 2007 Accepted 12 February 2008 Available online 8 April 2008 The authors extend previous research on relationship management by investigating the potential effect of differences in organizational culture on relationship performance among 124 dyads. Theory suggests that partner similarity may improve the feeling of we-ness thereby contributing to the perceived success of inter- firm cooperation. The findings reveal that differences in organizational culture are larger in less successful inter-firm relationships, but do not influence the perceived relationship success significantly. Our results suggest that relationship managers should not confuse compatibility with similarity; personal chemistry is important for relationship atmosphere but does not solely depend on similarities. Future research in this area may wish to concentrate on a more complete measure of organizational (sub)culture(s), the different levels of analysis (personal, organizational, dyad), relationship life cycles (stage models) and the role of organizational identity. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Organizational culture Relationship marketing Dyad Inter-firm cooperation 1. Introduction Relationship marketing has become a central research paradigm in the marketing channels literature (Achrol, 1997; Bagozzi, 1975; Hingley, 2005). An impressive body of conceptual and empirical literature has addressed a range of aspects of inter-firm relationships. Building on different theoretical approaches like the transaction cost approach (Williamson, 1975, 1985), resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) and contract theory (Macneil, 1980), numerous scholars have studied the relational aspects of exchange relationships (Heide, 1994). Empirically, concepts like dependence (Hallèn, Johanson, & Sayed-Mohamed, 1991; Heide & John, 1988; Ganesan, 1994), commitment (Anderson & Weitz 1992; Noordewier, John, & Nevin 1990), trust (Brock Smith & Barclay 1997; Ganesan, 1994; Moorman, Zaltman, & Deshpandé, 1992; Seppänen, Blomqvist, & Sundqvist, 2007) and communication (Anderson & Weitz 1992; Noordewier et al., 1990) have been shown to be related to the economic success of buyer–seller relations and inter-firm cooperation in general (Achrol, 1997; Heide & John, 1992; Hoffman, 2000; Kingshott, 2006; Wren & Simpson, 1996). A number of scholars in this tradition have argued that differences in organizational culture may influence the success of buyer–seller cooperation in a negative way (Brock Smith, & Barclay, 1997; Bucklin & Sengupta, 1993; Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987). Incompatibility of the transacting organizations' operating philosophies is assumed to negatively influence the feeling of “we-ness” (Jap & Ganesan, 2000), and partner similarity in terms of working practices may be an im- portant element of the overall ‘relational syndrome’ (Noordewier et al., 1990). Despite these arguments that differences in organiza- tional culture may negatively influence the development and success of inter-firm cooperation, empirical evidence is rather weak (cf. Seppänen et al., 2007 , p. 261). Existing empirical studies do not ac- tually measure culture, but tend to concentrate on organizational differences in broad sense, for example strategic compatibility (Achrol, Scheer & Stern, 1990; Brock Smith & Barclay, 1997; Bucklin & Sengupta, 1993), are performed in an international setting conflating national and organizational culture (LaBahn & Harich, 1997; Mehta, Larsen, Rosenbloom, & Ganitsky, 2006; Skarmeas, Katsikeas, & Schlegelmilch, 2002), or concern higher levels of integration, like international joint ventures or formal alliances (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991; Medcof, 1997; Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1998). To the best of our knowledge, no large scale analysis of the role of organizational culture in regular national buyer–seller relationships has been made. Research on this issue is important because a better understanding of the role of dif- ferences in organizational culture can increase the effectiveness of inter-firm cooperation. Embedded in social exchange theory, we contribute to the existing literature in two important ways. First of all, our sample of 124 buyer– seller relationships allows us to simultaneously study the impact of cultural distance on performance as perceived by both sides of the relationship, while controlling for relational norms like trust and commitment. Such a dyadic study is important, because it has been Industrial Marketing Management 38 (2009) 312–323 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 243615886. E-mail addresses: s.beugelsdijk@fm.ru.nl (S. Beugelsdijk), c.i.koen@tiasnimbas.edu (C. Koen), n.g.noorderhaven@fm.ru.nl (N. Noorderhaven). 1 Tel.: +31 13 4668600. 2 Tel.: +31 13 4662315. 0019-8501/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2008.02.006 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Marketing Management