Where does corporate culture come from? In trying to
answer that question, this paper also suggests a new
perspective on the relationship between corporate
culture and performance. The paper does essentially two
things. First, it develops a simple model of corporate
culture, based on the notion of culture as shared
beliefs or assumptions, as suggested by the management
literature. Culture, in this model, evolves from the
common experiences of a firm’s members. Second, the
paper uses this model to study the key link between
culture and performance. It shows that, even without any
effect of culture on performance, there will be a
positive correlation between the two. This result
questions some received wisdom about corporate culture.
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