A Re-Evaluation of Corporate Culture Versus National Culture in the Formation of International Strategic Alliances: a Theoretical Discussion

International strategic alliances have become overwhelmingly used in today’s business environment. However, most of these alliances feature a very high rate of unsuccessfulness. Usually, business partners’ cultural distance is regarded as one of the main reasons that lead these alliances to their failure. Therefore, it is thought that companies belonging to similar national cultural environment are more likely to form a successful alliance. This paper attempts to criticize this view. It does not aim at denying the importance of national culture reflections, but it would rather suggest to assume corporate culture as the main proxy to assess the likelihood that two companies might form a successful business relationship.