Corporate culture: a review and directions for future research

We define corporate culture as an informal institution typified by patterns of behavior and reinforced by people, systems, and events. Advanced measurement techniques involving computational linguistics and granular data on companies have allowed researchers to study the dynamics of corporate culture at a level and scale previously impossible. These developments coupled with advances in the conceptualization and theory of corporate culture portend a rich research agenda. Corporate culture features elements of purposeful design and changes faster than societal culture; as such, one of the first steps in this research agenda is isolating the effects of people, systems, and events that serve as catalysts for cultural change. A better understanding of the drivers of cultural change can then serve as a foundation for testing and refuting cultural explanations for business outcomes and economic phenomena. This chapter summarizes this research agenda and its achievements thus far, and outlines directions for future research.