2023/07/03 by Özgecan Koçak, Phanish Puranam · 1 voice
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Complex Systems and Decision Making #Cultural Differences and Values #Innovation and Knowledge Management
paper · doi:10.1287/stsc.2022.0008
openalex publication_date 2023/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
It is uncontroversial for strategy scholars that culture matters for both strategy formulation and execution. Yet, the diversity of approaches and concepts for thinking about culture can prove daunting for operationalizing this insight. We introduce the concept of a “code”—a fuzzy mapping between two distinct sets of cognitive constructs—as a fundamental construct to study culture. The concept of a code, and the distinction between using a code versus expectations about the code others use, can be applied to study many different elements of culture both in terms of theorizing about them with precision and for empirical applications. Furthermore, we argue that a code-based perspective on culture is particularly useful from the normative, design-oriented stance that is characteristic of strategy. Using an example of creating stakeholder alignment around the problem of sustainability, a first-order challenge for business and society today, we show that the perspectives of culture as shared values and culture as a toolkit point to different interventions that are each likely to work under different conditions. Funding: P. Puranam thanks The Desmarais Fund at INSEAD for supporting the Organizations & Algorithms project.