Does culture influence the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management?

Abstract: The primary purpose of this study is to investigate if culture influences a firm’s decision to implement enterprise risk management (ERM). It will examine which factors influence this decision on a worldwide level, how ERM implementation varies across countries and to what extent these differences are influenced by cultural dimensions. The study is based on 380 firm observations from 19 countries. ERM implementation is examined with a keyword search on annual reports and culture is measured with Hofstede’s dimensions power distance, uncertainty avoidance and individualism. This study supports that culture has an influence on ERM implementation which shows that culture has to be taken into account when analysing and comparing ERM implementation across countries. Furthermore, this worldwide sample allows to compare ERM variation between the observed countries and it shows that influences which have been examined on a country-level can also be found on a worldwide-level.