Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

From 'business culture' to 'brand state': conceptions of nation and culture in business literature on cultural difference.

Halsall, Robert

Authors

Robert Halsall



Abstract

This article examines changing conceptions of culture and nation in business literature from the early 1990s to the present. In the early 1990s the growth of literature concerned with depicting the cultural differences between national varieties of capitalism and business systems seemingly betokened an interest in diversity in the business world. This seeming interest in cultural diversity, however, concealed an implicit neo-liberal teleology which implies a convergence hypothesis and change in the cultural role of the nation state to that of a location manager, whose role is merely to guarantee favourable conditions for business with the minimum of state intervention. This reconceptualisation of the nation leads to the ultimate stage in this teleology, the discourse of the brand state, in which culture is seen as just equivalent to those aspects of a countrys brand equity which meet the requirements of instant recognisability to the outside world.

Citation

HALSALL, R. 2008. From 'business culture' to 'brand state': conceptions of nation and culture in business literature on cultural difference. Culture and organization [online], 14(1), pages 15-30. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/14759550701863290

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 31, 2008
Online Publication Date Mar 31, 2008
Publication Date Mar 31, 2008
Deposit Date Oct 2, 2009
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Culture and organization
Print ISSN 1475-9551
Electronic ISSN 1477-2760
Publisher Taylor and Francis
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Issue 1
Pages 15-30
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14759550701863290
Keywords Business; Culture; Neoliberalism; Teleology; Brand state
Public URL http://hdl.handle.net/10059/425

Files




Downloadable Citations