Premium
Which comes first, organizational culture or performance? A longitudinal study of causal priority with automobile dealerships
Author(s) -
Boyce Anthony S.,
Nieminen Levi R. G.,
Gillespie Michael A.,
Ryan Ann Marie,
Denison Daniel R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of organizational behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.938
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1099-1379
pISSN - 0894-3796
DOI - 10.1002/job.1985
Subject(s) - franchise , reciprocal , organizational culture , causality (physics) , customer satisfaction , marketing , organizational performance , psychology , business , panel data , operations management , econometrics , management , economics , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
Summary Prior research supports a link between organizational culture and performance but generally falls short of establishing causality or determining the direction of a culture–performance (C‐P) relationship. Using data collected from 95 franchise automobile dealerships over 6 years, we studied longitudinal culture–performance relationships to determine whether culture or performance has causal priority, or alternatively, whether a reciprocal relationship exists. Results from cross‐lagged panel analyses indicate that culture “comes first,” consistently predicting subsequent ratings of customer satisfaction and vehicle sales. Furthermore, the positive effect of culture on vehicle sales is fully mediated by customer satisfaction ratings. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.