The Effect of Organizational Culture on the Responsiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to Environmental Change: An Empirical Study in Romania

This empirical study examines the relationship between organizational culture and responsiveness, in a special setting: an economic environment in transition to a free market system, in particular the environment of Romanian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Romania offers a business context with many changes over the last two decades, a challenge and an opportunity for researchers. Firm's responsiveness represents an important concept related to both company performance and market environment. While there are studies that show the relationship between responsiveness, business environment and performance, there is less work done in investigating its relationship with the four archetypes of organizational culture: adhocracy, clan, market driven, and hierarchy. Using multivariate analysis to test the hypotheses, we found that the combination of entrepreneurial cultural characteristics, planning, and goal oriented managerial styles best suits successful companies. A market-driven type of culture, focusing on competitiveness and goal achievement, has the best coordination and is best positioned to deliver customer-centered versatility, while adhocracy, centered on entrepreneurship and creativity, helps businesses respond quickly to changes in the market environment.