Assessing the impact of national culture on digital maturity

Companies are progressing with their digital transformation. However, in order to successfully manage this transition to a high degree of digital maturity, they must not only adopt digital technologies but also use them to optimize their processes, products, services and business models and develop the necessary capabilities. As part of the search for drivers and antecedents, this article sheds light on the influence of national culture on firms' digital maturity. To this end, hypotheses on the effects along Hofstede's six cultural dimensions are derived from the literature and then tested in a quantitative study of 603 companies from the manufacturing industry applying multiple regression analysis. The results confirm that digital maturity is fostered by strong uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation and hampered by strong individualism and indulgence. In contrast, no significant effects were found for power distance and masculinity. The study thus contributes to research by affirming the culture-bound nature of digital maturity and encouraging companies to incorporate conducive values of national culture into their global strategies for digital transformation.