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Merger and acquisition (M&A) is a way to survive and succeed in a competitive global environment as a consequence of new political, monetary and regulatory issues. The complex phenomenon that M&As represent has received consistent attention from the research community over the last 30 years.

M&As are a strategic choice to grow quicker, enter new markets and maximize companies' capabilities, which otherwise would not have been possible. Within the automotive industry, this phenomenon has been seen repeatedly with examples like Mitsubishi-Daimler, Jaguar-Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, Seat-Volkswagen, Daewoo-General Motors and Land Rover-Ford. Although M&A activity has trended directionally consistent with automotive assembly volume, there are some failure cases within automotive industry M&As (e.g., Rover-BMW). In this chapter, the focus is on the intercultural issues of the M&A phenomenon. The underestimation of the cultural factors has significant impact on why M&A operations sometimes fail to achieve the predefined goals.

It is of vital importance for the automotive companies to understand and be aware of these intercultural issues in order to be successful in their merger or acquisition.

The phenomenon of M&A within the automotive industry needs further research and discussions due to the fact that some strategic alliances and M&A proved to be successful (e.g., Škoda-Volkswagen) and others not (e.g., Rover-BMW).

This chapter intends to reveal the leading questions regarding doing business in Eastern Europe. The chapter uncovers the most important cultural issues applied to business ethics in order to improve the knowledge concerning business in Eastern Europe. We envisage, also, the nexus between intercultural elements and business ethics issues. This chapter aims at practitioners and management scholars, serving as a starting point for deepening the understanding of cultural and ethical issues in Eastern Europe.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the economic, social and political conditions have changed radically, especially in Europe. During the last two decades, Europeanization has become an attractive research area and an integral part of the study of European Union (EU) politics.

National cultural values provide a context for discussing ethics and ethicality, but not an explanation of why there are differences in ethical values. The organizational culture is quite homogeneous among Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) countries, but the national cultures remained different.

Organizational cultures in ECE are characterized by: highly centralized structures, dislike of uncertainty, preferences for formality and strong collectivist attitudes.

Professional ethics is not a special type of ethics but the application of ethical judgement in professional practice. This application can be difficult in business settings as conflicting demands can arise. In areas where professional practitioners are employed, there is potential for a conflict.

In the past few decades, service offshoring industry has been developing globally, and in the past few years its dynamic growth has been observed in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Intensive process migrations have been influenced by the primary goal of minimizing operational expenses, at the same time improving service efficiency and gaining access to wide talent pools. The chapter summarizes current state and key development trends of the offshore service delivery sector in the CEE region. Moreover, it aims at contributing to the understanding of corporate culture at the CEE service delivery organizations, which has been the dominant factor influencing their effectiveness and quality of delivery. The exploratory, pilot study conducted at the sample of three organizations from three countries in the region was supposed to examine the organizational culture at CEE nearshore delivery centres, by applying analysis based on seven factors, broken into 26 cultural artefacts. With minor exceptions, the results highlight positive perception of key organizational culture's elements across employees (e.g. communication, goal setting, team work, reward orientation, innovativeness standards). The only negatively assessed element is the performance standards, including their clear definition, coaching for personal improvement of employees and emphasizing good performance of the organizations. The quantitative study is limited to only three sample companies from three countries, therefore extending the research scope is recommended, as well as exploring the link of national culture elements to the employees' perception of organizational relations and culture.

How should foreigners manage a partnership or an acquisition in Russia? We know a lot about Russian culture per se, but research on foreign companies having to deal with Russia remains scarce. To answer our question, we used the concept of nationally bound administrative heritage to identify how foreign practices are efficiently implemented in Russia in the context of partnerships and acquisitions. We interviewed 16 Russian managers working in the car industry about their perception of foreign practices and how things ought to be done. Our investigations show the maintenance of a strong national culture that generates a need to cope with uncertainty for foreign firms. For local people, Russia is a particular country, not comparable to others. When transferring practices, foreign managers need to organize hybridization processes in order to successfully import these practices. Hybridization means transferring but adapting in order to impregnate them with the Russian specificity. Such hybridization requires foreign managers to work and network locally for the implantation of practices.

This conceptual chapter, based on literature review, aims to elaborate an integrative approach to the study of cultural differences/convergence within and across the borders of Eastern European countries, in order to conciliate the two theoretical perspectives prevailing in the debate on cultural diversity management: the emic and the etic theoretical stances.

This chapter tries to propose a ‘third way’ to cultural analysis that includes the two perspectives, within a wider and complex multiparadigmatic and pluralistic framework, with a specific focus on Eastern European cultures.

Eastern European countries represent a sort of ideal construction that includes several countries, characterized by different trajectories and heritages: Catholic versus Orthodox religions, Slavic versus non-Slavic identities, Capitalistic versus Former Soviet Union values, etc. In spite of the renovated interest towards the regional area of Eastern Europe, empirical data show that there are significant differences in the distribution of cultural values, among national clusters. On the other hand, it is very difficult to say that Eastern European countries should be considered separate sociocultural entities, without any point of contact among other.

The main assumption of this chapter is that to better understand sociocultural dynamics within and across Eastern European countries, it is necessary to go beyond cultural mapping, in search of a more complex theoretical and methodological approach.

This approach may help to conciliate the apparent paradoxes emerging from the comparison of data related to Eastern European national clusters, providing a more complex and deep view of cultural phenomena, within and outside organizational and national boundaries.

In this chapter, we attempt to establish global leadership broadly and intercultural competence specifically as constructs of leadership that are essential in the global context and accessible and applicable within the Eastern and Central European context. We examine several international studies of global leadership and cultural differences and highlight the patterns of culturally bounded values and behaviours that can be found in Eastern and Central Europe. We also explore the dimension of intercultural competence, its development, and share two case studies where intercultural competence was either enacted or needed in an Eastern or Central European context. Finally, we share different frames that can and/or have been employed to examine glonal leadership in Eastern or Central Europe. By looking at the cultural differences that have been uncovered in the region and the concept of intercultural competence as foundational to success, we can see that leaders aspiring to global leadership work in this region can find the dimensions of global leadership that will support their goals. The development of intercultural competence specifically and global leadership acumen broadly can be a topic for a different chapter in a different volume.