Research question - How is the use of Handelsbanken's Management Control System in the UK affected by national culture?

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to research the effect of national culture on the use of alternative Management Control Systems. The relevant aspect to focus on is how national culture can affect the use of the domestically developed management controls in a foreign market with a different national culture. In order to fulfil our purpose, we also compare and investigate Swedish Handelsbanken against Handelsbanken in the UK.

Design/Methodology/Approach - The study is based on an abductive and qualitative approach. The collected data is based on semi-structured interviews from four managers in different positions at Handelsbanken in the UK. The interviews have been held via skype calls and one interview was conducted through a physical meeting. The participants have been selected through purposive sampling.

Findings – To analyze our empirical data we included theory that was already developed about Handelsbanken. Regarding the cultural aspect we also included Hofstede's cultural dimensions and general theory about national culture and its effect on Management Control Systems. We found out that Handelsbanken does not adjust their management controls in the UK; mainly because they truly believe in their organizational culture and 'The Handelsbanken way'. They implicitly want to protect the organizational culture as it is and expect their employees to adjust. The key to preserve organizational culture is an extensive recruiting and training process. It moreover got evident that decentralization does not constitute the problem but the solution to cope with cultural differences in foreign operating markets.

Research limitations/ implications – The research is limited to the UK and the organization Handelsbanken. The research is also narrowed down to a management perspective, due to that they are the ones with the most knowledge about the management control practices in Handelsbanken. However, we imply that managers need to be aware of the additional recruiting and training efforts that are needed using the domestic MCS in a foreign operating market.