Culture of Individualism and Uncertainty Avoidance in the G20 Countries’ Industries: An Analysis of Capital Structure and Performance

Abstract

The objective was to analyze the influence of the dimensions of national culture (individualism and uncertainty avoidance) in the relationship between the choice of capital structure formation and the performance of companies in the G20 countries from 2013 to 2018, all in the industrial segment. The companies and countries that make up the sample, which totaled 3,431 companies with all countries and 14,743 observations. The analyzes were performed by econometric structural equations. The results showed a significant and positive relationship between the capital structure and the performance of companies. In evaluating the interaction between the capital structure variable and the cultural dimension of individualism and uncertainty avoidance, they were positively and statistically significant in the performance of companies, proving that culture has an influence on the relationship between structure and performance. Finally, emerging and developed markets were checked separately, demonstrating that in emerging markets the relationship of structure with performance to culture moderation was less affected by national culture (individualism and uncertainty avoidance) than in relation to developed countries.