When Culture Governs Business Practice…. A Look at Indian Diamond Cutting and Polishing Industry

Abstract

In absence of the well-defined strategy, structure and processes in informal firms in emerging markets, it is the intangible aspect of organizing, specifically, the organizational culture that governs business practices. This paper investigates organizational culture of one such firm of the Indian diamond industry to contribute to this emerging area of scholarship. Today, global value chains are comprised of both formal and informal firms but we know little about the informal firm. Since managers of the formal firms need to interact, negotiate and deal with informal firms to transact global business, they also need to understand the organizational aspects of the informal firm. I make an attempt in this direction to inform scholars and practitioners about the organizational aspects of such firms by investigating organizational culture in the Indian Diamond Industry.