Does Culture InfluenceAsset Managers’ Views and Behavior?

This research enters new ground by presenting comparative survey evidence on assetmanagers' views and behavior in the United States, Germany, Japan and Thailand.Relying on Hofstede's four cultural dimensions, we find that cultural differencesare most helpful in understanding country differences which cannot be explained bypure economic reasoning. In short, controlling for various determinants, the dimensionof more Individualism predicts less herding behavior, more Power Distanceleads to older and comparatively less experienced managers in the upper hierarchy,Masculinity brings men into top positions and to higher volumes of assets under personalresponsibility, and Uncertainty Avoidance is related to higher safety marginsagainst the tracking error allowed and relatively more research effort.[...]