"This paper explores the impact of national culture on the decision to choose the top managing directors of foreign affiliates in Greece, a country which belongs to the economic periphery of European Union. It uses a sample data of 420 foreign firms operating in Greece to explore whether the national culture of the country of origin of the foreign firm affects its decision to employ a local or an expatriate managing director. The empirical findings suggest that the higher the national culture distance of the foreign firm's home country the higher is the probability of its employing a local managing director. The results of our analysis also mark the tendency of multinational companies whose home national culture scores high on the individualism dimension and is culturally distant from Greece to rely on local managing directors to co-ordinate the integration mechanisms and facilitate transactions."

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