Global Cities, Cosmopolitanism, and Organizational Culture

A common implicit assumption in research on global acculturation towards cosmopolitanism is that it occurs uniformly across geographic space. Our contention, in contrast, is that it occurs in primarily within and among global cities, and that this has implications for the interaction between location and organizational culture in MNEs. Examining 11,176 MNE employees across nine countries, we enhance our understanding of the nature of global cities and the ways in which cosmopolitanism is a sub- and supra-national phenomenon. Our findings suggest that global cities are pulled towards a cosmopolitan global culture that is different from their national compatriots and similar across global cities.