Background: Businesses are increasingly expanding their businesses globally, evolving into multinational enterprises. Managers within MNEs extensively use corporate culture to maintain a unified organization and guarantee them more control over their subsidiaries. Nevertheless, MNE’s subsidiaries are also embedded in their own national culture, which might differ from the corporate and national culture of the company. Swedish corporate and national culture differs extensively from other countries, which may result in Swedish MNEs encountering several challenges when aiming to implement their corporate culture within their subsidiaries. Consequently, different strategies are employed with the aim of an effective implementation process. 

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to enhance comprehension regarding Swedish multinational enterprises’ implementation process of their corporate culture within their subsidiaries abroad. It will provide a deeper understanding of strategies Swedish MNEs employ during this process and investigate how the Swedish corporate culture might hinder the process of implementation. 

Method: This study is based on the relativism and social constructionism paradigm and is conducted through qualitative research with semi-structured interviews with eight different Swedish Multinational Enterprises. In addition, an inductive approach is employed, seeking to find new information and perspectives among the data, given the varied experiences among the interview subjects. 

Conclusion: The empirical findings present three new challenges and seven new strategies regarding Swedish MNEs implementing their corporate culture in foreign subsidiaries. The challenges regard resistance against Swedish businesses overall, subsidiaries unwilling to change their corporate culture, as well as difficulties in understanding the Swedish corporate culture. The strategies regard trust-building initiatives, leadership education, education in cultural differences, Swedish leaders in subsidiaries, meetings to ensure alignment and understanding, physical meetings, and mobile and flexible leaders.