Organizational risk culture: A literature review on dimensions, assessment, value relevance, and improvement levers

Abstract

The topic of organizational risk culture has gained increased attention after the financial crisis from 2007 to 2009, emphasizing the need to establish risk awareness beyond the boundaries of a dedicated risk management department. Despite its importance, the concept of organizational risk culture is not uniquely defined to date. In this paper, we conduct a structured literature review that includes 83 peer-reviewed academic articles, based on which we derive a comprehensive presentation of the concept of organizational risk culture for four major aspects: (i) dimensions of risk culture, (ii) instruments to assess and diagnose risk culture, (iii) insight on the value effect of risk culture (dimensions) on firm performance and applied methodologies, and (iv) improvement levers along the identified dimensions with further influencing factors. We conclude with a discussion of avenues of future research. Our analysis emphasizes the considerable value of a strong organizational risk culture, which should be regularly assessed in firms and improved along the dimensions identified in the paper.