To build a sustainable world, it is necessary to rethink global growth and human development in a way that is not detrimental to either the planet or other individuals and promotes the spread of fundamental rights. However, the idea of sustainability could become abstract and distant, if not declined in the socio-cultural context in which it can be expressed. This research focuses on the importance for governments and policymakers of taking into consideration combinations of cultural dimensions for the realization of the 17 SDGs and aims to answer whether cultural dimensions in a country determine specific levels of sustainable development. Our research emphasizes the need to explore the importance of cross-country cultural differences in shaping sustainable development. We analyze cross-national data, focusing on the relationship between Hofstede's six cultural dimensions and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) index of 82 countries worldwide. The empirical evidence sustains that culture influences the modalities through which countries reach sustainable development. We confirmed that there are multiple combinations of the cultural dimensions associated with sustainable development trajectories, and no single cultural dimension outperforms the others, equally contributing to improving the sustainability performance of the 82 countries taken into consideration. Given the existence of multiple modalities for reaching the same goal, we derive some policy implications to advise policymakers and governments on how to improve the sustainable development of their countries, taking into consideration their cultural characteristics.
