diff --git a/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt b/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt
index 85411db9..5e0ab489 100644
--- a/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ function(initialize_submodule DIRECTORY)
   if(NOT EXISTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${DIRECTORY}/.git)
     find_package(Git QUIET REQUIRED)
     message(STATUS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${DIRECTORY}/.git does not exist. Initializing ${DIRECTORY} submodule ...")
-    execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} submodule update --init ${DIRECTORY}
-                    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
+    execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} submodule update --init ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${DIRECTORY}
+                    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
                     RESULT_VARIABLE GIT_EXIT_CODE)
     if(NOT GIT_EXIT_CODE EQUAL "0")
       message(FATAL_ERROR "${GIT_EXECUTABLE} submodule update --init dependencies/${DIRECTORY} failed with exit code ${GIT_EXIT_CODE}, please checkout submodules")
@@ -67,4 +67,4 @@ if (SIMDJSON_COMPETITION)
 
   add_library(competition-all INTERFACE)
   target_link_libraries(competition-all INTERFACE competition-core competition-jsoncppdist competition-json11 competition-fastjson competition-gason competition-ujson4c)
-endif()
\ No newline at end of file
+endif()