Re-examining the links between cultural values and innovation

Abstract

The fact that the majority of the papers investigating the link between culture and innovation use Hofstede’s cultural theory and indicators prompts a question of whether the alternative cultural theories and variables can provide us with a better understanding of this link. This issue is further necessitated by the strong criticism of the validity of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions throughout their use. This study investigates the link between culture and innovation using four separate sets of cultural indicators: Hofstede’s, Schwartz’s, Inglehart’s and Minkov’s. The results of the empirical analysis highlight that individualism-collectivism unambiguously emerges as significantly linked with innovative activity regardless of the cultural theory utilised. Additionally, compared to Hofstede’s, all alternative sets of cultural indicators provide a better model fit, avoid some of the long-standing multicollinearity problems, and provide a more grounded theoretical foundation, complete with a better replicability of such variables.