{"title":"Does Confucian Culture Promote Innovation? An Empirical Investigation of a Leading Organization in the Field","authors":"Mu Tian, Sylvia Rohlfer, Yajun Wu, Haifeng Yan","doi":"10.5771/0935-9915-2022-1-82","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Based on their growing innovation capabilities, Chinese companies have become important players in the global innovation arena. Among the factors influencing these firms’ innovation, cultural values have increasingly attracted scholars’ attention. However, research on the relationship between one of the key elements of traditional Chinese culture, Confucianism, and innovation remains scarce. By focusing on two core elements of Confucianism, we extend the innovation contingency literature in examining whether Confucianism is associated with management and product innovation at the firm level in China. Through an empirical examination of a highly innovative private company in China’s premium kitchen appliance market, we find that Confucianism, as reflected in innovative management practices, can foster product innovation. Specifically, benevolence as a Confucian virtue can trigger innovation by forcing a user-centred focus and widening managers’ perspectives of stakeholder interests. Another Confucian principle, the Doctrine of the Mean, can also boost innovation by yielding harmony with surrounding elements, such as users, space, and nature, and defining the employee-management relationship.","PeriodicalId":47269,"journal":{"name":"Management Revue","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Management Revue","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2022-1-82","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Based on their growing innovation capabilities, Chinese companies have become important players in the global innovation arena. Among the factors influencing these firms’ innovation, cultural values have increasingly attracted scholars’ attention. However, research on the relationship between one of the key elements of traditional Chinese culture, Confucianism, and innovation remains scarce. By focusing on two core elements of Confucianism, we extend the innovation contingency literature in examining whether Confucianism is associated with management and product innovation at the firm level in China. Through an empirical examination of a highly innovative private company in China’s premium kitchen appliance market, we find that Confucianism, as reflected in innovative management practices, can foster product innovation. Specifically, benevolence as a Confucian virtue can trigger innovation by forcing a user-centred focus and widening managers’ perspectives of stakeholder interests. Another Confucian principle, the Doctrine of the Mean, can also boost innovation by yielding harmony with surrounding elements, such as users, space, and nature, and defining the employee-management relationship.
期刊介绍:
Management Revue - Socio-Economic Studies is an interdisciplinary European journal that undergoes peer review. It publishes qualitative and quantitative work, along with purely theoretical papers, contributing to the study of management, organization, and industrial relations. The journal welcomes contributions from various disciplines, including business and public administration, organizational behavior, economics, sociology, and psychology. Regular features include reviews of books relevant to management and organization studies.
Special issues provide a unique perspective on specific research fields. Organized by selected guest editors, each special issue includes at least two overview articles from leaders in the field, along with at least three new empirical papers and up to ten book reviews related to the topic.
The journal aims to offer in-depth insights into selected research topics, presenting potentially controversial perspectives, new theoretical insights, valuable empirical analysis, and brief reviews of key publications. Its objective is to establish Management Revue - Socio-Economic Studies as a top-quality symposium journal for the international academic community.