Premium
Culture and Innovation: Evidence from the European Union and Neighbouring Countries
Author(s) -
Kaasa Anneli
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/tesg.12194
Subject(s) - uncertainty avoidance , hofstede's cultural dimensions theory , individualism , economic geography , european union , confirmatory factor analysis , index (typography) , masculinity , psychology , social psychology , economics , business , marketing , international trade , computer science , world wide web , psychoanalysis , collectivism , service (business) , market economy
This exploratory study investigates the effect of different cultural dimensions on different innovation indicators covering as many EU countries and neighbouring countries as possible. The measures of cultural dimensions were composed on the basis of the EVS/WVS data with the help of confirmatory factor analysis. Correlation, regression, graphical and cluster analyses were used. It was confirmed that innovation processes are strongly reliant on culture: power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity turned out to be negatively and individualism positively related to innovation performance. The final innovation performance may develop on the basis of the combined effect of the four cultural dimensions that may or may not balance each other in a particular country. Hence, the Culture Index was calculated on the basis of the four cultural dimensions and it appeared to explain the differences in innovation performance between different countries quite well.