Hi Abeer . Please have a look at the work of Hofstede et al ( look at this wonderful link: http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html  ) . Then try to think using Hosftede dimensions for culture. So you may want to ask: is Power Distance related to innovation? DOes it blocks it ? DOes it promotes it? And so on with each dimension.  What you may discover with this exercise is a more precise question that with produce more precise answers. And it will allow you, I think , to generate more valid conclusions.

In many cases I don't believe that nationalities and cultural elements line up well, because of the multicultural realities of nations. Often "national culture" is a myth propagated by a nation state in an attempt to forge a collective sense of identity. Other times people are influenced by national stereotypes that are applied from the outside. I would suggest separating cultural and political variables to get a clear look at the phenomena being studied.

Hi Abeer:

I don't know about national-level innovation differences or characteristics, but there are studies out there about regional differences that look at post-socialist countries - search for Dr. Michael Fritsch - he teaches at Freidrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany.

Good luck!

Brian

No. national culture doesn't effect the innovative attribute of an organization. It is a People oriented GELLING & SWELLING for collaborated output (if required)- ELOC, else it is individual oriented- ILOC. It sparks anytime, many-a-time at distress....

yes, national culture do effect the innovation in organisation, please read Hoefstede research!

Organization culture is organization specific and depends on value system, decision making pattern and behavioral pattern in the organization.  Conducive organizational culture  promotes and nurtures creativity, which is essential for innovation. National culture which depends on social, economic and political system has hardly any influence on organizational creativity and innovations. However, a helpful national culture will help in development of organizational effort towards innovation.

I think it can. In a post-colonial country like Canada, for example, I see alot of deference to others and non-valuing of our own ideas and people.These attitudes don't contribute well to being innovative. The main objective of most innovative Canadian companies is to sell their idea or company to an American company.

Djuro Kutlaca.  Hoefstede's research  are recognized and important in the organizational world.

Yes i believe national culture affects innovation. it is also reflected through national innovation systems. Roberto is right you should read Hofstede;s research. Similarly, I agree with Eleanor;s view. There are also researches that indicate cultural role in innovation. These may be organizational level researches, but they are reflective of the national cultures in which they are embedded or operating. 

Yes it does . The Jews , Chinese ,Japanese etc are good examples of countries with high need for achievement .This need drives them in the direction of innovativeness

Does national culture effect the innovativeness of an organization?

culture is believes, values, attitudes and etc.  innovation is doing innovative things.

if we want to develop innovation

faviourable belives, positive values and positive attitudes should be present.

Thus, there are chances so that national culture increase innovation

Thank you everyone with your suggestions. Very helpful indeed.

Abeer::

I believe that national cultural has the everything to do with the innovativeness of an organization. America is so culturally diverse if cultural competency is not an action on behalf of the leadership team, the company will surely suffer. Imagine not only language barriers but if the leaders do not offer cultural competency in the form of focus groups, educational programs, etc. When I am consulted or asked to do a training service on cultural competency, I almost always start with how the National Culture can put forth great barriers to new, creative ideas generated from a culturally diverse workplace. Developing cultural awareness includes recognizing the value of population diversity. It also means an honest assessment of one's bias and stereotypes. I usually suggest the company (regardless of size) hold a Pot Luck supper where each ethnicity brings their favorite dish from their homeland (or heritage) and give a few minute describing the history of the dish and why it is their favorite. It is an Amazing exercise!!

--Marilyn

SORRY ABOUT THE TYPOS I KEEP FORGETTING RG DOES NOT HAVE SPELL CHECK.

Culture can affect innovation. There are a lot of research focus on the ralationship between individualism /collectivism (one of hoffstede's culture dimensions) and innovation. Most researches believe that eastern culture (High collectivism) produces less innovation.

Hi Abeer,

There was a paper in the Journal of Marketing a few years ago (Tellis et al., 2009), which stated that corporate culture was more conducive to radical innovation than national culture (i.e. if an MNC has a strong innovation-based corporate culture, its employees will be innovative elsewhere, regardless of the values host culture might promote). You might wish to have a look.

Further I agree with the comment above; certain cultural values like i.e. power distance affect innovation (van der Vegt et al., 2005, AMJ). Collectivism, as opposed to individualism, is considered to be decreasing creativity; yet, the situation might be more complex than that and certain types of collectivism can be actually quite conducive to creativity. Have a look at Taylor and Wilson (2012; JBV).

Hope it helps.

Thanks Veronica for the suggestion

I think in the Post liberalization the thing was different but in after that the days has changes and the cultural was changed a lot but in the business and innovation the thing was going on. Culture plays a major role in each and every aspect as they influence the psychology of the people and make them not go forward in the real world......

National culture may influence innovations in both positive and negative way. Except Hofstede's research you can look at works of Björn Bjerke. Good luck.

together with Hofstede's research, as quoted by Agnieszka, there are some interesting application of florida creative class "approach" at the national level.

Althoug, from a statistical viewpoint, this approach is rather simplistic; it can be useful for a quick and easy country ranking also based on cultural elements (especially tolerance)

wooops

I forgot to copy and aste a link

http://www.citylab.com/work/2011/10/worlds-leading-creative-class-countries/228/

This is a very good question Abeer. I would like to believe that it does to some extent. Nowadays there is a lot of globalisation and glocalisation (the adaptation of a product or service specifically to each locality or culture in which it is sold) which is taking place. Organisations are now faced with one major question  how then do we address cultural challenges in the midst of a culturally diverse workplace and what is the impact on innovation? So in my view i see it as follows

So, at the end of the day the notion of culture and innovation is entirely a contextual issue there are various factors which are at interplay and it  also entirely dependant upon  the extent to which employees assimilate, accomodate and transmit the culture.

Thank you for your important question. The national culture is critical for system innovativeness. I spent many years for both studying and researching leadership bevaviours in the context of innovativeness mainly in industry at company and industry level. The results are clear. The most important factor are tradition, values, social readiness and willingness for news and willingness to take the risk. Furthermore, religion is also a key factor in european coutries (protestantism vrs Roman Catholicism). If the country does not have effective innovation system at any level (national, regional, sectoral), there will never be high level of total innovativeness.

thank you all for your input this has really helped me. I hope I am able to develop an effective research proposal now :)

Hi Abeer . Please have a look at the work of Hofstede et al ( look at this wonderful link: http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html  ) . Then try to think using Hosftede dimensions for culture. So you may want to ask: is Power Distance related to innovation? DOes it blocks it ? DOes it promotes it? And so on with each dimension.  What you may discover with this exercise is a more precise question that with produce more precise answers. And it will allow you, I think , to generate more valid conclusions.

Short answer yes. Slightly longer answer: Innovation is NOT correlated to R&D. Systemic innovation is. Systemic innovation happens when people have 'voice' AND there are systems for capturing, monitoring, implementing and rewarding (not necessarily with money) innovative ideas. People  have more voice in some national cultures (e.g. "Rhineland" - NOT a geographic term) and less in others (e.g. "Anglo" - NOT a geographic term). Sometimes this 'voice' is legally mandated.

there is an interesting paper of Shane, S. A. (1990) " Why do some societies invent more than others?" where she explains different levels of inventiveness by

cultural differences between countries

Short answer yes, the main question is not only culture but also condition that some countries have, I think that is all the package (culture, infraestructure, tradition, etc.)

Sure, see the literature about the "national systems of innovation": Freeman, Nelso, Lundvall.

yes the local culture and overall context (infrastructure, systems, resources, workforce) influences how knowledge is used for application and innovation. Read this article for a better explanation in health care research

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/18179688

National culture can lead to reverse innovation. There lies the cases on Nokia, GE Health Care, Tata – Swacch, Godrej, KFC, Tata Nano....!! A need to look into, when we discuss innovation and culture.

Dear All,

I think as the answer was evident for everybody so did for Abeer too. Environment, social and cultural milieu is determining for behaviour and attitudes. This is a familiar summary of several dozens of RG discussions.

Well, I have another question: How does this thread influence the innovativeness of the participants here?

Hi Abeer,

I do agree with all that the national culture do influence the innovation of an organisation. This is possibly because of two main reasons: the education system in place and skills gained by graduates. These reasons are very much vary from one nation culture to another. We are for instant focusing on how we can develop Education for Innovation. But the main question is: can we teach innovation / creativity?!

In fact industrial market has become very competitive and challenging and there is a real need for innovation to most of the SME's / LE's to sustain and maintain business growth and develop a new market opportunity.

This is led to a challenging market for graduates to secure a career since it is not anymore about knowledge and what they can do, it is nowadays about what they do in a creative way and what they can bring to the business?!

I very much believe this industrial and business market drive is a way forward and it will lead to culture step change, if we manage to communicate the message to our graduates regardless of national culture.

happy to receive comments and feedback.

with best regards,

MS

Have you considered a network perspective?  

Some cultures encourage connections in society and allow them between diverse groups.  Those cultures may have an edge in innovation because we have often seen that innovation happens at the intersections of knowledge/perspectives/abilities.  Some cultures have a deep fear component which keeps networks small, and the result is only individual innovators.  Other cultures encourage/allow diverse connections between many groups and have many team-based innovations.

National culture effects innovativeness of any organisation. Power distant national culture squeeze independence and creative thinking and so, reduces innovativeness. In contrast, individualist national culture promotes independence and creativity and so, promotes innovativeness.

Dear Abeer,

Of Course!  consider the number of innovations comes to the market per year. Simple categorization of innovation and nationality  may reveal the link between innovation and national culture.

Upananda

GEM national study has a big part of the answer

Finally many innovations are concentred in entrepreneurship culture

Regards

Hi

Since national culture is a product of human beings within specific settings or configuration of geography, history, and a vision of man's role in his community and world, its patterns are but a consequence of that culture. Among these patterns is the degree of innovation and other performances.

Innovation is understanding the need and finding a way to satisfy the requirement at right time with the available resources. To favor innovation ....

• Participatory culture facilitates new dimensions
• Market competitiveness affects Innovation
• Resembles the Society and culture.

National culture can siggnificantly support innovative tendencies begiining from the school, through whole proces of education, till professional career (not always scientific, but e.g. in industry, education or administration also), moreover even retired workers can effectively stimulate increase of knowledge thank to bigger experience.

Organizational Innovation has the multidimensional impact, where yes one can not neglect the societal,national culture. Culture of Society, Education and Nation has the influence on the culture of the organization, organization strategy , organization leadership and management practice aligned to the overall culture hence there are lots of literature available defining the relationship between the National Culture and Organizational Innovation. However there is less empirical work has been found in the area of this specific knowledge domain.

Dear Emilia,

I completely agree with you. "National culture can siggnificantly support innovative tendencies begiining from the school, through whole proces of education, till professional career..."

yes, Culture has an positive and negative impact in Innovation. this is because organisation does not exist in vaccum, it exist in a nation which has its own cultural tradition.

National culture yes impacts on the innovativeness of an Organization. Organisations exists in culturally bound environments ranging from the political, ideological and social attitudes. In diverse cultures, openness and education may create a bridge but socio cultural influences and collective values still impact on the organisation. In third World Countries the tolerance to corruption is a noted impediment to Organisations ability to innovate. Most organisations swim within this enviroment and find themselves in a chess pool of devoting time fight corruption than noting the competitor who is a trigger to innovativeness. Moreover the 

More indigenous the culture of an organization, I believe it to be more innovative. Person performs best when speaks in mother tongue and thinks indigenously because what comes naturally to us, has better chances of being original. Thus, national culture, if prevails and is encouraged in the organizations, would bring that creativity out and certainly would lead to novel ideas.

I wish there was a simple answer to your question but, I am afraid that there is not. For decades, I have personally dealing with different kinds of innovations in my country (Mexico), both in the public and private sectors, in different geographical regions. For practical purposes, it has been useful to consider that, although we are in the same country, each region seems to have a different culture. On top of this, each organization promotes a culture of their own.

The question is a liitle too broad so the answer can not be clear, but from both my researcher and entrepreneur point of view there is both direct and indirect relationship between "cultural habits" at social level (national, regional, local community and finally enterprise) and innovativeness. I have already found and described many both positive and negative correlations and cases and it seems to me that crucial role in developing and fasilitating long-term innovativness plays  leadership based on systems perspective (to be able to identify constant challeges from inside and outside company). If culture is understood as the set of habits, values, routines it can both accelarate the process of innovation or slow it down.

Even within one nation there are varoius regions (with significant differences in tradition), various social groups and the final result depends on the synergy between the organizational goals and its people. If we think about building global campanies which are global leader, it may be easier to do within the cultures which are goal oriented, future oriented etc.

This is a recycled topic over the years...replication, replication, but some editors like if you work same theory again and again...

My point is based on the realization that national culture is converging...in this century... This is not Hofstede's century/decade...

Sure, you can rely on the 5thoeries of teh national systems of innovation: Freeman, Nelson, Lundvall, Malerba