Some cultural factors could work against innovation. A culture that does not encourage risk taking may not exactly be a good promoter of creativity amongst its people. Herbig (1998) rightly opined that cultures that value and encourage creativity, recognize technical ability and higher education will more likely be successful in the adoption of innovations.
Herbig, P., & Dunphy, S. (1998). Culture and innovation. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 5(4), 13-21.
Consumer acceptance of innovations: One cultural factor arguably is religion. Certain religions such as Islam frowns on the use of certain new technology innovations. Many medications or medical treatments are the outcome of technological innovations and certain religions will not accept medical treatments of all kinds...
The literature indicates that customer involvement tends to prefer incremental innovations (van der Panne et al., 2003), while radical or disruptive innovation may face resistance from customers (Christensen, 1997).
van der Panne, G., C. van Beers and A. Kleinknecht (2003) “Success and Failure in Innovation: A Literature Review,” International Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 7(3, September), p. 309-338.
Christensen, C.M. (1997) The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press.
Eleanor D. Glor, "Codes of Conduct and Generations of Public Servants." International Review of Administrative Sciences (IRAS), Journal of IIAS and CAPAM. 2001. Vol 67 (Sept) (3): 525-41