Culture and innovation: a human emancipation perspective

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims at offering a comprehensive thesis about the relationship between different cultural values and innovativeness.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on the human emancipation perspective and using data from Hofstede’s, Schwartz’s, and Inglehart’s cultural frameworks, the authors conduct a cross-national investigation into the effects of cultural values on national innovativeness.

Findings

The analyses show that emancipatory cultural dimensions such as rationality, secularity, self-expression, individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, mastery and autonomy have significantly positive associations with national innovativeness. The opposing cultural values, such as traditionalism, religiosity, survival, collectivism, high uncertainty avoidance, short-term orientation, harmony and conservatism, have negative associations with national innovativeness.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by putting forward a comprehensive and theory-driven explanation of the relationship between cultural values and innovativeness, by using all of Hofstede’s, Schwartz’s and Inglehart’s dimensions, by incorporating ethnic, linguistic and religious diversities and by applying alternative measures of the national innovativeness.

Citation

Yeganeh, H. (2023), "Culture and innovation: a human emancipation perspective", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 43 No. 11/12, pp. 980-1007. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2022-0185