Title: Mediators of the relationship between national culture and innovation

Authors: Vladyslav Soloviov; Anneli Kaasa

Addresses: School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, Narva mnt 18, 51009, Tartu, Estonia ' School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, Narva mnt 18, 51009, Tartu, Estonia

Abstract: The link between culture and innovative activity has been extensively studied in recent years. Such research, however, is often limited to the direct relationship between culture and innovation without highlighting the role of indirect links through various socioeconomic factors. In this paper, we investigate both direct and indirect links between culture and innovation, proxied by the innovation output sub-index, using path analysis models and four sets of cultural dimensions: Minkov et al. (2017, 2018), Inglehart (1997), Inglehart and Welzel (2005), Beugelsdijk and Welzel (2018) and Kaasa and Minkov (2022). We find that aspects of governance and R&D investments play a significant role as mediators between culture and innovation. Our findings also indicate that the indirect effect of culture on innovation is stronger than the direct effect for all sets of cultural dimensions.

Keywords: culture; national culture; innovation; innovative activity; cultural dimensions; mediators; governance; R&D investments; structural equation model; path analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2023.133391

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2023 Vol.27 No.3/4, pp.269 - 288

Received: 10 Oct 2022
Accepted: 04 May 2023
Published online: 14 Sep 2023 *

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