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The effects of national culture and ethno‐linguistic diversity on innovativeness

George Puia (College of Business and Management, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, Michigan, USA)
Joseph Ofori‐Dankwa (College of Business and Management, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, Michigan, USA)

Baltic Journal of Management

ISSN: 1746-5265

Article publication date: 19 July 2013

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Abstract

Purpose

There is an established link between national cultural differences and documented variations in technological innovations across countries. To move beyond a narrow emphasis on national cultures, scholars have suggested using within‐country diversity to compensate for known limitations in national culture measures. Given that ethno‐linguistic diversity is a known source of cultural variation, this paper specifically aims to explore the relationship between culture, ethno‐linguistic diversity and national innovativeness.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers used publicly available data on patents and trademarks in a multivariate regression context to study the effects of national culture and within‐country diversity on national levels of innovativeness.

Findings

The research found that culture and ethno‐linguistic diversity are independently positively associated with national innovation. More importantly, cultural and intra‐cultural variation measures when taken together account for significantly greater variance in levels of national innovation than does national culture when measured separately.

Research limitations/implications

While this study points to the importance of ethno‐linguistic diversity in explaining national levels of innovativeness, there are other measures of within‐country diversity to be explored.

Practical implications

If national culture were the sole factor in innovativeness, then companies would be limited by their host cultural legacies; since within‐country diversity is also associated with innovation, it provides entrepreneurs, government policy makers and executives with important options for increasing innovativeness.

Originality/value

While previous studies pointed to the potential link between ethno‐linguistic diversity and innovation, prior research has generally not taken this variable into account.

Keywords

Citation

Puia, G. and Ofori‐Dankwa, J. (2013), "The effects of national culture and ethno‐linguistic diversity on innovativeness", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 349-371. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJOM-Jan-2012-0002

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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