Culture and Innovation in the International Context: A Literature Review

Culture values and entrepreneurial innovativeness: A comparative study of Malaysian ethnic entrepreneurs

“…Despite different meanings in different contexts, innovation often refers to the development or enhancement of ideas, products, processes, or technologies (Barringer & Ireland, 2019). Viewed as the adoption of a new or idea behavior, innovation is not just a great idea but also an opportunity to solve a given problem (Tian et al, 2020). Moreover, firms with innovation orientations are usually engaged in value creation strategies such as development of new products or services and improvement of existing products or services (Dobni, 2010).…”

“…In line with our research goal, we are particularly interested in entrepreneurial innovativeness (EI), which is the ability of entrepreneurs to develop new ideas and implement them in their businesses. Such innovative orientation and activities are widely adopted in small business management and entrepreneurial research associated with emerging economies (Ha et al, 2016;Tian et al, 2020).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first academic endeavor to investigate the influence of all six cultural values on EI among Malaysian Chinese, Malay, and Indian entrepreneurs in a systematic and comparative manner. Such systematic analysis enabled us to paint a fuller picture of how national cultural values influence SMEs' innovation and specifically the innovative activities of their entrepreneurs (Broekhuizen et al, 2017;Tian et al, 2020;Watts et al, 2020;Zhu et al, 2018). The novelty of this study may be further enhanced because we also offer insights to researchers and practitioners through a fine-grained analysis of three different ethnic groups in their EI.…”

“…Although Malaysia as a country may share some kind of similar cultural values nationwide, different ethnic groups tend to maintain their unique ethnic identities and have distinct ways in terms of business operations and EI even after more than 50 years of Malaysia's independence (Fontaine & Richardson, 2005;Idris, 2011;Jamil et al, 2014;Lim, 2001;Yow, 2017;Zawawi, 2008). Hence, the impact of national cultural values on entrepreneurial innovativeness may vary significantly among different ethnic groups; such an important issue is largely neglected in the current literature (Prim et al, 2017;Terpstra-Tong et al, 2014;Tian et al, 2020Tian et al, , 2018.…”

“…J. Hofstede, 2015) on entrepreneurial innovativeness (EI) among Malaysia's three primary ethnic groups (Malaysian Chinese, Malay, and Indian entrepreneurs). Given that prior literature has found inconsistent results that suggest effects of selected cultural dimensions on innovationrelated topics (Khan & Cox, 2017;Lin, 2009;Medcof & Wang, 2017;Prim et al, 2017;Tian et al, 2020Tian et al, , 2018, we included all six of Hofstede's cultural dimensions in our study. Consequently, we conducted a complete analysis of how national culture influences EI among the three dominant Malaysian ethnic groups.…”