Radical Innovation Across Nations: The Preeminence of Corporate Culture

Abstract

Radical innovation is an important driver of the growth, success, and wealth of firms and nations. Because of its importance, authors across various disciplines have proposed many theories about the drivers of such innovation, including government policy and labor, capital, and culture at the national level. The authors contrast these theories with one based on the corporate culture of the firm. They test their theory using survey and archival data from 759 firms across 17 major economies of the world. The results suggest the following: First, among the factors studied, corporate culture is the strongest driver of radical innovation across nations; culture consists of three attitudes and three practices. Second, the commercialization of radical innovations translates into a firm's financial performance; it is a stronger predictor of financial performance than other popular measures, such as patents. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.

The technological origins of radical inventions

“…Other authors have pointed, among others, at the role of the Government, organizational characteristics, the beneficial effects of collaboration with university institutes and the importance of culture (Tellis et al, 2009) Given these limitations, based on the results of our discriminant function analysis we still feel comfortable with our results and can come to some very interesting conclusions concerning radical inventions. Our research thus hints on the importance of alliances and an open innovation system for the development of radical inventions.…”

“…Ahuja and Lampert, 2001;Rosenkopf and Nerkar, 2001;Dahlin and Behrens, 2005;Tellis et al, 2009), the specific nature of radical inventions has so far remained relatively unclear. In fact, large-scale empirical studies into the technological origin of radical inventions are sparse and almost non-existing.…”

Getting a Grip on the Saddle: Chasms or Cycles?

“…We measure technological cycles using patenting activity. Prior research has used patents as an important indicator of technological activities and innovation in an industry (e.g., Ahuja and Katila 2001;Tellis, Prabhu, and Chandy 2009). The U.S. patent collection contains the list of all patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 1974.…”

Assessing the links between organisational cultures and unlearning capability: evidence from the Spanish automotive components industry

“…Firms that possess this type of OC seek efficiency while focusing on innovation, growth and new resources (Desphande et al, 1993). Prior studies point out that this culture is based on values such as risk tolerance (Tellis et al, 2009;Cooper et al, 2004) and commitment to learning (McLaughlin, 2002). Thus, firms with an adhocratic culture are able to respond quicker to changes in their environment and are ready to assume higher risks.…”