A Culture Model as Mediator and Repository Source for Innovation

As innovation has become one of the most important competitive advantages, academic practitioner's interest in the matter has increased. But, still the question "why lots of organizations fail in their path of article to be innovative" is remained unanswered. In this, among many factors influencing innovation capacity of an organization; culture is addressed. Culture is defined as a multi-facet, multi-level mediator and repository that can lead organizations to strive toward innovativeness; to success or failure. In this study, a model is proposed to exhibit different levels and facets of culture and introduces various factors that influence culture. This model is based on an open system approach, in which organization is seen as an open system including internal and external relationships, systems, interactions, etc. that both influences, and is influenced by, the environment. Further, we conclude that, the coordination among these factors are necessary for cultural integrity which can increase the innovative capacity of an organization. Since here, innovation is defined as "creation and/or adoption of a novel thing (product, process, technology, etc.) for the organization that brings further value to the organization's stakeholders" this model can be applied for both organizations that attempt to innovate themselves or try to adopt an innovation form elsewhere.