HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS AND NATIONAL INNOVATION LEVEL

Nowadays, the vast majority of scholars admit that innovation in many countries is a key to a fast economic development which enables a high level productivity and quality of life. As European Innovation Scoreboard 2016 states, “Innovation grows the EU’s knowledge economy, it enhances our competitiveness and it creates a prosperous future for all Member States”. Nevertheless, though the European Union is constantly seeking convergence, the members are still divided to modest, moderate, strong innovators and innovation leaders. Therefore, it is crucial to constantly analyse all drivers and determinants of successful national-level innovation performance. The authors of this article suggest that culture is one of the influencing factors because EU countries differ significantly by their social norms, morals, values, traditions and behaviors which may also affect the innovative capacity of a society. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the link between nation’s cultural background and country – level innovation performance. Systemic review of scientific economic literature, comparative judgement and regression analysis were used in order to reach the conclusions. The data from European Innovation Scoreboard and scores of six Hofstede’s cultural dimensions were applied in the empirical analysis. The representative results show that the dimensions of indulgence and individualism are positively while power distance and uncertainty avoidance are negatively related to national innovation performance.