Cultural Diversity and National Innovation

The article aims to analyze the impact of culture based on Hofstede’s model on national innovation. Using the Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) model with a panel dataset of ninety-one countries over the period 2007–2022, we examine the impact of six cultural dimensions on countries’ Global Innovation Index (GII) scores. The results indicate that individualism (IDV) and long-term orientation (LTO) positively influence national innovation, while power distance index (PDI) and uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) have a negative effect across countries. The remaining cultural dimensions of masculinity (MAS) and indulgence versus restraint (IVR) do not exhibit a significant impact on national innovation. These findings highlight how cultural values distinctively foster or hinder a country’s capacity for learning and creativity, thereby explaining cross-country differences in innovation performance from a cultural perspective. Our study contributes to the innovation literature at the country level and provides implications for innovation policy of countries.