National Culture and Its Relationship With Innovation and Corruption

Abstract

Innovation is a driver of economic growth, wealth and prosperity. On the other hand, corruption emerges as a worldwide problem responsible for sapping resources, inequality, human suffering and poverty. This study hypothesizes that national culture, measured using Hofstede's six cultural dimensions, have an impact on corruption and innovation, and that highly corrupt nations are less innovative. Data were obtained from Hofstede's, Transparency International, and Global Innovation websites for the year 2012. The findings support the claim that most national culture aspects have an impact on corruption, although their impact on innovation is less measurable. Corruption was found to have a strong and negative effect on innovation. Our results draw attention to the usefulness of Hofstede's six-dimension framework in research and the need for further analysis on how corruption influences innovation through mechanisms other than national culture.