Exploring Differences in Green Innovation among Countries with Individualistic and Collectivist Cultural Orientations

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the extent to which individualistic and collectivist national cultural orientations are essential for green innovation. In this context, we also examine the extent of green innovation in countries at different levels of socioeconomic development. All data were collected for the latest available year (2020). This research was carried out on a sample of 60 selected countries, using parametric tests to identify statistically significant differences between variables and descriptive statistics to examine statistically significant differences in-depth. The results show that, on average, countries with prevailing individualistic cultural orientations and high levels of socioeconomic development perform better in green innovation than countries with prevailing collectivist cultural orientations. On average, countries with a prevailing individualistic cultural orientation scored moderate on green innovation, while countries with a prevailing collectivist orientation scored low. However, the level of socioeconomic development, including designing and implementing green policies, was recognized as essential to green innovation in both national cultures with prevailing individualistic orientations and national cultures with prevailing collectivist orientations.