A Curvilinear Model of Trust and Innovation with Implications for China's Transition

Abstract

How can an atmosphere of innovation be infused into cultures (national cultures as well as organizational cultures) that are commonly associated with such traditionally viable values as stability and conformity? Understanding the linkage between trust and innovation could be very important to any organization, particularly where extensive innovation adoption is necessary, as in China's transition.In this paper, innovation adoption is associated with the degree of trust by managers of organizations in the behavior of their members. As a methodological model. the paper describes a consulting project that surveyed ten Southern California Hospitals, with fifty organizational groups and over 800 participants, questioning their per of organisational climate elements as well as their observations of innovation adoptions. Trust-related zational climate elements were positively associated with the adoptions of administrative innovations and associated with adoptions of product/service innovations.The paper proposes a curvilinear model to illustrate the trust/innovation association. It also suggests possible applications of the findings and discussion on the study of diffusion of innovative technologies in China and developing countries, The curvilinear model itself can perhaps be related to some Chinese cultural norms, particularly “doctrine of the mean” from Confucianism, The methodology may be applicable to important studies of inno- in China.