Does culture still matter?: The effects of individualism on national innovation rates

Does a society's culture affect its rate of inventive activity? This article analyzes several independent datasets of culture and innovation from 62 countries spanning more than two decades. It finds that most measures of individualism have a strong, significant, and positive effect on innovation, even when controlling for major policy variables. However, the data also suggest that a certain type of collectivism (i.e. patriotism and nationalism) can also foster innovation at the national level. Meanwhile, other types of collectivism (i.e. familism and localism) not only harm innovation rates, but may hurt progress in science worse than technology.

Research Highlights► Individualism generally aids national innovation rates. ► Individualism aids inventiveness via demands for new technology more than supply of innovators. ► Collectivist values of patriotism/nationalism generally help innovation. ► Collectivist values of localism/familism generally hurt innovation.