East Meets West:In Search of Complementary Innovative Capabilities of Western and Chinese Firms

摘要

The impact of national cultural differences on individual work values and behaviors has received significant attention in the existing literature, specifically, the convergence-divergence-crossvergence framework. Nonetheless, the research gap remains with regard to the different ways of innovating among firms across different nations. This paper focuses on two culturally-bounded organizational factors: organizational diversity and shared vision, and articulates the differences in organizational culture between Western and Chinese firms. We follow the argument that values and norms embedded in a national culture influence individual and collective cognitive maps, and hence, shape individual and organizational behaviours, and propose that a culture that values individual differences and organizational diversity is more likely to occur in Western firms, whilst a culture that values group goals and harmony is more likely to dominate Chinese firms. Furthermore, we link organizational diversity and shared vision as culturally-based concepts to the different types of innovation, namely incremental and radical innovations.