THE ROLE OF NATIONAL CULTURE AND FIRM CULTURE IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM UK AND CHINESE HIGH-TECH FIRMS

摘要

The question as to what extent national and firm culture respectively influences a firm's innovative outcomes remains under-researched, and is further confounded by the shift of economic ideology and the espousal of western managerial mindset and practice in emerging market economies, such as China. This paper aims to help address the above research gap by examining the respective role of two aspects of national culture (i.e. collectivism and long-term orientation) and two aspects of firm culture (i.e. organisational diversity and shared vision) on firms' new product outcomes. Drawing on quantitative data collected from 150 UK and 250 Chinese high-tech firms, we find that shared vision significantly contributes to speed-to-market, radical and incremental innovation in both UK and Chinese firms. Furthermore, collectivism has a significant impact on radical and incremental innovation outcomes in UK firms, whilst long-term orientation and organisational diversity significantly influences radical and incremental innovation in Chinese firms, respectively. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications.