Culture as antecedent of national innovation performance: Evidence from neo-configurational perspective

As an exogenous antecedent of national innovation performance, culture has been receiving significant attention in cross-cultural research. However, relying primarily on Hofstede's framework of national culture, this research has so far been predominantly inclined to treating culture as a collection of independent dimensions, thereby ignoring the complex notion of culture profiles that refer to distinctive patterns of interrelated dimensions, which cannot be considered in isolation, but only in combination. Employing the lens of neo-configurational theory and with the support of the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), the present study aims to fill this gap by exploring how multiple Hofstede's dimensions interact and combine to influence national innovation performance. In this way, this study goes beyond the existing theory and empirical evidence about the relationship between distinctive culture profiles and innovation performance at national level, while broadening our understanding more generally about how to conceptualize and operationalize culture in business research.