Cultural

doi:10.5559/di.20.4.05

DIMENSIONS OF
NATIONAL INNOVATION
CULTURE IN CROATIA
Content Validity of Hofstede 's Dimensions
Jasminka LAŽNJAK
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb

UDK: 316.42(497.5):001
008(497.5)
Izvorni znanstveni rad

Primljeno: 8. 4. 2011.

Faced with the challenge to increase the level of innovation in science and technology many societies have developed a national innovation system as a form of public policy programs.
If innovative culture is crucial for the adoption and development of new technologies, it is of great importance to explore the concept and possibly find out which type of culture is more innovative than others. Presented in the paper are the results of the first empirical study of innovation culture in Croatia based on a survey on the representative sample of Croatian population. Drawing on Hofstede 's concept of dimensions of national culture,
Croatian national innovation culture is operationalized as a set of value orientations and norms (uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity – femininity, long-term or short-term orientation, and power distance). Four scales based on Hofstede 's dimensions were constructed, which mainly support the content validity of his concept. They could be used to measure differences in innovative capacity between groups and regions. The analysis shows the presence of multiple dimensions of innovation culture in Croatia that might hinder innovation capacity, but this doesn 't necessary lead to the conclusion that we can identify one type culture elements as the only model for strengthening the innovative culture.
Keywords: national innovation culture, dimensions of national culture, Hofstede, Croatia

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Jasminka Lažnjak, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, I. Lučića 3,
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia.
E-mail: [e-mail]

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Development of knowledge economy relies

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